De Goede Hoop Lodge

Born at Coleshill, Warwickshire, England on the 10^th January 1764 died at Cape Town on the 2^nd September 1828, painter and diarist, was the eldest son of Samuel and Lidia Hudson. He claimed to be a kinsman of Dr Samuel Johnson. Privately educated at Coleshill, he found employment at Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, the seat of the third earl of Hardwicke, who had married Elizabeth Lindsay, the younger sister of Lady Anne Barnard.

When Lady Anne married Andrew Barnard,* who in 1796 agreed to go to the Cape as government secretary, Hudson. was selected to accompany the party as agent and personal attendant to Barnard Reaching Table Bay on 4.5.1797, he remained in Barnard’s employ until 1798, when he became first clerk in the Department of Customs.

In 1800 he was a member of the first committee of the private theatre (the African Theatre) on the Boereplein, which opened its doors to the public in October 1801. From entries in his diary it would appear that he had a pessimistic nature, was inclined to view everything unfavourably, and was in this regard the opposite to Lady Anne Barnard. In personal and political views he appears to have been opposed to Lord Macartney, well disposed towards his successor, Sir George Yonge, but again strongly antagonistic towards General Francis Dundas,* who figures prominently in a biting little satire, characterized by venom rather than wit, which H. wrote under the title of The new comic opera, or He would be a governor.

He continued to reside at the Cape after it had been handed over to the Batavian Republic in 1803. As they were without official employment he and his brother, Thomas Hudson, opened a boarding establishment but, during the Napoleonic wars, when Hudson visited England, he was so impressed by the work of Sam Hollyer, a Coventry art publisher who was to become his son-in-law, that he resolved to devote the rest of his life to art. An adventurous voyage on the Cape Paquette brought him back to South Africa in August 1814 after extensive repairs to the ship at La Coruna.

Samuel Hudson was also noted for saying “There has been built a new Lodge for the freemasons at a very considerable expense. It is situated by the side of the Government Garden and has every convenience for the accomodation and reception of a numerous brotherhood. The whole is admirably planned and finished in a style of simple elegance, strength and beauty and made to go hand in hand. The preparing rooms are superior to anything of the kind I ever saw. The whole was under the direction of Mr. Thibault, the same architect who planned the public fountain”

His remaining years he spent in Cape Town except for a brief residence at Uitenhage, where he produced views of the neighbourhood in water-colours. In Cape Town, in 1825, he was conducting day and evening schools, and was employed by William Beddy to teach art at his Feinaiglian School in the Heerengracht (later Adderley Street). There was also a steady demand for his copies in oils of the masterpieces of the Dutch artists Jan Steen, Hobbema and Van der Velde. The evening school in James Howell’s library was attended by students anxious to depict in oils the scenery and flora of the Cape. Hudson’s pencil sketches (examples of which are reproduced (infra) in Jeffreys and in Bax) show that he was a competent draughts-man, with a good knowledge of the technical side of the subject, and it is probable that among old Cape pictures by unknown artists there arc examples of his work. He must have been one of the earliest South Africans to collect old masters, among his notes being a list of his pictures with their value in rix-dollars. Some of his own sketches are in the Cape Archives, Cape Town.

As a diarist Hudson provided the detailed comment of an eye-witness during Sir George Yonge’s governorship and the sensational events of Lord Charles Somerset’s later years as seen by a man in his position. Intelligent as he was, he provides little in the way of character sketches or lively conversation.

The threat of insolvency clouded his last years.

He was survived by his daughter, Mary Anne Hudson, who married Sam Hollyer, probably after his death.

he British Residents at the Cape contains a selected 4,241 individuals who lived at the Cape. These people are the main entries listed, but also included are thousands of other inhabitants involved in these residents lives. This fully searchable CD accounts for many of their dates of birth, place of origin, occupations, land, court cases and military related information. An electronic book that no researcher in Cape history should be without.

South Africa is a plural society in the sense that it is the meeting place of migrant streams from many countries of Europe, Asia and the African continent north of the Limpopo River, who met and mingled with the indigenous Khoisan (Hottentots and Bushmen) to form the people of South Africa. Each of these communities made its special contribution to the eventual character and development of the whole, and each can be proud of that contribution. This book concerns itself with the initial arrival of only one of these migrant streams, not because the others were less important or played a less significant role, but simply because an understanding of the whole can only be achieved by understanding its component parts. This is, therefore, an attempt to list those pioneers of British stock who made the Cape their home – in some cases a temporary home, and in other cases a permanent home – during the first 25 years of British rule.

The first British occupation of the Cape began on the 16th September 1795, when the Articles of Capitulation were signed by the Dutch administration and the British naval and army commanders. It ended in March 1803, when the last remnants of the British colonial government and garrison embarked in Table Bay and sailed for England. The second occupation took place in January 1806, and this time the country remained a British Colony until the Union of South Africa came into being in 1910.

Gareth Cliff, one of our subscribers, found his great grandfather Gustav Preller in the 1939 Who’s Who on Ancestry24. He also used the 1933 Who’s Who of Natal and the Dictionary of South African Biographies to find other information on his family. Geslagsregisters van Ou Kaapse Families also came in handy, especially for the Afrikaans side. It turns out Gareth, Idols-judge and 5FM DJ, comes from a long line of high-profile ancestors.

Known for his wit and dashing looks, he is an avid family historian who has spent much of his spare time digging into the past. His great grandfather was grandson of Rev William Cliff, a founder of the Pietermaritzburg Cathedral. Gustav Preller, considered the father of Afrikaans language and literature, Naval Admiral Sir. H. Heathcote, Commandant General Hendrik Schoeman, President of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (1860-1862), Voortrekker Leader Piet Retief as well as Alfred Benjamin Kidwell, the son of one of the original 1820 settlers are just some of the biological blood lines of Gareth.

He has plotted out his family history as far back as one of the first Kings of Finland in the year 160 AD, descendant of the one of the illegitimate children of King Charles 11 as well as 5x great grandson of Lord Charles Somerset. Look at [Gareth's Family Tree] to see his how he is related to Lord Somerset.

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Sources + References:

Benjamin Osler also known as Bennie born in Aliwal North on 23rd November 1901 and died in Cape Town on 23rd April 1962, Springbok rugby player, was the son of Benjamin and Isobel Osler. Bennie’s ancestors have been traced back to Edward Osler, a prominent merchant and ship-owner, with a hint of piracy involvement.Bennie went to various schools, including the Western Province Preparatory School, Rondebosch Boys’ High School, and Kingswood College, Grahamstown. From 1921 he read law at the University of Cape Town, qualifying in 1925. During this period he represented the University on the rugby field, but from 1926 to 1930 played for Hamiltons and from 1931 to 1933 for Villagers. He acted as captain of all three clubs and on various occasions captained Western Province, which he represented from 1922 to 1933.

He gained his Springbok colours in 1924, when he played against Ronald Cove-Smith’s British team in all four test matches. Four years later (1928) he also played in all four tests against Maurice Brownlee’s New Zealand touring side, and in 1931-32 captained the Springbok team (which went to the British Isles) in all the tests of that series. He rounded off his rugby career in 1933 by playing in all five tests against the visiting Australians, acting as captain in the second test. He had scored forty-six points in the seventeen consecutive tests in which he played Osler is generally regarded as the best fly-half South Africa has produced so far (1979), a man who could dictate play. The decade during which he was a Springbok is even called the ‘Osler Era’ by sports writers, owing to his influence on the game. While he played for South Africa the country won all the test series, his province carried off the Currie Cup throughout, and each club for which he played won the Grand Challenge Cup. He had no equal as a tactical kicker and it was in particular his almost perfectly-placed corner kicks to wings which gained many tries for the Springboks. He could launch long outside kicks from any corner and as a drop-kicker he often clinched matches. Nobody was more feared by opponents than Osler.

He was also an attacking fly-half who could send his full-backs off with incredible speed when circumstances permitted or, if not, could himself shoot through an opening like lightning. Autocratic on the field, he would tolerate no passes from scrumhalfs that were above waist height; if the centres next to him blundered even once, he usually mistrusted them afterwards and would rather kick the ball – a course of action which can be regarded as one of his few weaknesses. As a captain he attached great value to tactical planning before a match, and he believed in strict team discipline.

During the Second World War (1939-45) Bennie went with the South African forces to East Africa where he contracted both malaria and amoebic dysentery which probably contributed to his relatively early death.

Unlike other great players Osler had little interest in coaching or the administration of the sport when he retired. After working as a salesman for a long time, he eventually went farming on a small scale, at first near East London and later near Bellville.

The brothers Bennie and Stanley Osler

He married Gladys Hobson and had two children. Photographs of him appear inter alia in The Bennie Osler story and Springbok saga (both infra).

Osler’s Cornish Connections

Benjamin. Falmouth born circa 1776 son of Edward and Mary (Paddy) Osler of Falmouth and husband of Jane (Sawle) Osler born 1775. father of Susannah, Stephen Sawle, Mary Anne, Amelia, Elizabeth, Sarah, Joseph, Jane, Benjamin, Phillippa and Julia. Leader of W.J. Cornish 1820 Settlers. Returned to Cornwall with wife and some members of his family 4.1822.

Stephen Sawle born in Falmouth 27th September 1804, died 21st October 1867 in Simonstown. Son of Benjamin and Jane (Sawle) Osler and husband of Catherine Osler (born Dakins, formerly Wright) of Llaway Glen, Montgomeryshire, Wales. 1802-1881. father to Benjamin, James Goodriche, Catherine and Jane; and also Christina, dtr of Orange Kleyne (Klein). Founder of the Osler family in SA.

Susannah Osler born in Falmouth circa 1800. daughter of Benjamin and Jane (Sawle) Osler married 1st John Coleman (1792-1829) of Cock’s party at Reedfountain, Eastern Cape on 17th June 1820, 2nd time to Mr Fineran from Quebec.

The small Cornish party, under the leadership of Benjamin Osler of Falmouth, Cornwall, sailed in the ‘Weymouth’, which left Portsmouth in January 1820. Having arrived in Albany so that he might supervise the first arrivals, Sir Rufane Donkin considered that a more central and accessible site should be chosen for the administration of the settlement. Ignoring the fact of Graham’s Town’s better defensible position and that it was already established as a military base, the site he chose on 9 May 1820, was just west of Thorn Ridge. This was to be the centre of the civilian administration and also the seat of magistracy. Sir Rufane declared it was to supercede Graham’s Town as the capital town of Albany, and it was to be named Bathurst in honour of Earl Bathurst, Secretary for the Colonies. In his enthusiasm Donkin allotted plots to the Earl and also his own sons and nephews, while 500 acres of Glebe were allotted for a clergyman and chaplain of the Church of England, the vacant post to be filled in due course by a suitable man. The post of administrator, however, was filled by the transfer to Albany from the Western Cape of Capt Charles Trappes.

By 9 June the Cornish party of Benjamin Osler was enroute to their location from Algoa Bay. Osler’s party, it had been decided, was to be located some 12 miles southwest of the new town of Bathurst, and halfway to the Kowie River mouth. This was in the curve of the Mansfield River, a left bank tributary to Kowie River, today known as Grove Hill. Osler named the location Pendennis in memory of the similarity the area bore to his Cornish hometown of Falmouth and its Pendennis Castle.

Pitching their tents for protection from the cold winter nights and the intermittent drizzle, the party immediately set to clearing the land so that ploughing and sowing of their first crop could be done. Soon after arrival, they were to be joined by a young man, John Coleman, 28 years of age and a gardener from Cock’s party who had sailed with them in the Weymouth. Coleman was not altogether an unexpected arrival, for he had made his intentions clear earlier and on the 17 June, he was married by the Rev William Shaw to Benjamin Osler’s eldest daughter, Susannah. Theirs were the first marriage in the whole settlement.

The proximity to Bathurst of Osler’s location at Pendennis meant that these settlers were closely concerned with the early development of that town. Lots were already being offered for sale and the Colonial Secretary had ordered erection of a prison. The building of the Bathurst Residency got under way by October. All this activity afforded employment to bricklayers, carpenters, slaters, sawyers and stone-masons, who were able to direct their energies into a rewarding field while they waited patiently for the crops to ripen. Hopes for the future were bright, but by the end of November it became apparent that ‘rust’ had affected practically all the wheat sown since their arrival and the crops were useless. With little resources to withstand such a disaster, the administration decided that the issue of rations was therefore to be continued, but they became an additional charge against the deposit money. When that had been exhausted, it was a liability for future repayment. By Christmas Day that year, the circumstances of many were desperate and prospects for the future grim.

Undaunted by these hardships and their considerably reduced circumstances, the settlers sought what work they could find. The Bathurst Residency, long delayed in its completion by the number of unfortunate disputes that had arisen, was still an avenue for employment. William Mallett, a mason with Osler’s party joined with Thomas Marham of Bethany, James’ party’s location, and together they contracted on 5 November 1821, for slating and plastering work on the Residency to the value of £16. 10. 0d.

Lots had continued to be sold at Bathurst and houses built on them, but again, as a year earlier, ‘rust’ began to appear in the wheat and by the end of the year it was apparent to all that the wheat crop had once again failed. This was now a major calamity. Though rations were continued, they were reduced to half portions. Despite what the settlers had previously received, and even for those in dire need who had no money or hope of ever redeeming what they already owed, a parsiminous administration ruled they were only to get half a pound of rice per adult per week. Meagre indeed, but to ameliorate their difficulties, the stringent pass laws restricting settlers to their locations were relaxed and many now went in search of work, not only in Albany, but further afield if they could afford to get themselves there.

Lord Charles Somerset had by now returned to the Cape from his bride hunting furlough in England, and once again took up the reins of office as Governor.

He was furious to find the number of rather illogical decisions taken by Sir Rufane were actually detrimental to the scheme as he had originally envisaged it. He thus immediately set about reversing them. Bathurst was demoted from its pre-eminent position, which consequently caused another sharp depression when the Magistracy was summarily removed to Graham’s Town and the many settlers who had invested their small capital in establishing business premises in order that they might better serve the community, now faced ruin and impoverishment as it was quite evident the town of Bathurst would stagnate. It did and many then returned their attention to trading. Fairs were permitted at Fort Willshire and to these came the native tribesmen from beyond the Colony’s borders. James Weeks was one of the Cornish settlers who took to offering the more conventional manufactures. He and others traded tobacco and cloth in exchange for hides and skins, ivory, cut wood and simple items of use that could either be sold again in Graham’s Town or taken down to Algoa Bay and bartered there for the farming implements in such short supply. But the air of depression continued, it was no good having the basis for an exchange of goods if the majority the inhabitants, both settler and tribesmen, were so impoverished that goods and hard cash were virtually an unknown commodity amongst them. Osler left his location in April 1822 to return with his wife and five younger children to Cornwall. What remained of Osler’s party slowly broke up. Headed by John Dale, it began to disintegrate further. Osler’s daughter, Susannah and her husband decided to make their home at Simonstown where they were to be joined by her brother, Stephen Sawle Osler, who had elected not to return to Cornwall. By the beginning of 1824 William Mallett had moved away to Uitenhage and matrimony was to call Joseph Richards to a date in Graham’s Town where on 23 September that year, he was married to Sarah Attwell, the seventeen year old daughter of Richard Attwell of Crause’s party. Grace Weeks had died and the end of the year saw Charles Pearse returning to England to rejoin his wife with and family who had been unable to embark with him.

The small party of Cornish settlers, comprising only eleven men and their families at the outset, was already diminished in number by nearly half, and the few that did remain on Pendennis were to become so insignificant numerically that from then on their story melds with that of the settlement itself, conversely reflecting their great adaptability and absorption into the new country.

Source:
Dictionary of South Africa Biography Vol 5.
Cornish Immigrants to South Africa by Graham Dickason.
History of South African Rugby Football (1875 – 1932) by Ivor Difford

Further reading and resources:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bathonia/OslerBathFrancisConnections.htm

Osler Library – http://www.mcgill.ca/osler-library/

Acknowledgements: Michael Bath

Cetshwayo, son of Mpande - Source: Cape Archives, E3248

What were our ancestors doing in 1882?

Who was making the headlines and What did they talk about around the supper table?

Here is a look at some of the people, places and events that made the news in 1882.

Huguenot Memorial School

The Huguenot Memorial School (Gedenkschool der Hugenoten) was opened on the 1st February 1882 on the farm Kleinbosch in Daljosafat, near Paarl. It was a private Christian school and the first school with Afrikaans as teaching medium.

The school was under the auspices of the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners. Past pupils included the writers Andries Gerhardus VISSER, Daniël François MALHERBE and Jakob Daniël DU TOIT (Totius). The first classes were given in a small room but soon an old wine cellar was converted into a two-storey building which housed two classrooms downstairs and the boarding school upstairs. The first Afrikaans newspaper, Die Patriot, as well as the first Afrikaans magazine, Ons Klyntji, came from this school.

The Coat of Arms of "Die Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners"

The school was closed down in 1910 as by then Afrikaans was taught in government schools. In 2001 renovation work was started after a fundraising campaign brought in more than R1-million. Most of the money came from readers of the Afrikaans newspapers, Die Burger and the Volksblad. Naspers, the Stigting vir Afrikaans and KWV also made important contributions. The renovated building was opened in March 2002. It has an Afrikaans training centre upstairs and guest rooms downstairs.

The main people behind the renovation project were writer Dr. Willem Abraham DE KLERK (1917 – 1996) and Fanie THERON (chairman of the Simon van der Stel Foundation and the Huguenot Society, deceased 1989). Others who were also very involved included Sr. C.F. ALBERTYN (Naspers director), Van der Spuy UYS and Dr. Eduard BEUKKMAN. In 1985 they launched the Hugenote Gedenkskool Board of Trustees and with a R10 000 donation from the Helpmekaarfonds, a servitude on the building and land was bought. De Klerk’s wife, Finnie, and Theron’s wife, Anna, were at the official opening as their husbands did not live to see their dream come to fruition.

Dutch as official language

After the second British occupation of the Cape in 1806, English became the only official language. In 1856 J.A. KRUGER, the M.L.A. for Albert, asked for permission to address Parliament in Dutch. His requested was denied, and this started a campaign to get Dutch recognised as an official language in Parliament. On the 30th March 1882, Jan Hendrik HOFMEYR (1845 – 1909), also known as Onze Jan, appealed for the use of Dutch as an official language in Parliament alongside English. He was supported by Saul SOLOMON, a Jewish newspaper publisher and printer in Cape Town. On the 9th June the campaign finally got a positive result when an amendement was made to the Constitution allowing the use of Dutch in Parliament.

Official status was granted on the 1st May and the Act was later passed. On the 13th June, Jan Roeland Georg LUTTIG, the Beaufort-West M.L.A., was the first to officially deliver a speech in Dutch. There is no official record of the speech in Dutch, but the English version was published in the 14th June 1882 Cape Argus newspaper. The other version is in the Cape Parliament Hansard.

It was a short speech – “Meneer die Speaker, ons is baie dankbaar dat die opsionele gebruik van die Hollandse taal in albei huise van die parlement toegelaat is. Wanneer ek sê dankbaar, dink ek praat ek namens diegene wat die twee huise met hul petisies vir dié doel genader het. Ek put vreugde daaruit dat my Engelssprekende vriende die voorstel nie teengestaan het nie, my komplimente gaan aan hulle.

Ek hoop om die raad in die toekoms ook in Engels, in my ou Boere styl, toe te spreek. Sodoende kan dié Engelse vriende wat nie Hollands verstaan nie, die geleentheid hê om te verstaan wat ek probeer oordra. Ek vertrou ook dat alle nasionale verskille in die toekoms sal verdwyn en dat mense van alle nasionaliteite en standpunte hand aan hand sal beweeg om die welvaart en vooruitgang van die kolonie te bevorder”. According to the Hansard, the Speaker pointed out that the Act had not yet been proclaimed, so members could not yet make speeches in Dutch, but that the House would accommodate him this time.

On the 15th June, Cape school regulations were amended to allow the use of Dutch alongside English.

On the 26th and 27th June, the town of Burgersdorp celebrated the use of Dutch. The celebrations were organised by Jotham JOUBERT (M.L.A. and later a Cape Rebel ) who also proposed a monument to mark the occassion. A country-wide fundraising campaign was launched. The monument was built by S.R. OGDEN of Aliwal-North for £430. It consisted of a sandstone pedestal on which stood a life-size marble statue of a woman. She points her finger at a tablet held in her other hand on which the main inscription reads “De Overwinning de Hollandsche Taal “. The monument was unveiled on the 18th January 1893 by D.P. VAN DEN HEEVER, with Stephanus Jacobus DU TOIT (1847 – 1911) delivering the main speech.

During the Anglo-Boer war, the monument was vandalised by British soldiers who took parts of it to King William’s Town where they buried it. After the war, Lord Alfred MILNER had the rest of the statue removed from Burgersdorp. After much protesting, the British eventually provided Burgersdorp with a replica in 1907. This one was unveiled at ceremonies on the 24th and 25th May 1907 when former President M.T. STYEN and the author D.F. MALHERBE addressed the crowd. The original monument was found in 1939 and returned to Burgersdorp. In 1957 the damaged original monument was placed next to the replica.

In 1883 knowledge of Dutch was compulsory for some government positions. In 1884, it was permitted in the High Courts and in 1887 it became a compulsory subject for civil service candidates. Afrikaans only gained equal status with Dutch and English as an official language in South Africa via Act 8 of 1925. Dutch remained an official language until the 1961 Constitution stipulated the two official languages in South Africa to be Afrikaans and English.

Goosen and Stellaland republics

In 1882 a group of Boers established the short-lived republics of Stellaland and Het Land Goosen (aka Goshen ) to the north of Griqualand West, in contravention of the Pretoria and London conventions by which the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek had regained its independence.

On the 1st April the republic of Het Land Goosen was declared. The terms of the Pretoria Convention of August 1881 had cut away part of the Transvaal. This led to problems as local Chiefs disputed the boundaries. Britain did not help matters by acknowledging Mankoroane as Chief of the Batlapin and Montsioa as Chief of the Barolong, both beyond their traditional territories. Supporters of Moshete, under the leadership of Nicolaas Claudius GEY VAN PITTIUS (1837 – 1893), established Het Land Goosen. One of the co-founders was Hermanus Richard (Manie) LEMMER, who later became a General in the Anglo-Boer War. Het Land Goosen later merged with the Stellaland republic to form the United States of Stellaland.

Stellaland was also a short-lived republic established in 1882 by David MASSOUW and about 400 followers, who invaded a Bechuana area west of the Transvaal. They founded the town of Vryburg, making it their capital. The republic was formally created on the 26th July 1882, under the leadership of Gerrit Jacobus VAN NIEKERK (1849 – 1896). In 1885 the British sent in troops under Sir Charles WARREN, abolished the republic, and incorporated it in British Bechuanaland.

Shipping accidents

Shipping accidents (wrecks, groundings, etc…) were common along the South African coast. In 1882 there were quite a few:

January – James Gaddarn, a barque, off Durban

February – Johanna, a barque, off East London

March – Poonah, off Blaauwberg

March – Queen of Ceylon, a barque, off Durban

April – Gleam, a barque, off Port Nolloth

April – Roxburg, off East London

April – Seafield, a barque, off East London

May – Francesca, a barque, off East London

May – Louisa Dorothea, a schooner, ran aground at Mossel Bay

May – Clansman, a schooner, off East London

May 28 – two ships, the Agnes (Capt. NEEDHAM) and the Christin a (Capt. G. LOVE), run ashore at Plettenberg Bay

June – Bridgetown, a barque, off Durban

June – Louisa Schiller, a barque, off Cape Hangklip

June – Ludwig, a schooner, off Algoa Bay

June – Gloria Deo, a barque, off Quoin Point

July – Elvira, a barque, off Durban

July – Erwood, off Durban

December – Adonis, a steamer, off Portst Johns

December – Zambezi, a schooner, off Durban

Smallpox

A smallpox epidemic broke out in District Six in 1882. This led to the closure of inner city cemeteries, and the construction of drains and wash-houses in the city. These improvements didn’t go as planned. The cemetery closures led to riots in 1886. The cemeteries along Somerset Road were not in a good condition, so Maitland cemetery was built. As the Muslim community carried their dead for burial, Maitland was too far for them, and along with the Dutch, they protested against Maitland for two years. Once the inner city cemeteries closed, the Dutch compromised but the Muslim community did not. They buried a child in the Tanu Baru (first Muslim cemetery) in protest. About 3 000 Muslims followed the funeral procession, as police watched. After someone threw stones at the police, a riot started and volunteer regiments were called out. One of the Muslim leaders, Abdol BURNS, a cab driver, was arrested. In the end, neither the Dutch nor the Muslims used Maitland. They found a piece of ground next tost Peter’s cemetery in Mowbray and used it as their cemetery.

The smallpox threat was felt further afield. It was believed that smallpox could be beaten by whitewashing the walls of homes, and for this reason lime and carbolic acid was distributed free to residents in Beaufort West. At Modder River, about 35 km from Kimberley, the settlement was used as a quarantine station to keep smallpox away from Kimberley. Travellers enroute to Kimberley had to produce a valid vaccination certificate or be vaccinated at the station.

Zulu King in London

Cetshwayo reigned as King of the Zulus from 1873 to 1884. He made an alliance with the British in order to keep his long standing enemies, the Boers, away. The alliance collapsed when the British annexed the Transvaal and supported Boer land claims in the border dispute with Zululand. This led to the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War where the British suffered defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana and Zulus at the Battle of Ulundi. Cetshwayo was captured and taken to the Cape. In 1882 he travelled to London where he met Queen Victoria on the 14th August. On his return he was reinstated as King in a much reduced territory and with less autonomy. He died on the 8th February 1884.

Sporting moments

Ottomans Cricket Club was founded in the Bo-Kaap in 1882. The Rovers Rugby Club was founded in Cradock on the 6th September 1882. The first rugby match in Mossel Bay was played on Saturday, 2nd September 1882. Mossel Bay Athletic Club played against George Athletic Club. The first bowling green was laid out in 1882 when a club was established atst George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. In 1882 the Jockey Club was founded by 10 horse-racing members at a meeting held in the Phoenix Hotel in Port Elizabeth. The first South African soccer club was Pietermaritzburg County. On the 17th June 1882, its delegates met at the London Restaurant in Durban ‘s West Street and the Natal Football Association was founded.

Transit of Venus

The transit of Venus was observed from stations in Durban, Touws River, Wellington, Aberdeen Road (a railway stop) and at Cape Town ‘s Royal Observatory.

Banking

District Bank was established in Stellenbosch in 1882. It paid between 5 to 6% on fixed deposits and 2% on current accounts, compared to the Standard Bank which paid an average of 3.5% on fixed deposits and no interest on current accounts. The District Bank did not charge cheque fees or ledger fees. It was later taken over by Boland Bank. The Natal Building Society (NBS) was also established in 1882, in Durban.

New brewery

The Old Cannon Brewery in Newlands was established in 1852. In 1882 it merged with Ohlsson’s Cape Breweries.

Steel industry

South Africa ‘s industrial development has heavy roots in its mining industry. With virtually no steel industry of its own, the country relied on imported steel. The first efforts to introduce steel production dates back to the creation of the South African Coal and Iron Company in 1882. The first successful production of pig iron occurred only in 1901, in Pietermaritzburg.

Mariannhill Monastery

The monastery near Pinetown was founded as a Trappist monastery by Father Francis PFANNER in 1882. It became a renowned missionary institute with schools, a hospital, an art centre and a retreat.

Boswell’s Circus

The BOSWELL family has been involved in the circus business since the 1800s in England. James BOSWELL was born in 1826 and went on to perform in various English circuses as a clown, horseman and equilibrist. He died in the circus ring of Cirque Napoleon in Paris in 1859 while performing a balancing ladder act. He had three 3 children, all of whom performed in circuses. His eldest son, James Clements, opened his own circus, Boswell’s Circus, in 1882 in Yorkshire.

Boswell’s Circus toured England and was very popular until it closed in 1898. James Clements and his five sons – Jim, Alfred, Walter, Sydney and Claude – continued performing in theatres and music halls, and eventually put their own show together called Boswell’s Stage Circus. Madame FILLIS, who owned Fillis’ Circus in South Africa, saw one of their performances and signed them up for a six-month contract. In 1911 James Clements, his sons, Walter and Jim’s wives, six ponies, a donkey and some dogs set sail for South Africa. The family and their animals were stranded when Fillis’ Circus closed down some months later. Fortunately for generations of South African children, this did not stop them and they went on to build a successful business that is still in existence.

Pretoria

A public sale on Church Square, Pretoria, in the 1890's

Church Square was created in 1855, on the orders of M.W. PRETORIUS. The DEVEREAUX brothers, town planners, designed a square for market and church purposes. Pretoria expanded around Church Square. During its early days the square was also used as a sports field and in 1883 the long-jumper Izak PRINSLOO set the first world record by a South African. The first church on the square was completed in 1857, but burnt down in 1882. Burgers Park was established as Pretoria ‘s first park in 1882. On the 14th June 1882, the Transvaalsche Artillerie Corps was formed under the command of Cmdt. H.J.P. PRETORIUS.

Stephanus Johannes Paulus KRUGER, later President of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republiek, was born on the 10th October 1825. He was so respected by his people that the first Kruger Day was celebrated on the 10th October 1882. The following year it was declared a public holiday. After the Anglo-Boer war it lost official status, until it was again declared a public holiday in 1952. In 1994 the day again lost its official status.

Kimberley

On the 2nd September Kimberley became the first town in the southern hemisphere to install electric street lighting. It was an initiative of the Cape Electric Light Company. Electric lighting was also installed in Parliament in 1882, and an arc-lighting installation was commissioned in the harbour. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Christmas 1882 saw the world’s first electrically-lit Christmas tree installed in the New York house of Thomas EDISON’s associate Edward H. JOHNSON.

The Kimberley Club was founded in August 1881 and opened its doors on the 14th August 1882. Cecil John RHODES was one of the men behind the club’s establishment. Amongst the first members were Charles D. RUDD, Dr. Leander Starr JAMESON, Lionel PHILLIPS and J.B. ROBINSON.

Knysna

The farm Melkhoutkraal was laid out in 1770. In 1808 George REX, who arrived at the Cape in 1797, bought the farm. In 1825 Lord Charles SOMERSET decided to establish a town on the lagoon, to make use of the surrounding forests for ship building. George REX donated 16 ha of land for the new village, named Melville for Viscount MELVILLE, First Sea Lord from 1812 – 1827. Knysna was formally founded in 1882 when the two villages, Melville and Newhaven (founded in 1846) amalgamated.

Muizenberg

In 1882 the railway line reached Muizenberg. The area was originally a cattle outpost for the VOC before it became a military post in 1743. It was named Muijs se Berg after the commander Sergeant Willem MUIJS. Muizenberg was a staging post between Cape Town and Simon’s Town. After the railway line was extended, the area developed fast and became a popular holiday destination.

One of Muizenberg’s prominent residents was Professor James GILL. He was born in Cornwall in 1831 and came to the Cape in 1860, where he took the post of professor of Classics at Graaff-Reinet College. In 1871 he moved to Cape Town as Classics professor at the Diocesan College. He was an opininated man who did good things throughout his career but was also involved in many controversies. He was dismissed from the College in 1882. He opened a private school in Muizenberg and became the editor of the Cape Illustrated Magazine. He died in Muizenberg on the 1st February 1904.

Villiers

The town of Villiers, on the Vaal River, was established in 1882 on the farms Pearson Valley and Grootdraai. It was named after the owner, L.B. DE VILLIERS. In 1882 the Volksraad was requested to open a post office there, and this led to Villiers being proclaimed in 1891. In 1917 it acquired municipal status.

Newcastle

The first government school in Newcastle was established in 1882 as a junior primary school with 47 boys and 30 girls.

Okiep

The Cornish Pump House was built in 1882. It was used to pump water from the mine and this pump house is the only remaining one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

East London

A view of East London in the 1880's

The prison in Lock Street was built in 1880, replacing the old one on the West Bank. It was built by James TYRRELL and comprised an officers’ quarters, administration block, hospital, kitchen and two single-storey cell blocks to hold 100 prisoners. The first execution happened in 1882, for which a drop gallows was placed in the hospital yard. St.Andrew’s Lutheran Church was established by German settlers in 1872. It is the second oldest church in East London and was dedicated on the 30th November 1882.

Grahamstown

City Hall was officially opened on the 24th May 1882 by the acting Mayor Samuel CAWOOD. The foundation stone was laid on the 28th August 1877 by Sir Henry Bartle FRERE, Governor of the Cape.

Durban

Durban Girls’ High School was established in 1882. The old theatre Royale was built in 1882 and had seating for 1 000. It was closed in 1937. The Natal Herbarium was started in 1882 by John Medley WOOD, then Curator of the Durban Botanical Gardens. It was initially known as the Colonial Herbarium but changed its name in 1910 when it was donated by the Durban Botanical Society to the Union of South Africa.

Port Elizabeth

South End Cemetery in Port Elizabeth was started. The country’s oldest art school, Port Elizabeth Art School, was founded in 1882. It later became the College for Advanced Technical Education, originally situated in Russell Road, Central. In 1974 it moved to Summerstrand and became the PE Technikon in 1979.

Kaapsehoop

In 1882 gold was discovered in the Kaapsehoop valley. When a larger deposit of gold was found near the present day Barberton, most of the prospectors moved there. The first payable gold was mined at Pioneer Reef by Auguste ROBERTE (aka French Bob) in June 1883. Barber’s Reef was the next big find in 1884. Sheba ‘s Reef, the richest of all, was discovered by Edwin BRAY in May 1885.

Port Shepstone

Port Shepstone came into being when marble was discovered near the Umzimkulu River mouth in 1867. It flourished from 1879 when William BAZLEY, one of the world’s first underwater demolition experts, blasted away rock at the mouth to form the Umzimkulu breakwater. The town was named after a Mr SHEPSTONE, one of the area’s prominent residents. Before 1901 the area depended solely on a port that was developed inside the river’s mouth. Boats were often wrecked and blocked the harbour entrance, but it provided a vital transport link for the tea, coffee and sugar cane grown by farmers along the river’s banks.

Supplies were brought in on the return voyages from Durban. With the arrval in 1882 of 246 Norwegian, 175 Briton and 112 German settlers, this shipping service became more important. The Norwegians arrived on the 29th August aboard the CHMS Lapland. The new settlers were offered 100 acre lots around the town at 7 shillings and 6 pence an acre. Port Shepstone was declared a full fiscal port in 1893 and, after Durban, became the region’s second harbour. Eventually, with the ongoing ship wreckages and the arrival of the railway, the harbour was closed down.

Harding

In 1882 the first hotel was opened in Harding. The village then consisted of three trading stores and four private homes.

Dundee

Dundee was established on the farm Fort Jones belonging to Peter SMITH, who had bought it from a Voortrekker settler, Mr DEKKER. He named the town Dundee, in memory of his original home in Scotland. By 1879, as a result of the Anglo-Zulu War, a tent town had sprung up on a portion of the farm. British soldiers attracted traders, missionaries, craftsmen and hunters but after their departure the tent town ceased to exist. With his son, William Craighead; son-in-law Dugald MACPHAIL; and Charles WILSON, Peter proclaimed the town in 1882.

Dewetsdorp

The Anglican Church was inaugurated on the 17th December 1882 by the Anglican Bishop of Bloemfontein. It was named St. Bartholomew’s. Before this, Anglicans held services in the town hall. The church’s foundation stone was laid on the 18th August. It cost £395 to build and seated 60. Rev. L.A. KIRBY was the first minister. The first baptism was on the 7th January 1883, that of Arthur SKEA. The church was declared a national monument in 1996.

Fort Hare

Fort Hare was built in 1847. It was named after Lt.-Col. John HARE and remained a military post until 1882, when part was given to Lovedale and part to the town of Alice.

Kuruman

The London Missionary Society (LMS) established the Moffat Institute in Kuruman in 1882, as a memorial to Robert and Mary MOFFATT and in the hope that it would revive the mission station.

Upington

Upington’s history starts with Klaas Lukas., a Koranna chief, who asked for missionaries to teach his people to read and write. In 1871 Rev. Christiaan SCHRODER left Namaqualand for Olyvenhoudtsdrift as the Upington area was then known. He built the first church, which today houses the Kalahari-Oranje Museum. In 1879 Sir Thomas UPINGTON visited the area to establish a police post, which was later named after him.

In 1881 SCHRODER, Abraham SEPTEMBER and Japie LUTZ helped build an irrigation canal. Abraham (Holbors) SEPTEMBER, said to be a Baster and the son of a slave from West Africa, was farming in the area in 1860. He was married to Elizabeth GOOIMAN. He devised a way to draw water from the river for irrigation purposes. In 1882 he was granted land facing the river. In 1896 Abraham and Elizabeth drew up a will, bequeathing the land to the survivor and thereafter to their three sons. Abraham died in 1898. In 1909 Elizabeth appeared before the Court in Upington on a charge that squatters where living on the land. It was here that she heard that Willem DORINGS, a smous, was claiming the land as his. This claim was to have repercussions, even in 2000 when the great-great-grandchildren of Abraham were still fighting for the land in the Land Claims Court.

Elizabeth and her sons owed Willem £326, but Willem produced documents that they sold him the land for that sum. The family were under the impression that they had a debt agreement with Willem. They refused to leave the farm and Elizabeth died there in 1918. In 1920 the family were removed from the farm by the new owners who had bought it from Willem. According to Henk WILLEMSE, Abraham’s great-great-grandson, the family started action in 1921 to get their land back. He has documents dating back all these years, which also show that Willem DORINGS was William THORN. Part of their land claim was for the land on which the Prisons Department building stands in Upington’s main road. This belonged to Abraham’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who lost it when service fees were not paid. In 1997 Nelson MANDELA unveiled a memorial plaque to Abraham.

The Waterfront

A view of East London in the 1880's

The Victorian Gothic-style Clock Tower, situated near the site of the original Bertie’s Landing restaurant in Cape Town, has always been a feature of the old harbour. It was the original Port Captain’s office and was completed in 1882. On the second floor is a decorative mirror room, which enabled the Port Captain to have a view of all activities in the harbour. On the ground floor is a tide-gauge mechanism used to check the level of the tide. Restoration of the Clock Tower was completed in 1997. The Robinson Graving Dock was also constructed in 1882, as was the Pump House. The Breakwater Convict Station was declared a military prison in 1882. This allowed military offenders from ships and shore stations to be committed for hard labour.

Sources:

Drakenstein Heemkring

Afrikanerbakens; Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge publication

Burgersdorp: http://www.burgersdorp.za.net/burgersdorp_photos.html

Maritime Casualties: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/2216/text/MARITIME.TXT

The Will of Abraham and Elizabeth September: The Struggle for Land in Gordonia, 1898-1995; by Martin Legassick; Journal of African History, Vol. 37, No. 3 (1996)

Land Claim Case: http://www.law.wits.ac.za/lcc/wp-content/uploads/jacobs2/jacobs2.pdf

Rapport newspaper, 23 Jan 2000

Boswell’s Circus: http://www.boswell.co.za/

Article researched and written by Anne Lehmkuhl, June 2007

Interior of Theatre Royal (since demolished) in Burg Street, Cape Town. (Cape Archives)

The lot of the first soldiers and workmen at the Cape was extremely hard and they had neither time nor inclination for any but immediately available relaxation. Later, when a settlement grew round the Fort and menial work could be done by imported labourers, the garrisoning troops had more opportunity for organised leisure.

In the 18th century these troops were mostly mercenaries – especially German – and Cape Town having established itself as a port of call for the ships of many nations by the middle of the i8th century, cultural life in the town was stimulated by the contact. The Dutch colonists and officials did not incline toward frivolous entertainment, but officers of the garrisoning regiments readily took part in dramatic performances.

Old Opera House, Cape Town, demolished in 1937 (Cape Times)

In 1795 the British came, stayed a few years and returned in 1806 for more than a century of sovereign administration. They had a profound influence on the evolution of the theatre in general and of drama particularly. During the first occupation the British troops felt the lack of distraction among a community that spoke mostly Dutch and was covertly antagonistic.
There were by then a few sports such as hunting, racing and assaults-at-arms, but little else, and they had to organise their own leisure. Some of the more enterprising officers began to stage amateur theatricals in what came to be known as the Garrison Theatre in Cape Town. A few of these men had considerable talent, both as playwrights and as players, and before long they had so stimulated a nostalgic public demand for the drama that the Governor, Sir George Yonge, was successfully petitioned to sanction the licensing of a theatre. This ‘African Theatre’ remained open from 1802 until 1839 and subsequently became, and still remains a church.

The first companies to play on its boards were quasi-amateur and mostly recruited from the garrison. Plays of every kind were staged, although sometimes long intervals separated performances which, in the absence of all facilities, required prodigious efforts. All the female parts were taken by officers and it was not until well into the century that women appeared on the stage. They were nearly all married ladies and participated fully in the terrible struggle to make a living from the theatre which characterised the first non-military performances. At first English plays predominated, but there were sometimes sessions of French plays; possibly inspired by these successful examples, the Dutch community sponsored performances of Dutch drama in their own hall. Many pieces were translated into Dutch for them. When they came to the Cape in 1816 Lord Charles Somerset and his lady had a box at the African Theatre and gave their patronage willingly to the performances produced by the military and by the few professionals who began to attempt dramatic entertainment.

Sundry civilians now offered dramatic presentations, interspersed with variety turns. Two or three short plays would be staged on one night in a reconstructed warehouse or store, accompanied by recitations, musical interludes or even a tumbler or acrobat. Regimental bands often provided music for these non-military enterprises, which were often of inferior quality and attended by stage calamities, but they filled a need in a community hankering after a tradition and with a European culture still fresh in mind despite long exile. The men and women who tried to present drama at this time were often rendered penniless and friends sometimes organised ‘benefit nights’ to save them from starvation. The struggle to provide theatre for the sophisticated though mostly transient section of the Cape community was sometimes assisted by passing players on their way to a more populated Australia or to Mauritius and India. They would be seized from their ships, lying in Table Bay for watering and revictualling, and induced to perform in Cape Town for the few days of their stay. Despite the occasional presence of these professional players, theatrical conditions remained crude in the extreme, with few encouraging features, particularly as the country’s economy was disastrously deflated. The advancement of the drama in South Africa has always been stimulated by historical calamity, through the need to raise funds for its victims. As early as 1835 theatrical performances were given in Cape Town to provide relief for the people – mostly 1820 settlers – ruined by the Fifth Frontier War. Some years later the same efforts were made for the dependants of those lost on the troopship Birkenhead in 1853. Every war in which South Africa has been implicated has had the effect of stimulating the theatre, although post-war depressions have almost killed it.

By the middle of the 19th century two factors had emerged to stimulate the development of theatrical entertainment. As the borders of the Colony were continually extended and settlers introduced from overseas, little towns began to appear – Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, King William’s Town and Durban, where English traders established themselves soon after the 1820 Settlers had come to strengthen the thin population of the Eastern Province. New inland villages, such as Cradock and Colesberg, were founded, and the existing ones, such as Graaff-Reinet, increased in population. Farther afield, settlements had been established at Bloemfontein, Pietermaritzburg and Pretoria, which gradually acquired English-speaking inhabitants.

Interior of Theatre Royal (since demolished) in Burg Street, Cape Town. (Cape Archives)

Old Opera House, Cape Town, demolished in 1937 (Cape Times)

The second factor was that the people began to be more truly South African. Where before the population had consisted for a large part of transient Europeans, either military or administrative, backed by a comparatively small number of uncultured burghers deep in the hinterland, there now was in existence a public claiming South Africa as its own and ready to vary its existence by dramatic and other diversions. The immediate effect was a burgeoning of local talent, largely in the field of concerts but also in amateur theatricals. Talented singers and instrumentalists could sometimes be counted among the inhabitants of remote villages and frequently gave concerts, usually to raise funds for their church or school. The desire for professional entertainment in the towns and villages was more often met by the early circus, consisting of a few animals, an acrobat and a juggler, and by traveling bands of quasi- professional players. These usually consisted of a former actor and his wife, with such hangers-on as were prepared to share their precarious existence. With high-flown names, usually French, these performers presented programmes of musical items and dramatic sketches in stores, rooms at inns or any available space, moving on, often for reasons of expediency, to the next village as soon as possible. Their transport was mostly by ox-wagon, since few could afford the expense of horse and cart. Their advent marked the beginning of professional entertainment throughout the country.

Hardly any theatres existed and even in Cape Town dramatic companies were forced to play in converted warehouses. Extraordinary enterprise was shown by the first pioneering players, both men and women, and small touring companies began to increase, traveling always by ox-wagon. It was on this basis that Captain Disney Roebuck, the outstanding pioneer of the 70′s and 80′s, later built. His energy in presenting plays in Cape Town and touring the towns and villages greatly helped to habituate the public to drama. There were also the professional players on their way to Australia (where there was a gold rush) who consented to perform in Cape Town and were often acclaimed by sizable audiences. In the larger villages such as Grahamstown the garrison also stimulated the drama and officers sometimes staged a series of plays in halls or public rooms in inns.
However, drama had hardly penetrated to the hinterland, where variety programmes of musical items, acrobats and stunt performers were more likely to gain favour than melodramatic sketches requiring scenery and other features difficult to transport.

The picture of amateur effort was suddenly changed by the discovery of diamonds at the river diggings on the Orange River in 1866 and at the dry diggings in 1870-1871 in the Northern Cape and the Orange Free State. A huge influx of more sophisticated adventurers not only stimulated trade in all the towns along the routes to the diggings, but also provided an eager audience for any kind of entertainment. Even so small a place as Colesberg suddenly boomed with the coach, cart and wagon trade and the manufacture of sieves, cradles and other digging requirements; while the coastal towns, such as Port Elizabeth, hummed with commercial activity. The new population provoked the emergence not only of a host of itinerant entertainers but the building of new theatres, such as the wood-and-iron Theatre Royal in Kimberley.

Although there was money to be had in the booming villages and in the new camp towns, where thousands of diggers, buyers, speculators and officials congregated, the first touring dramatic companies endured daunting difficulties. There were virtually no roads, the old tracks having been destroyed by sudden heavy traffic, so that even the big stage-coaches often traveled across the veld. Few theatrical entrepreneurs could afford horse-wagons, and most traveled slowly and painfully by ox-wagon. The village stores and warehouses in which the little companies played had no stage, dressing-rooms, curtains, seating, lighting or any other facilities – everything had to be improvised. When droughts and floods came, rinderpest and sickness, there were sometimes deaths among the small pioneering bands, apart from frequent desertions or marital differences which sapped the whole enterprise.

The theatre-going public of the eighties preferred variety to straight drama, and in the diamond-camp towns much was provided by local talent of Cockney and other origin, performances being given by potential magnates such as Barney Barnato. But even the amateurs occasionally provided dramatic sketches or excerpts from famous plays, and they were usually included in the programmes offered by the touring ensembles, short domestic dramas being presented with the entrepreneur and his wife in the lead. It was never certain whether they would be greeted with hoots or approbation.

The prosperity following on the discovery of diamonds encouraged more ambitious theatrical enterprises, particularly by Roebuck and others at the Cape. Apart from occasional cryptic mention in the first newspapers, there is no written record of the many little theatrical companies which sought to exploit the situation; but in A show through Southern Africa Charles du Val, a pioneering theatrical manager, recorded his experiences of touring almost the whole country by horse-wagon in 1880-1881. There was hardly a village too small for him to visit and he tells how the townsfolk, now used to the arrival of ‘shows’, would during the day place their own chairs in the store or warehouse destined for the evening’s performance. When Du Val, after participating in the war of 1881 in the Transvaal, left the country there were already several others in the field. An early pioneering theatrical enterprise, traveling by ox-wagon throughout the country, was operated by the Wheeler family – Benjamin (‘Daddy’) Wheeler, his wife, and their little son Frank, who later became one of South Africa’s most energetic impresarios.

It might he said that they put on a show rather than staged a play, but indisputably they helped to inculcate a love of theatre in remote places. The pieces offered were of the type of the sentimental East Lynne (by Mrs. Henry Wood), broad farce or melodrama. The biggest incentive to the development of the drama and theatrical entertainment generally was the building of theatres which occurred at this period. The Theatre Royal in Cape Town, built by Roebuck, was destroyed by fire in 1883; but others took its place, such as the Vaudeville Hall in Loop Street and other halls. In 1882 the old Trafalgar Theatre in Durban was replaced by a Theatre Royal, and in Kimberley the wood-and-iron Theatre Royal and Lanyon Theatre became features of the town. In the smaller towns improved facilities were available for touring companies, which now tended toward light operatic and musical presentations.

The discovery of gold in the Transvaal during the seventies and eighties, which established Johannesburg as a town and not a transient mining camp, provided South Africa with another enormous access of population, and the entertainment field with unprecedented stimuli to development. Entrepreneurs who had struggled at the coastal towns with vaudeville, musical and dramatic programmes now flocked to the Witwatersrand, where finance was soon found to accommodate them. One of the first dramatic enterprises was launched by the remarkably versatile Luscombe Searelle who, successfully performing in Durban at the time, transported his entire company, effects and corrugated-iron theatre by ox-wagon to Johannesburg and established the Theatre Royal in 1889. It was quickly followed by numerous music- halls and by the imposing Standard Theatre, which after many vicissitudes opened in 1891. Elsewhere the same burgeoning in the entertainment field was seen in the opening of the Good Hope Hall and the Opera House in Cape Town, Scott’s Theatre in Pietermaritzburg, the Opera House in Port Elizabeth; and later the Grand Theatre in Bloemfontein, the Opera House in Pretoria and many other venues, including music-halls such as the Tivoli in Cape Town after the Second Anglo-Boer War.

There was by now a large pleasure-loving and affluent public throughout the country and appropriately equipped buildings in which they could be entertained. These provided an incentive for the importation of entertainment companies of every kind of both local impresarios (notably the Wheelers and Frank de Jong) and oversea interests, and for the presentation of drama and light opera by early pioneers such as Searelle, A. Bonamici, and later Leonard Rayne.

During the late eighties and early nineties theatrical entertainment was extremely varied. Although artistes of the standard of the famous actress Mrs. Lewis Waller, Madame Albini (the singer) and Edward Terry appeared at the same time as the Moody-Manners Opera Company and the Wheeler Edwardes Gaiety Companies, music and drama fought a losing battle against variety and the informal atmosphere of the music-hall with its bar and promenade (of which, in Johannesburg particularly, there were a large number). The tension of the times and the ready availability of money among a crowd of adventurers and speculators produced conditions requiring excitement rather than culture. Much of the early theatre was vaudeville and light opera. The circumstances of its presentation could vary from men leaping from the boxes on to the stage and fighting over the reigning footlight favourite, to the theatre catching fire (as sometimes happened owing to faulty wiring). The visiting vaudeville stars commanded high salaries, and gaiety rather than merit ruled the scene.

After the diamond- and gold-rush years and the period of extremely rapid development which diamonds and gold made possible – particularly the introduction of amenities such as electric light and trams, railways, water-supply systems, better roads and other improvements – came a more settled population, with higher standards, and requiring something more than mere distraction. From the early nineties onwards the theatre proper began to assert itself. The Wheelers now imported first-class stars and organised country-wide tours for their companies. Frank de Jong brought out the famed Sass-Nelson musical and dramatic companies and many others. Leonard Rayne, arriving in 1896 as an actor-producer, began to develop his own organisation and to establish dramatic stock companies. There began to be a profusion of theatrical entertainment of high quality, presented in typical Victorian theatres of red plush, shining chandeliers and rows of boxes. The music-hall or ‘‘palace of varieties’, which it was not considered seemly for ladies to attend, continued to be dominant, however.

This very varied entertainment, overshadowed by vaudeville, continued until the outbreak of the war in 1899. The immediate effect, especially of the influx of troops demanding entertainment, was to stimulate the theatre in the non-belligerent areas and also to cause the opening of a host of disreputable music- halls at the ports. Large numbers of dramatic companies were imported from England and legitimate drama flourished. In 1901, for instance, the Wheelers imported the famous American actress Nance O’Neill. In one month in South Africa she played the lead in Sudermann’s Magda, Dumas’s Camille, Sardou’s Tosca and Fedora, Queen Elizabeth, Sheridan’s School for scandal, Peg Woffington and The Jewess. Later star performers were Lily Langtry (1905) and the famous Mrs. Brown Potter (1907).

After the war a gradual decline set in on account of the withdrawal of troops and administrative officials, and the fact that South Africa, still split into four separate units, entered a phase of drastic political and economic depression. Eventually circuses and the new travelling ‘bioscopes’ became the only consistent forms of theatrical amusement. Only Leonard Rayne with his company at the Standard in Johannesburg represented the drama.
By 1909, with the promise of the solution of political problems by unification, the theatre suddenly began to improve and drama proper began to vie with vaudeville. An increasing number of companies playing straight drama were imported and Shakespeare became a vogue. In 1911-1912 Matheson Lang appeared in Shakespearean plays and in Jerome K. Jerome’s “The Passing of the Third Floor back”. In 1911, and again in 1913, Henry Herbert and his Stratford-on-Avon Players presented many of Shakespeare’s plays in the main towns; while H. B. Irving acted in a season of Shakespeare and other plays in 1913. The renascence of the legitimate theatre was accompanied by the first resounding success of a local dramatist, Stephen Black, whose topical Love and the hyphen, presented by Frank de Jong with a South African cast including the author, was first produced in 1909 and rapturously acclaimed in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and other centres. It was followed with al most equal success by Helena’s Hope, but less happily by Jannie Kortbroek and, later, The flopper and Van Kalabas does his bit.

Also after Union, concert parties such as the Steele-Payne Bellringers, the Royal Besses o’ the Barn and the Royal Welsh Choir, Gaiety companies and renowned singers and instrumentalists came in increasing numbers, while old-fashioned variety in the cities fought to withstand new competition. The first permanent cinemas appeared, catering for new strata of society at very low prices and meeting cut-throat competition by presenting their programmes of grotesquely-animated films with intervening vaudeville turns. In this rich field drama continued under healthy conditions; but the bioscope-vaudeville business, over-exploited and over-capitalised by the importation of expensive artistes for whom no mensurate return could be expected from the public, wavered and collapsed.

Early in 1913 bankruptcy faced the music-hall owners, who had provided entertainment from the earliest theatrical days. They appealed to an insurance magnate, I. W. Schlesinger, to save their business and in May 1913, together with other administrative companies, he formed the African Theatres Trust Ltd., later African Theatres, and still later African Consolidated Theatres Ltd., which undertook the administration of theatres and the provision of dramatic and other entertainment. At the same time the Australian firm of J. C. Williamson entered the South African field and presented oversea companies in dramatic and musical pieces in theatres controlled by Schlesinger.

The period of the First World War wrought fundamental changes in the structure of entertainment in South Africa. The attractions of the legitimate theatre came into competition with new forms of entertainment such as the musical revue with topical songs, which attained high popularity, with the new phenomenon of jazz, and with the cinema proper, now organised on a sound basis by Schlesinger. The value of the cinema as inexpensive distraction was greatly enhanced by its presentation of war news-reels. It was no longer possible to import dramatic companies with the same ease as previously (although the war ended with Marie Tempest and a London company playing Good gracious, Annabelle by Glare Kummer in Johannesburg), and it was indeed largely through the consistent efforts of Leonard Rayne and his local stock companies that drama survived.

Afrer the First World War, when the public became tired of escapist frivolity and inclined more toward worthwhile entertainment, the theatre again experienced considerable prosperity, despite the competition of the burgeoning cinema, now patronised by all strata of society. The ten years that followed the First World War saw many companies of merit, led by some of the best-known performers in the oversea theatre. They included Allen Doone with his very popular Irish plays, Ada Reeve in musicals such as Lehar’s Merry widow and, later, Floradora (by Leslie Stuart), Sir Frank Benson declaiming Shakespeare in traditional style, Gertrude Elliott (Lady Forbes- Robertson) playing in Paddy the next best thing (by W. Gayer Mackay and Robert Ord), Irene Vanbrugh, Maurice Moscovitch with his memorable The outsider (by Dorothy Brandon) and The merchant of Venice, the Macdona Players staging Bernard Shaw (then a provocative force in drama), and many others. In addition, Leonard Rayne toured with his companies, in which the immensely popular Freda Godfrey was leading lady, throughout the country and remained in continuous occupation of the Opera House in Cape Town. After this glorious decade, and long before the advent of ‘talkies’, the theatre began to decline.

Today in 2005 – the Theatre again has regained its composure and become a thriving attraction once more. Aspiring small theatres are again in much demand and will be here for many decades to come.

Source: The Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa

The Masters’ Division is a creature rich in history not surpassed by any public institution in this country. The creation of the MASTERS’ BUSINESS UNIT is a further chapter of this history.

Although the predecessors of the Masters’ Division can be found in the annals of some European countries long before 1652 the real history of the Masters’ Division in South Africa started in 1674 when the “Weeskamer” (Orphan Camber) was created. While the Master is presently a creature of statute the functions of the Orphan Chamber were up to 1714 not prescribed by statute but were founded on its compeers in Holland. In that year the Orphan Chamber prepared some regulations that were approved of by the authorities.

These regulations were in force till 1793 where after a thorough investigation was launched into the activities of the Orphan Chamber and new regulations enacted. In 1828 in a preamble the importance of the Orphan Chamber was described as follows:
“Whereas the establishment of the Orphan Chamber in this Colony has become an Institution of great public interest and utility and should therefore placed under permanent and more determinate regulations…”.

In 1834 the Master became a creature of statute. The staffing of the Masters’ Division also went through many changes. The Orphan Chamber for instance staffed by a chairperson appointed by the Governor in Council, two officials of the then authorities and two freemen. Only the secretary was paid for his/ her work. One of the officials and one of the freemen had to retire from the Orphan Chamber annually and their successors elected by the Political Council from a list drawn up by the Orphan Chamber itself.

The Orphan Chamber was restructured by ordinance in 1828 and then staffed by a chairperson and four Masters appointed by the Governor. Two of the latter had to be civil servants. This ordinance sounded the death bell of the Orphan Chamber, died in 1834 and superseded by the Master of the Supreme Court.

The functions of the Masters’ Division underwent many changes through the centuries. Initially the word “Orphan Chamber” was in deed a good description for the activities of the Orphan Chamber since its activities were more focused on minors and widows. Although many regulations pertaining to the functions of the Orphan Chamber were changed through the years major changes took place in the year 1793. With the creation of the office of the Master in 1834 the Master’s functions and duties became prescribed by statute. Initially the Orphan Chamber had, inter alia, a very personal interest in those put under its jurisdiction.

The Orphan Chamber for instance put minors under foster care and had to ascertain that those minors were brought up under strict Christian principles and received a proper education and trained in a trade. As is the case today funds of the minors could be used for those purposes. Corporal punishment by officials of the Orphan Chamber was allowed and the undisciplined had to appear before the Orphan Chamber.

Their authorities over the persons of the minors were nearly unrestricted – two orphans who time again ran away from their foster parents were enrolled in the army and sent to Batavia. Following numerous enquiries about persons who died and in view of the fact that there was no office of a registrar of deaths at that time persons who died could not be buried before the Orphan Chamber was notified of their deaths! The Guardians’ Fund was an integral part of the system since 1686. All monies belonging to orphans and absent / unknown heirs were deposited in this fund and administration fees (as well as salaries of officials till 1808) were paid from the profits made by the fund. Monies were invested on mortgage bonds and loans against securities at an interest higher than the 6% paid to account holders.

Since the Orphan Chamber considered itself a philanthropic institution donations were also made to orphanages and poor churches. It was also recorded that the then Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, even instructed the fund to donate an amount of 51 000 guild to a congregation to build a new parsonage – apparently Mrs Reverend did not like the old parsonage! Only 15 000 guild was forthcoming. Due to the fact that this fund became very ‘affluent’ the ordinary person on the street (dust track?) became mistrustful towards the fund because they apparently believed that the fund could not become so strong in an honourable way.

When the then secretary of the Orphan Chamber died in 1737 a shortfall of more than 50 000 guild was discovered in the fund. The authorities decided that the Masters of that time should be held responsible for the shortfall. Understandably they fought this decision and after a period of 15 years a truce was reached between the Masters the authorities whereby the interest earned on the funds of absent heirs used to cover the shortfall. Unfounded stories about enrichment by officials of the Orphan Chamber became the order of the day. During the period 1788 to 1791 the execution of functions by the Orphan Chamber fell in chaos.

A commission of enquiry was instituted, the then secretary dismissed and the shortfall of more than 167 000 rix-dollars recovered from his estate. In view of the fact that banking institutions were foreign at that time, the monies of the fund not invested were kept in an iron trunk with three sets of locks. Three different officials kept the keys. However, this arrangement did not prevent the authorities of that time to raid the trunk on two occasions to cover the shortfall on the government’s budget! The control over the liquidation of sequestrated estates befell the Master also in 1828.

Before that time such matters were under the control of the courts (till 1803), the “Desolate Kamer” (1803 to 1819) and “sequestrator” (1819 to 1828.) The assessment of succession duty became the duty of the Master in 1864. It is common knowledge that the Voortrekkers of that time were not fond of the then authorities and as they trekked from under the auspices of the British authorities they founded their own Orphan Chambers even while on trek The office of “Weesheer” was a well sought after position and many well known personalities of those times acted as “Weeshere.”

At the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910 four different sets of control over the administration of estates existed. A so called unified act was enacted in 1913 which act was in operation till 1967 when the current act came into effect. Even today no unified act exists – the next chapter to be written in the long history
of the Masters’ Division.

(Acknowledgement: J H Jordaan – Master’s Office Pretoria)

Post office stone left at the Cape in 1625 by Edward Wilson, surgeon of the ship Star.

While the older countries in Europe had intimate contact with one another and developed more or less simultaneously, postal services in isolated Southern Africa naturally evolved quite differently.

The first letter ‘posted’ in South Africa was deposited in a shoe hung on a milkwood tree at Mossel Bay in 1501 by a Portuguese ship’s captain, Pero d’Ataide, in the expectation that someone in a passing ship would find it, take it with him and deliver it. The letter described a disaster that had befallen the Portuguese fleet on the voyage to India. This tree, still standing, which can be considered the first ‘post office’ in Southern Africa, was declared a historical monument on 30 Sept. 1938, and a bronze plaque with the following legend was affixed: “This ‘post office tree’ stands near the foun­tains where the Portuguese navigators regularly drew water at Aguada de Säo Bras (now Mossel Bay) from 1488 onwards. In May 1501 Pero d ‘ Ataide, captain of a homeward bound ship of Pero Cabral’s fleet, left a message here which was found on 7th July 1501 by the outward bound ships of Joao da Nova. According to tradition the message was placed in an old shoe and tied to a tree.’

A century later another extraordinary method of ‘posting’ letters originated at Table Bay. Dutch and English navigators usually touched at the bay to take in fresh water and meat, and it was their custom to place letters for one another under stones at certain places on the beach. Sometimes even stones with the names of the ships and officers, dates, etc. chiselled on them, were brought along for that purpose. Often special provision was made for keeping the letters safe and dry, by covering them with lead and canvas or coarse linen. Nevertheless, the south-easter sometimes blew away some of the letters, and it even happened that inquisitive Hottentots removed part of the post.A few of these postal stones have been preserved and may be seen in the South African Museum in Cape Town. The stones were found at the place where in the 17th century the stream now hidden beneath Adderley Street ran from Table Mountain into the sea, i.e. where the old Cape Town railway station stood. With the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck the custom of leaving letters under stones died out, because there was now always someone at the Castle of Good Hope to attend to the post of incoming and departing ships.In the absence of an organised postal service, measures were taken on East Indiamen to deliver Van Riebeeck’s reports to the Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam, but private correspondence had to be entrusted to ships’ officers or passengers.

Complaints about such a haphazard arrangement were made from time to time, but not until March 1792 was an improvement made when a small post office was opened in the Castle. The first postmaster was the junior merchant Adriaan Vincent Bergh, with Aegidius Benedictus Ziervogel as postman.Only posts between the Netherlands, the Cape and the East Indies were handled, for the scattered farmers in the interior could not be served yet. The postage between the Cape and overseas was 6 stivers for a letter of one sheet.With the establishment of the drostdys (magistracies) in the interior toward the end of the 18th century it became necessary for the government in the Castle to have official documents, and after 1801 the official gazette, delivered to the local authorities. In imitation of the European system, messenger services were then introduced. Hottentot runners acted as conveyers from point to point. This service was only for Government use; private letter-writers had to rely on the goodwill of visitors, servants or pedlars. Early in 1863, however, under the regime of the Batavian Republic, and under strong pressure from colonists and officials, private persons were allowed to send letters by the government post; but this service was intermittent. The postal tariff was based on the distance traversed and the number of sheets of paper.

For one sheet the rate between Cape Town and Somerset West was one schelling. (Later, under British rule, the schelling was valued at 2¼d.) Between Cape Town and Swellendam it was 2 schellings; between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth 4 schellings. Twenty years later the tariff was as follows:-

Cape Town to Somerset West 3d.to Swellendam 7d.

to Port Elizabeth 11d.

In Jan. 1805, under the Batavian regime, the first regular postal service, i.e. for private as well as official matter, was established between Cape Town and the drostdys of Swellendam and Tulbagh, and there was a similar but less regular connection with the more distant districts. Farmers living along the main roads helped to make it possible by transporting, under contract, the postbags by horse over fixed distances. This arrangement did not work very well, for only the following year Sir David Baird, as acting governor, issued a proclamation to the effect that thenceforth the post should be carried by Hottentots, who were to relieve one another at various places along the road. Under Lord Charles Somerset, between 1814 and 1826, the first full-time postmasters were appointed in the place of the landdrost’s clerks, jailers, teachers, etc., who in the beginning did the work.

In Oct. 1816, for instance, such officials were appointed at Paarl, Tulbagh, Caledon, George and Graaff-Reinet. In the head-office in Cape Town and at Stellenbosch and Simonstown permanent postmasters had already officiated for some time; but suitable men were hard to get, principally because the salary was low, and secondly because the regulations were too complicated.

Meticulous statements of cash receipts from outgoing and incoming postal articles had to be sent regularly to head-office – an impossible task, on account of changes that had often to be made in the charges for letters on which postage could not be paid or which had to be redirected. Yet steady progress was made. New post offices were established and new routes introduced, so that in 1838 there already were 22 post offices with full-time postmasters.

An important milestone was reached on 1 Sept. 1853 when the adhesive stamp was used for the first time in the Cape Colony. This meant, as in other parts of the world, that the whole character of the post office – till then a cumbrous, inconvenient and expensive system (with reckoning according to distance) – was at once fundamentally changed. This reformation caused an enormous increase in postal traffic. Bigger and stronger transport vehicles had to be acquired, which could provide at the same time for the carriage of passengers.

Another cause of great activity in the post was the discovery of diamonds along the Orange River in 1867: Kimberley at once became the magnet for businessmen and adventures. Within a few years there was already a population of 30 000 on the diamond-fields.

It was a great challenge to provide these people with regular and efficient postal and passenger transport; but coaching companies such as the pic­turesque Red Star line, with its well-appointed coaches and fine horses and mules, provided an excellent service from Wellington (then the terminus of the railway) via Beaufort West to Kimberley and later to Johannesburg.

At one time this company had about 2 000 horses and mules in service. Other pioneers who supplied an equally efficient service were Cobb & Co. (from the Eastern Province through the Orange Free State), Walsh, Button & Marshall of Natal, and George Heys and the Zeeder­berg brothers in the Transvaal.

Postmasters-general of the Cape Colony were:

A. V. Bergh 1792-98

J. Holland 1798-1806

W. Caldwell 1806-07

M. M. Gall 1807-15

R. Crozier 1815-52

J. A. le Smear 1852-67

C. Piers 1867-73

G. W. Aitchison 1873-92

S. R. French 1892-1908

W. T. Hoal 1908-10

Natal

Bantu postman near Fort Beaufort iin the Eastern Province (1850)

In Natal, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal the postal service developed more or less in the same way as in the Cape Colony. Colonists in Durban and its environs at first had to make use of departing ships in order now and then to send a letter to England, with the harbour-master as intermediary.

Then followed a weekly letter service, in­troduced in 1843 between Pietermaritzburg and Durban by the military, mainly for Government use. The Natal Witness from March 1846 undertook to transport letters weekly for the public between the two places at 6d. per letter of one sheet, and continued this until 1850, when the Government introduced its own postal service. In order to enable the Lieutenant-Governor in Pietermaritzburg to remain in touch by land with the Governor in Cape Town, and also to transport the public posts, a service from Pietermaritzburg was established early in 1846 to connect with the border post at Grahamstown.Bantu were used as runners to carry the post. The route was as follows:

Pietermaritzburg – Indaleni-Palmer­ston – Buntingville – Morley – Butterworth – Drift (Great Kei) – Fort Warden – Fort Wellington – King William’s Town – Grahamstown.

This route was continually dislocated through disorders, so much so that in Nov. 1846 the post had to be sent via Colesberg. No wonder that in official circles it was said that Natal and Cape Town were more distant from each other than were England and South Africa, for it sometimes took a month for the post to arrive by the Transkei route.In Natal post offices were opened on 1 Feb. 1850 in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, at the military post on the Bushman River (now Estcourt) and in the magistrate’s office of Klip River (now Ladysmith). As the population increased, post offices were opened in other parts of the colony. With regard to the connection between Natal and the Orange Free State, negotiations were begun in June 1847 to introduce a postal route into the Free State (then the Orange River Sovereignty).

This was the Osterberg route:

Pietermaritzburg – Imperani – Thaba Nchu – Bloem­fontein – Colesberg.

It was not long in use, on account of disorders in the Free State. Late in 1849 a new route was arranged:

Pietermaritzburg – Mooi River – Bushmans River (Estcourt) – Platberg (Harrismith) – Liebenbergsvlei – Winburg – Bloem­fontein – Colesberg.

A mounted orderly went as far as the Bushman River, and Bantu runners from there to the Platberg.

From April 1850 Whites were used as mounted messengers as far as Harrismith. In Feb. 1851 they were replaced by Bantu on foot from Pietermaritzburg to the Bushmans River.Until 1866 post for the Transvaal was sent through the Orange Free State. Then an agreement was reached between the Transvaal and Natal governments, so that a route between Newcastle and Wakkerstroom (at that time Martins Wesselstroom) was opened in Oct. 1866.

Postmasters-general of Natal were:

F. Spring 1850-53

W. M.Collins 1853-65

F. Becker 1865-71

J. Ayliff 1872-76 (Colonial Treasurer and Postmaster-General)

R. I. Finnemore 1876-78

A. H. W. Moodie 1878-81

J. P. Symons (acting) 1881-82

J. Chadwick 1883-98

J. W. Coleman (acting) 1898

W. G. Hamilton 1899-1900 J.

Frank Brown 1900-02

A. J. Norris (acting) 1902

C. M. Hibberd 1903-10

Transvaal

As in the Cape Colony and Natal, so in the Transvaal Republic the first letter service was only for Government use. Yet private letters were sometimes allowed, but merely as a favour, without payment. Gradually the need for a general service arose and it was introduced in 1850. The first route was from Ohrigstad (where the Volksraad then sat) via Lydenburg, Renosterspruit (40 km north-west from present-day Middelburg) and Suikerbosrand (later Heidelberg) to Potchefstroom. In 1852 Rustenburg was included, and Pretoria in 1855.

Early in 1856 most inhabited parts of the Transvaal had postal connections, with landdrosts and field-cornets as postmasters. Originally the trustworthiness and regularity o f the service left much to be desired. Friedrich Jeppe, one of the first postal heads of the Republic, gives the following account:”The post of the farmers was transported by Natives in open saddle-bags. Because no Native had the right to contradict a farmer, it often happened that some of the farmers calmly took out all the letters, read them and cut out the important parts, after which the letters were closed and sent on.

The discoveries of gold in Lydenburg (1870) and Barberton (1882), where thousands congregated, made stringent demands on the post, but the situation there was soon over-shadowed by the discovery of the gold reef along the Witwatersrand in 1886. Suddenly there was a rush of diggers and fortune-seekers from all regions of South Africa and beyond. The first small post office on the Rand was established at Ferreira’s Camp (the beginning of Johannesburg) under a barkeeper, A. B. Edgson. A departmental postmaster, C. A. Dormehl, was put to work in a separate sheet-iron building on 1 Oct. 1886. He must have been the busiest postmaster in the country; he had, for example, to handle the post of 18 coaches a week between Johannesburg and Kimberley.

In 1891 a convention was concluded with Mozambique by which a regular postal service was established between Barberton and Lourengo Marques.

Postmasters-general of the Transvaal were:

H. Jeppe 1860-67

F. Jeppe 1867-74

J. A. de Vogel 1875- 80

A. W. de la Hunt 1880-81

J. A. de Vogel 1881- 85

I. N. van Alphen 1885-1902

W. G. Hamilton 1902-03

J. Frank Brown 1903-10

Telegraph Needle

Orange Free State

As in the other states, postal work in the Free State was originally managed by landdrost’s clerks. From 1848, when the territory became the Orange River Sovereignty, it was considered to be a dependency of the Cape Colony. In 1849 A. O’Reilly was listed as postmaster of Smithfield and the only postmaster in the territory. He fell under the Postmaster-general of the Cape Colony, R. Crozier, and remained until 1854, when the territory became the Republic of the Orange Free State. In 1850 William Collins was appointed postmaster in Bloem­fontein. In this connection his son W. M. Collins wrote: “The writer’s father, who had been an assistant classical professor in the South African College, Cape Town, some years before, secured the appointment of Government school teacher for Bloemfontein at the handsome salary of £90 per annum, also the postmastership of Bloemfontein, at £12 per annum, which latter was soon after raised to £25, with a monthly allowance of £1 for a room which was to serve as a temporary Post Office.” (Free Statia, 1909.) In 1855 there were still only five post offices, viz Bloemfontein, Winburg, Harrismith, Smithfield and Fauresmith; and twenty years later only 26.

The arrival of the post-cart or coach was a special occasion everywhere. In Bloemfontein it was signalised by the hoisting of flags to show where the coach had come from. A flag with the sign of a diamond on it indicated Kimberley. After the sorting, a red flag was hoisted below the other one. Delivery of the post took place through a window. Postboxes for private hirers were later erected by postmasters from their own funds, and they collected the rentals for their own use. Pillar-boxes were unknown until 1893. At most places there were for many years no commercial banks and the landdrost often had to lend money to a postmaster in order to cash a money order.

Heads of posts in the Orange Free State and Orange River Colony were:

A. B. Roberts (State Attorney, Auditor-General and Postmaster-General) 1856-60

J. Heijermans (postmaster of Bloemfontein, Post­master-General and Auditor-General) 1860-68

H. Sybouts (P. M. G. and Auditor-General) 1868-71

W. H. Canisius (P.M.G.) 1871-81

B. van der Karst (P.M.G.) 1881-85

A. C. Howard (P.M.G.) 1885-91

G. F. P. Hurford (P.M.G.) 1891-94

D. G. A. Falck (P.M.G.) 1895-1910

Transportation of Posts – Carts and coaches

The runner was in most countries the first carrier of posts; so also in South Africa. But as the settlements grew and the mail became heavier, the runner was replaced by a mounted man. Natives who ran with a postbag sometimes dropped it into the water at a ford, and then the whole mail could disappear in the river. This happened in the Transvaal up to the eighties. In his turn the rider had to make way for a more efficacious means of transportation, the mail-cart (about 1855), on which there were also places for three passengers. The first mail-cart used on impor­tant routes was strong and heavily built. Lighter types were used on better roads and where night work was not needed. For many years the hooded cart, pulled by two to six horses or mules, was also used by postal contractors.

With the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1867 and of gold in the Transvaal in 1886 the mail-coach made its appearance on the main routes. The coach was a luxury vehicle in those days. Some coaches were built on the model of those in England and America and were very efficient. The coachman sat in front on his box, and right at the back there was a scat for the guard. Beneath his feet there was storage space for the mailbags, and in the middle of the coach was a closed compartment, suitably ar­ranged for passengers. Various draught animals were used – horses or mules and sometimes oxen, in rare cases even zebras. On some roads the coaches did 11miles (17km) an hour. Some hindrances were insuperable: washaways, rivers in spate, and also drought, which brought a serious shortage of grazing for the draught animals.

The mail-coach was a symbol of civilisation for South Africa, and its importance was commemorated when, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister (Dr. D. F. Malan), on 4 Jan. 1952 such a coach, the first of seven, departed from Ohrigstad on its way to Cape Town for the Van Riebeeck Festival. Another six coaches left from other parts of the country, all to converge on Cape Town on 31 March 1952.

Ocean mail

In 1815 fast sailing vessels were used to transport mail and passengers once a month between England, Mauritius and India. The voyage to the Cape took 114 days. Ten years later the first steam-ship, the Enterprise, was put into service, covering the distance in 58 days. The first mail contract between the Cape government and a shipping line in England, the Union Line, was concluded in 1857. The contract time between Cape Town and Southamp­ton was 42 days, which in 1868 was decreased to 38 days. In 1872 a second company, the Castle Line, appeared on the scene, and four years later the mail contract was divided equally between the two lines. In 1900 they amalgamated under the name Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company, which to this day is the contractor for ocean mail transport between England and South Africa. The duration of the voyage was in 1964 decreased from 14 to 11½ days. For this mail service the State pays R800 000 per annum. On an average 20 railway carriages are filled with mail for the interior on the arrival of the mail-boat on Wednesdays.

Air mail

Many experiments were made in South Africa in carrying mail by aeroplane, but only in 1925 was an experimental service lasting three months introduced between Cape Town and Durban. The main purpose was to accelerate the delivery and dispatch of oversea mail within the country. Owing to lack of support the service, which was undertaken by the South African Air Force together with the Post Office, was discontinued. No further developments took place until Aug. 1929, when Union Airways Ltd, introduced a service between Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban, with a branch service from Port Elizabeth to Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. Apparently this undertaking paid, for in Jan. 1933 this company instituted an additional through service between Durban and the Rand Airport at Germiston. On 1 Feb. 1934 Union Airways Ltd. was taken under the control of the Railway Administration. From then the system of air services, and also of the air mail service, was gradually expanded until it ceased owing to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. The air mail was resumed in 1946, and now the transport service of the State has a fast daily air mail between all the more important cities.

As for the oversea air mail, the most important development was the institution of a fast service between London and Cape Town by Imperial Airways on 20 Jan. 1932. At first the planes took 11 days to complete the trip, but this was reduced until in 1972 a letter could be transported from South Africa to London in 16 hours or less. In 1945 the service of Imperial Airways was replaced by the Springbok service of the Government.

Postage Stamps

As said before, postage stamps were issued for the first time in South Africa in 1853. These old Cape stamps were triangular in shape, in two values, 1d. and 4d. This was the first stamp of this shape in the world, but since then other countries have also issued triangular stamps. Natal’s first stamps came in 1857 in five values: 1d., 3d., 6d., 9d., and 1s. – none triangular! Similarly in the Orange Free State the first postage stamps were issued in 1869, with values of 1d., 6d. and 1s. It was not until 1 May 1870 that post offices in the Transvaal Republic were provided with postage stamps, of two values: 1d. and 6d.

At the time of unification in 1910 no Union postage stamps were immediately available, and the use of any of the stamps of the four former colonies anywhere was approved, until new stamps could be printed. But to commemorate the opening of the first Union Parliament a 2 ½d. stamp was issued on 4 Nov. 1910. The first Union stamps appeared in Sept. 1913, in the following values: ½ d., 1d., 1½d., 2½d., 3d., 4d., 6d., 1s., 1s. 3d., 2s. 6d., 5s., 10s., and £1. Afterwards special series appeared from time to time.

Progress after Union

Owing to the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) the progress and modernisation of posts and telegraphs were seriously hampered in the various territories of South Africa; but in 1910 the first Union government began to consolidate and improve the services of the four provinces. In almost every sphere considerable progress was made. For the posts, with a view to quick delivery, the fastest public conveyances were used, so that nowadays all postal matter is transported by means of an integrated network of railway, road, sea and air services. Total costs of transport amounted to R10 875 544 in the fiscal year 1971/2.

Adaptations are continuously being made with great success in order to handle the ever-growing mass of mail, but notwithstanding the simplification and modernisation of sorting processes it even now requires an enormous amount of manual labour to sort and dispatch the approximately 5 million postal articles mailed daily in the Republic. Mechanical and electronic sorting of mail is in the process of implementation in the major centres.

The existence of about 3 000 post offices and postal agencies in the Republic in 1971 – as against 2 457 in 1912 – brings postal facilities within reasonable reach of all. The first experiment with a mobile post office was made in 1937, with a view to serving suburbs where the erection of a post office would not be justified. In 1971 nineteen of these units were in use.

Important postal facilities supplied since Union are the following:

1. the ‘cash on delivery’ service for par­cels (since 1925)

2. phonograms, which are telephoned to a telegraph office to be telegraphed (1930)

3. urgent telegrams, which have priority in dispatch and delivery (1933)

business reply service (1934)

4. circulars to householders (1935)

5. insurance of parcels (1940)

6. air parcels service (1959)

7. increase of the maximum weight for parcels in inland service from 11 to 22lb (5 to 10kg) in 1962

In all cities and most towns mail is delivered at the dwelling of the addressee. It is also delivered into 215 291 private post boxes and 15 406 private post bags (in 1971). The Post Office had approximately 58 000 employees in 1970, and the turn-over of the department amounted to about R739 million annually.

Postal tunnels

When the general post office was built in Jeppe Street, Johannesburg, in 1935, it was connected by a subterranean conveyor-belt, working in both directions, with the railway platforms on the new station, in order to effect the carriage of mail in a tunnel instead of in trucks through the busy city traffic. This belt has a carrying capacity of 600 mail bags per hour, and about 2 000 bags daily pass over it. The second postal tunnel in the country is in Cape Town, where a similar conveyor-belt system connected the general post office directly with the new railway station in 1967.

Telecommunications (1860-1910) – Telegraph System

The first telegraph fine in Southern Africa was put into service between Cape Town and Simonstown in April 1860. The line was built by the Cape of Good Hope Telegraph Company. This company linked up East London and King William’s Town the following year, and Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown a year later. The entire route between Cape Town and Grahamstown was completed in 1863. In 1873 these private lines were purchased by the State for £40 750. There were then 19 telegraph offices in operation. Because of the rapid development of the diamond-fields the telegraph line was extended from Cape Town to Kimberley in 1876 via Colesberg, Philippolis, Fauresmith, Koffiefontein and Jacobsdal. The first telegraph line in Natal was completed on 4 July 1864 between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The outbreak of the Zulu War in 1878 contributed largely to the building of telegraph lines in Natal being expedited. A link-up with the Cape Colony was effected about the same time when the line was extended from Komga to Pietermaritzburg via Umtata.

Although the first telegraph line from Colesberg to Kimberley traversed the territory of the Orange Free State, the Cape administration built the line and had to provide the telegraphists. In 1891 this line to the diamond-fields was purchased by the Free State government at a cost of £15 533. A telegraph connection between Cape Town and Bloemfontein via Fauresmith was established on 5 April 1879, the Free State government bearing the cost of erecting the line over its territory.

On 19 Sept. 1879 the first telegraph line in the Transvaal reached Pretoria from Pietermaritzburg via Utrecht, Standerton and Heidelberg. Six years later the first internal line was built from Pretoria to Barberton, at that time the main town on the goldfields, and Potchefstroom was also connected. A telegraph office was established in Johannesburg in 1887, with a connection to Kimberley via Potchefstroom. In 1893 Pretoria was linked by telegraph to Lourenço Marques.

Telephone system

Before the introduction of a public telephone system a few firms and private persons in the Cape had private telephone lines to one another, i.e. without an exchange by means of which they could be connected to one another at will. By the end of 1880 there were 14 such telephones connected to private lines. The first place where a Post Office exchange was established was Port Elizabeth which opened with 20 subscribers in 1882; and two years later one was installed in Cape Town, opening with 50 subscribers. Thereafter exchanges were installed in East London (1887), Grahamstown (1895), and Kimberley, Queenstown and King Williams Town in 1897.

The first exchange in the Transvaal was opened in Pretoria in 1890. The apparatus was originally intended for Johannesburg, but at that tune there was not a sufficient number of applicants in the Golden City. Only four years later an exchange had to be provided there. It was located in the well-known Telephone Tower, a hexagonal building of three storeys situated in the heart of the city in Plein Square at the end of Joubert Street. Subscribers from Randfontein to Springs were served from this tower until 1907, when a new exchange was erected in Von Brandis Square. The trunk route between Johannesburg and Pretoria was taken into service in 1902. Expansion of the telegraph and telephone lines was suspended during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). It was only In 1907 that considerable expansion took place in the Transvaal telephone services, northwards to Pietersburg, in the west to Klerksdorp via Potchefstroom and to Zeerust via Rustenburg.

Although a telephone service was designed for Bloemfontein in 1894, only one private telephone could be installed in 1896, that between the Volks Hospital and the residence of Dr. B. O. Kellner. Mainly because of the outbreak of the war in 1899, nothing further was done until 1905, when the installation of a telephone exchange was commenced in Bloemfontein. The exchange was opened on 1 Feb. 1906, serving 150 subscribers. At this time country post offices within limited distances were con­nected telephonically to Bloemfontein by means of telegraph lines. Shortly before Union (1910) exchanges were opened at Kroonstad, Harrismith, Winburg and Brandfort.

The telephone was introduced in Durban about 1884 by George Ireland, who installed primitive instruments in a few offices in the city. In 1886 TN Price undertook to introduce a telephone system, and an exchange was installed with 12 subscribers. Three years later the Natal Telephone Company was formed, and on 1 Jan. 1902 it was taken over by the Durban city council. The telephone network in Durban remained a municipal undertaking until 1969, when it was taken over by the Post Office. As far as the rest of Natal is concerned, an instrument called the Phonopore was introduced in 1895. With this instrument it was possible to transmit a voice over a working telegraph wire.

The following year this system was used between a number of places, but only at fixed times when telegrams were not being transmitted. Originally there were two telephone exchanges in Pietermaritzburg, one of which belonged to a private company and the other to the postal authorities. In 1897 the two exchanges were amalgamated under State control. The trunk line between Durban and Pietermaritzburg was completed in 1897. In 1901 Estcourt was already linked to most of the coal-mines in Northern Natal. From 1905 rapid development of the telephone services took place, and in 1907 calls could be made between Natal and the Transvaal. After all the larger centres in the country had been linked by telephone, the smaller and remote places were gra­dually incorporated in the network, but in general the telephone service was limited to local calls and trunk traffic between larger exchanges within a distance of some 300 kilometres. The telegraph lines were chiefly used for the telephone, but it was evident that an efficient telephone service could only be pro­vided on trunk lines that were specially equipped.

Telecommunications (1910-1972) -Telephone Service

The greatest development took place in the field of telephone services. From a mere 13 650 telephones and 112 exchanges in 1910, the total grew to 1 659 387 telephones and 1939 exchanges in 1972. During the same period party-line services increased to 116 853. Before Union there were no trunk lines of any importance over long distances and in 1927 there were altogether only 198 trunk lines, as against a total of 25 504 in 1972, linking about 3 500 places.

Automatic switching

The first automatic telephone exchanges were installed at Camps Bay (Cape Town) and Waterkloof (Pretoria) in 1922. Subsequently automatic exchanges were opened at Overport (Durban) in 1923; Cambridge (East London, semi-automatic) in 1923; Rosebank and Parkview(Johannesburg) in 1924 and Port Elizabeth and Pietermaritzburg in 1925.In 1931 three new automatic exchanges were opened in the Eastern Province, at East London, Cape Road and Walmer. In 1932 six exchanges were opened on the Reef and in Jan. 1934 four exchanges in Cape Town. The automation programme continued to progress so that by March 1938, 40 automatic exchanges existed throughout the country. Because of the high costs involved it was only possible to extend the system to country districts at a much later stage. Although the first country automatic exchange was installed at KingWilliam’s Town in 1938, it was not until 196o with the installation of the Klerksdorp and Paarl exchanges, that the programme was taken up in earnest.In March 1971 there were 199 automatic telephone exchanges, serving approximately 80% of the telephone subscribers in the Republic. Regarding the automation of the trunk system the position has been reached where automatic dialling between all automatic areas, including automatic party lines throughout the country, is now possible.Displays of posting boxes, date stamps, photographs, furniture and fittings portray the history of posts as far back as 1501. In the absence of actual items, models are constructed. It is intended, too, to use modern equipment and working models to show the complexity and extent of modern communications in South Africa.

Source: Standard Encyclopedia of Southern Africa – Volume 9

The Catholic history of South Africa is written large upon its coastline. Such names as Cape Cross, Conception Bay, St. Helena Bay, St. Blaize, Santa Cruz, Natal and St. Lucia tell us immediately how very Catholic their origin and development have been. In the second half of the 15th century several expeditions travelled down the west coast, successive explorers going farther south each time. Wherever they landed a stone pillar (padrão) surmounted by a cross was blessed and erected on shore, and we may well surmise that mass was said by a priest who accompanied the ships. A small church was built at Mossel Bay by Joao da Nova in 1501.

Within the next quarter of a century Europe underwent the Reformation. Its effects extended across the seas and little more is heard of Catholicism at the Cape for many years. In 1651 the Dutch settled in Table Bay. They were extremely anti-Catholic, and their hostility was strengthened by the arrival of Huguenot refugees. In 1660 a French bishop, wrecked in Table Bay, was forbidden to say mass on shore. Six Jesuit Fathers landed in 1685 on an astronomical mission, but though they secretly did what they could to attend to the spiritual needs of the few Catholics, they tell us they were not allowed to offer up the Holy Sacrifice on shore and that the Catholics were not allowed to go on board to hear mass.

From 1686 the Catholic Church disappears from the pages of South African history until, on as July 1804, Commissioner-General J. A. de Mist announced religous toleration. The ordinance declared: `All religious societies, which for the furtherance of virtue and good morals worshipped an Almighty Being, are to enjoy in this colony equal protection from the laws’. At once priests came from the Netherlands -Father Joannes Lansink, Jacobus Nelissen and Lambertus Prinsen. A room in the Castle was put at their disposal so that they could say mass for Catholic soldiers. But the following year Sir David Baird ordered the Catholic priests to leave the colony. Ten years passed before another attempt was made to enable them to return.

Lord Charles Somerset informed the Vicar Apostolic of the London district that `all religious denominations are not only tolerated, but entitled to equal privileges in the Colony, according to the fundamental laws of the Batavian Republic, guaranteed to the inhabitants by the capitulation’. But it was two years before negotiations on the admittance of a resident priest at the Cape came to anything. Bishop Edward Slater, a Benedictine, was appointed Vicar Apostolic, but permission for him to reside in Cape Town was refused by the authorities in Downing Street and so his assignment was as Vicar Apostolic of Mauritius and the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived in Cape Town on New Year’s Day 1810, but stayed only three weeks. Leaving Fr. Edward Scully in charge, he continued his journey to Mauritius, never to return. Conditions were such that some of the congregation wished to run the Church on Presbyterian lines. Churchwardens sought to dictate to the priest and to control all business, money and properties. This state of affairs persisted for more than ten years, and in consequence no priest stayed longer than a year or two before leaving in disgust; yet under Scully the foundation-stone of a small church in Harrington Street was laid on 28th October 1822. But the materials used were bad, repairs had to be effected even before the building was completed, and in the torrential storms of 1837 it was almost completely washed away.

On 24th August 1837 Mgr. Patrick Raymund Griffith, an Irish Dominican, was consecrated in Dublin as Bishop of Palaeopolis and Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived in Table Bay on Holy Saturday, 14 April 183 8, along with two other priests, Fathers Burke, O.F.M., and George Corcoran, O.P. Bishop Griffith’s territory stretched from Table Bay to Algoa Bay, from where he journeyed by ox-wagon to Grahamstown, taking seven days. Leaving Burke in charge, Griffith returned to Cape Town on horseback. There were only some 700 Catholics in and around the town, and his funds were meagre. He set up a school, appointing Dr. Aidan Devereux, who had followed him from Ireland, as principal. The barracks in the Castle, where a room had been put at his disposal, would not serve indefinitely as a church, and so he negotiated the purchase of the site on which St. Mary’s Convent and the Bishop’s House stands today, at the foot of Hope Street. All available funds were used in the building of St. Mary’s Cathedral.

On the recommendation of Bishop Griffith, the Holy See subdivided his vast territory. Dr. Devereux was appointed Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern Districts and took up residence at Grahamstown in 1848. Realising the importance of Catholic education, Devereux set out for Europe to obtain nuns for his mission field. At his urging, Pope Pius IX established yet another ecclesiastical division to the north, where Natal was gaining in importance. The care of the new territory was entrusted to the religious congregation of Mary Immaculate, thus ensuring financial support and continuity in personnel. In Paris, Devereux obtained permission for the missionary sisters of the Assumption to come and work in Grahamstown. There Mother Gertrude, familiarly known as ‘Notre Mere’, and her little band of six nuns opened South Africa’s first convent and a school in Jan. 1850. Three Belgian priests accompanied the Bishop and the pioneer nuns, enabling resident priests to be appointed at Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort, and also travelling priests were sent to the outer districts. Fr. Van Cauwelaert went to Graaff-Reinet, Fr. J. J. de Sany to Cradock and Fr. Petrus Hoendervangers undertook the districts of Bedford, Richmond and beyond.

So Catholicism in South Africa at that time meant one bishop and two or three priests in Cape Town, George and Swellendam; a bishop in Grahamstown, and along with him Fr. Thomas Murphy, who a few months later was the first priest to visit Natal. At Fort Beaufort there were 90 Catholics; Fort Hare and Alice had 100 each; King William’s Town, Fort Grey and Fort Peddie 40 each; East London 30. Port Elizabeth, which had begun with only two Catholic families, now had two resident priests and 500 Catholics. At Uitenhage there were 80 Catholics, and in the wide territory served by Fr. Hoendervangers, Somerset East had 70, Richmond 20, Burgersdorp 50, Aliwal North 25, and Colesberg 20. In the garrison town of Bloemfontein, where he settled in 1851, there were about 70 Catholics.
In March 1852 the first band of oblates of Mary Immaculate arrived in Natal under Bishop J. F. Allard, O.M.I. The area entrusted to them stretched from the Great Kei River in the south to Quelimane in the north, and for this vast territory there were only five priests. They began at Pietermaritzburg, and Fr. J. B. Sabon, receiving the sum of £30 from his bishop, was sent to found the mission of Durban. Ten years later the first oblate missionaries crossed the Drakensberg from Pietermaritzburg into Basutoland and were joined in 1864 by the Sisters of the Holy Family, the pioneer nuns among the African people.

When diamonds were found on the Vaal River, the oblate Father Anatole Hidien went from Basutoland to the diggers’ camps round what is now Kimberley. The year 1874 saw the finding of gold at Pilgrim’s Rest, and Fr. Andrew Walshe, O.M.L, was sent there the following year by Bishop Charles Jolivet, O.M.I. (who had succeeded Allard), from Natal. Freedom of Catholic worship was granted in the Transvaal Republic in 1870, and thereafter priests settled at Potchefstroom and Pretoria.

The Catholic Church in South Africa owes much to the vision and zeal of Bishop J. D. Ricards, third Vicar Apostolic of the Eastern vicariate, who, in 1879, brought the Jesuit Fathers, not only to staff his school of St. Aidan’s in Grahamstown, but also to be the pioneers of the faith in Mashonaland. The Dominican sisters of King William’s Town – also brought by Bishop Ricards – joined the Pioneer Column in 1890, and by their devotion to duty and care of the sick have earned an honoured name. To Ricards we also owe the coming of the Trappists under Fr. (later Abbot) Francis Pfanner in 1879. He felt that if any effective missionary work was to be done among the non-European peoples, they would first have to be taught, not merely by word, but by the more effective force of example, the dignity of labour. Today Mariannhill with its cathedral church, round which are grouped many other ecclesiastical and educational buildings, is a show-place of Catholic mission work, and we find the spiritual sons of Francis Pfanner in the dioceses of Mariannhill, Umtata and Bulawayo as well as in countries overseas.

In 1886 a milestone was reached when Pope Leo XIII agreed to Bishop Jolivet’s recommendation and separated the diamond-fields and Basutoland to be a third vicariate under Bishop Anthony Gaughren, O.M.L, making the Transvaal a prefecture under Fr. Odilon Monginoux, O.M.I. About this time also the oblates of St. Francis of Sales began pioneer work in Namaqualand, where within a few decades Bishop Jean-Marie Simon of Pella made the desert blossom forth both materially and spiritually. Meanwhile Fr. Aloysius Schoch, O.M.L, the successor of Fr. Monginoux, was sent as the representative of Church and government to visit Cimbebasia, Windhoek and South-West Africa of today. As a result of his report this territory was also confided to the oblates of Mary Immaculate. Diamonds and gold and all the industrial development which followed brought a great increase in population, with an impetus in the sphere of education. The nuns of the Assumption, who had been the pioneers in 1849, were followed by the Irish Dominican sisters in Cape Town (1863) and Port Elizabeth (1867), by the Holy Family (Loreto) (1864), the pioneers in the Transvaal (1877), Dominican sisters of King William’s Town (also in 1877), including the separate branches at Oakford (1889), Salisbury (1890) and Newcastle (1896), Nazareth sisters (Cape Town) and Holy Cross in Umtata (1883), oblate Sisters of St. Francis (1884) and Precious Blood Sisters (1885). In the last decade of the century the Augustinians (1892), Ursulines (1895), Sisters of Mercy (1897) and Notre Dame in Rhodesia (1899) joined the increasing number of sisterhoods in the work of education, hospitals, and the care of the old and infirm and of orphans. In fifty years the numbers had increased from one congregation of nuns to seventeen. To these must be added the arrival of the Marist Brothers (1867) and the Christian Brothers (1897) for the education of youth.
The outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War in 1899 brought a severe set-back in practically all spheres of missionary labour. Apart from the fact that the missionaries, few in number, joined up as army chaplains, and the flow of priests from overseas was interrupted, the general work in town and country was upset. Plans for more intense development came after Union in 1910. The Benedictine Fathers took over the northern part of the Transvaal and the Servite Fathers came to help in Swaziland in 1913. The great majority of priests, brothers and nuns who were then working in South Africa were from oversea countries. So when the First World War broke out in 194, the mission field everywhere suffered and once more the ranks were depleted by the need for army chaplains.

Another important milestone was the establishment of the Apostolic Delegation of Southern Africa on 7th December 1922, and the following day Archbishop Bernard J. Gijlswijk, O.P., was consecrated in Rome. He chose Bloemfontein as the most central place for his residence. New vicariates and prefectures were established, and four new congregations of priests arrived. There was not only expansion, but also an intensification of missionary work. Priests were given the opportunity to learn the native languages and to devote themselves solely to work among non-Europeans. South African priests were trained for work among their own people. Seminaries were set up for the training of European and non-European students, and a son of South Africa was raised to the dignity of the episcopate when David O’Leary, O.M.L, was consecrated as bishop for the Transvaal in September 1925, followed a few months later by Bishop Bernard O’Riley in Cape Town.

During all this time the yearly increase in priests and religious was remarkable. From just over 300 priests in 1921, the number grew to over 4000 by 1936. Religious brothers and nuns doubled to over 4000 during the same period. In Basutoland progress was particularly noticeable. When the first oblates founded a mission there in 1862, they were a long way behind the Protestant missionaries who had established themselves thirty years earlier. Yet today Lesotho is the most fruitful of the Catholic mission fields in Southern Africa. The Canadian oblates took the work under their wing during the early thirties; priests and religious increased enormously; and when in October 1937 the 75th anniversary of the foundation was celebrated at Roma, there were over 3000 communicants each morning during the novena.

In 1962, the Church in Basutoland, which is organised under an archbishop at Maseru and bishops at Leribe and Qacha’s Nek, celebrated its centenary. Archbishop Emanuel Mabathoana, O.M.L, is the great-grandson of Moshesh.
Catholic schools, primary and secondary, throughout South Africa are noted for their examination successes as well as for their moral and character training. As in many countries abroad, Catholics are penalised by having to pay twice for education in most parts of South Africa. Whether it be in the day schools or night classes conducted by the first priests in the Eastern and Western Cape and Natal, or in the first convent schools in the diamond and goldfields, the Church has been the pioneer in education. The Sisterhoods stepped in to meet the need for the care of orphans and the destitute.

Archbishop Gijlswijk’s successor in 1945 was Mgr. H. M. Lucas, S.V.D. Since then several new ecclesiastical territories have been established and new bishops appointed. Since Bishop E. Slater, O.S.B., was consecrated m 1818 there have been (to 1973) 94 bishops in Southern Africa. The transfer of the Apostolic Delegate’s residence from Bloemfontein to Pretoria ensured that he was in immediate touch with the authorities to deal with matters of urgency. Questions of Bantu policy, education, etc. arose frequently and demanded an ever watchful eye. An achievement of Archbishop Lucas’s period was the building in Pretoria of a national seminary for the secular clergy, while a similar one was erected in Natal for African (native) students. The latter has since been moved to Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.

Archbishop Lucas was succeeded in 1953 by Archbishop C. J. Damiano, followed in 1961 by Archbishop F. McGeough, by Archbishop John Gordon in 1967, and by Archbishop Alfredo Polendrini, who is also pro-nuncio to Lesotho, in 1972. The Roman Catholic population of the Republic, the former Protectorates and South-West Africa was as follows in 1971: White, 165 500; non-White, 1 971488; priests, 1909; brothers, 853; sisters, 6568, from 64 different sisterhoods.

Nine South Africans have been elevated to the espiscopate. By 1971 over 200 sons of South Africa had received the priesthood and over 800 women had entered the religious life. These numbers include Whites, Coloured people and Africans.
Cathedrals
When Bishop P. R. Griffith, O.P., arrived in 1838 as the first resident Roman Catholic bishop in the Cape, he acquired a site at the top of Plein Street – Tanners’ Square – and began the building of St. Mary’s Cathedral in 1841. Completed ten years later, it is the mother church of Catholics in South Africa. (See St. Mary’s Cathedral). In striking contrast, Johannesburg, the City of Gold, was not able to build its cathedral until 1960. The influx of diggers and the subsequent expansion of the town had been so rapid that the need was for a number of small churches rather than a large cathedral. In time a central site was purchased, and the present Cathedral of Christ the King was built in Saratoga Avenue. (See Christ the King, Cathedral of.) In Durban, where the cathedral was built in 1903, commercial buildings have risen round it, and with the Indian market near by, the site has become unfit.

Financier, merchant, civil servant and author. Born in Coventry 2nd July 1758 and died in Cape Town 19th April 1836. He was a cousin of the philanthropist William Wilberforce and he too was greatly interested in the well-being of slaves. He came to the Cape in 1807 and was the founder of the Cape Philanthropic Society. He had a share in the import and export trade, especially with St. Helena and Mauritius, carrying his cargo in his own ships. In 1810  he joined the Cape civil service as Controller of Customs and remained in that position to his death. He became a confidant of Lord Charles Somerset but never a subservient 'yes'-man. Bird had a fair knowledge of law and assisted in drawing up the Colony's game laws. It is claimed that he suggested the name 'St. George's Cathedral' for the first English church in Southern Africa. His memorial can be seen in the church. His comprehensive book, The State of the Cape of Good Hope in 1822, was written anonymously. It covers in detail the system of government at the Cape, the law courts, the burgher senate, registration of slaves, agriculture, trade and the customs of the population. He was highly critical of the way in which such ceremonies as weddings and funerals were conducted. Bird served on several bodies because of his knowledge of finance and management which was rare in such a small community.