Boer History1827 at the Cape of Good Hope: Bourke, the Charter of Justice, Goderich, and the Advertiser
Canning, Goderich, and Somerset’s Resignation — April 1827
Major-General Richard Bourke was still only lieutenant-governor. He had reached Table Bay in the ship-of-war Rainbow on the 8th of February 1826 and had taken the oaths on the 5th of March, the day Lord Charles Henry Somerset embarked in the East India Company’s ship Atlas with his wife and eldest daughter. Somerset had governed the Cape since 6 April 1814. He left the rest of his family at the Cape because he expected to return. That expectation ended in April of this year. Bourke had been named for an eastern province that did not yet exist; once Somerset sailed, he administered the whole colony. The acting chair mattered because every order from Capetown this year would be signed by a soldier who was not governor in chief, and because the Beaufort who still held the title was about to give it up. [3] [4]
In April Mr. Canning succeeded the earl of Liverpool, who had been premier nearly fifteen years, and Earl Bathurst, so long secretary of state for the colonies, was replaced by Viscount Goderich. Somerset immediately tendered his resignation as governor of the Cape Colony, and it was accepted. The change of seals settled the question of his return. Then there was a series of short-lived ministries in England. Canning died, and in August Viscount Goderich became premier and Mr. Huskisson secretary for the colonies. The colony still used the paper rixdollar that the Treasury, after repeated petitions, had confirmed at eighteen pence. The resignation mattered because a lieutenant-governor now governed for a Beaufort who would not come back, and because the colonial office that had protected Somerset for years was no longer Bathurst’s. [3] [4]
The directors of the London society had, on the 22nd of January, laid before Bathurst a memorial drawn from the reverend Dr. John Philip’s report on the condition of the Khoikhoi and their grievances against the colonial government. They appealed for assistance and relief which, they said, could not be obtained at the Cape. Philip had left Capetown in January 1826 laden with the results of his researches and had reached London in April of that year. The memorial of the 22nd of January was the form in which those researches first reached the colonial office in this calendar. It mattered because a missionary superintendent was putting Khoikhoi grievances on Bathurst’s table in the last weeks of that secretary’s long tenure, and because the next holder of the seals would inherit the file. [4]
The Charter of Justice — 24 August 1827
From 1806 to this year the judges at the Cape were appointed by the governor and were removable at his pleasure. All except the chief justice held other situations in the service, and had the position of judges assigned to them as a mark of favour or to increase their salaries. The court of appeal consisted of the governor himself, assisted in criminal cases by one or two assessors. Occasionally decisions were reviewed in England and recognised there as in accordance with justice, but the constitution of the courts subjected their proceedings to adverse criticism by those against whom judgment was given. They might do what was right; they could not command the respect of every one. The reports of the commissioners of inquiry and the discussions in the house of commons upon Somerset’s administration alike tended to show the necessity of a high court independent of the castle. That is why Canning’s ministry caused a charter of justice to be prepared. [3]
The charter received the signature of the king on the 24th of August. It provided for a supreme court independent of the other branches of the government, to consist of a chief justice and three puisne judges, all of whom were to be barristers or advocates of at least three years’ standing. They were to be appointed by the crown and were not to hold any other office. In civil cases the chief justice and two puisne judges were to form a quorum, with a right of appeal to the privy council if the matter in dispute was over 1000 pounds in value. Criminal cases were to be tried by a single judge and a jury of nine men, whose verdict was to be unanimous in order to convict. The forms of procedure were to be those of English courts, and the pleas were to be in the English language. The ancient law — Roman-Dutch — was still to be administered. The signature mattered because, for the first time since the second British occupation, the colony was promised a bench that the governor could not pack or dismiss, while the law those judges would apply remained the old Dutch law of the Cape. [3] [4]
Circuit courts were to be held twice a year in the chief villages throughout the colony. In them civil cases were to be tried by a single judge, with appeal to the supreme court when the amount in dispute was over 100 pounds. Criminal cases on circuit were to be tried by a judge and a jury of not less than six nor more than nine persons. The office of fiscal was abolished and an attorney-general substituted, with a salary of 1500 pounds a year. The other officers of the new court were a registrar at 600 pounds, a master at 800, and a sheriff at 600. Sir John Wylde received the appointment of chief justice, with a salary of 2500 pounds a year, and Messrs. William Menzies, William Westbrooke Burton, and George Kekewich were appointed puisne judges, each at 1500 pounds. Mr. Anthony Oliphant was appointed attorney-general, Mr. Pieter Gerhard Brink sheriff, Mr. Clerke Burton master, and Mr. J. F. Jurgens registrar, succeeded after a few weeks by Mr. Thomas Henry Bowles. The last three appointments were made by the secretary of state upon the recommendation of the governor. Appointments made in England included Bowles as registrar and Mr. T. Lawson as magistrate of Grahamstown. The names mattered because the new court would not sit until the 1st of January following: this year wrote a list and salaries, not yet a sitting bench. [3] [4]
The charter also looked beyond Capetown. For the landdrosts and heemraden, resident magistrates were to be substituted to perform the judicial duties, and civil commissioners to perform all other. Resident magistrates were to try civil cases not exceeding 10 pounds, with appeal to the circuit court over 2 pounds, and in criminal cases could fine 5 pounds, imprison for one month, or flog within the jail. They were required to hold a court twice every week, in English. The colony was to be divided into two provinces, termed the western and the eastern — the west the Cape, Simonstown, Stellenbosch, Swellendam, and Worcester; the east Beaufort, Graaff-Reinet, Somerset, Albany, Uitenhage, and George — not as two governments with two councils, but as a map for seven civil commissioners each at 400 pounds a year. For the east a commissioner-general was to control inferior officers where delay of a reference to Capetown would be prejudicial, and under the governor’s directions to exercise special superintendence over the border. Captain Andries Stockenstrom was chosen for that office, to reside at Uitenhage, at 800 pounds a year. The burgher senate, in existence since 1796, was to be abolished and its revenues diverted to the treasury. District revenues were to be transferred to the colonial treasury, the government taking upon itself all the obligations of the boards of landdrost and heemraden. All these changes were to come into force on the 1st of January following. The map mattered because the east was to lose its boards of heemraden without gaining the separate government promised in 1825, and because English on the bench would replace Dutch in the drostdy courts. [3] [4]
The Eastern Province Abandoned — 14 June 1827
Another recommendation of the commissioners of inquiry, adopted by the ministry of the earl of Liverpool, had been that the colony should be divided into two provinces of nearly equal extent, the east with a distinct government and a council of its own. On the 20th of August 1825 Bathurst had announced that Bourke, with a salary of 3600 pounds a year, would assume the administration of the eastern province as soon as it should be formed, in direct communication with the secretary of state, Somerset remaining governor in chief in the west. The design was not carried out, because early in 1826 Somerset left the colony. On the 14th of June of this year a despatch was written by the secretary of state announcing that the design was abandoned: such a system of two governments nearly independent of each other was considered much too expensive. Toward the end of the year, when some of the proposed changes were made known, it was learned that on the grounds of expense there was to be no separate government in the east, though a superior magistrate with the title of commissioner-general was to be appointed. The despatch mattered because Albany settlers who had asked for a government of their own were to remain under Capetown, and because Bourke, named for the east, would stay acting for the whole. [3] [4]
To compensate for the abolition of the popular boards, Goderich deprived two of the official members of their seats in the council of advice and directed the acting governor to nominate in their stead two colonists for his approval. Bourke proposed Sir John Truter, the chief justice who would retire on the establishment of the supreme court, and Stockenstrom, both of whom were confirmed by the secretary of state. The council then consisted of Chief Justice Sir John Wylde, the military officer next in rank to the commander-in-chief, Mr. Joachim Willem Stoll, who retained his appointment of treasurer and accountant-general at 1000 pounds a year, Lieutenant-Colonel John Bell, who in this year succeeded Sir Richard Flasket as secretary to government at 2000 pounds a year, Truter, and Stockenstrom. A few months later the secretary of state deprived the chief justice of his seat, and thereafter the council consisted of five members. The offices of auditor-general and clerk of the council were combined. Mr. Dudley Montagu Perceval was appointed to fill them, at 1000 pounds a year. The only other compensation was the conferring of justice of the peace upon a few colonists in all the districts, but very little power was attached to the office. The seats mattered because two colonists on a closed council were offered in place of the heemraden boards that were about to go, and because a justice of the peace with almost no power was the rest of the bargain. [3] [4]
These sweeping changes were received by the colonists almost in silence. Everyone admitted that an independent supreme court was preferable to such a court as had previously existed; but the abolition of the boards of heemraden and of the burgher senate, and above all the substitution of English for Dutch in judicial proceedings, gave very great offence. The people of Graaff-Reinet were, Stockenstrom told, as surly as bears, and Bourke himself thought the commissioners had interfered in matters which would have been better left alone. Of those who withdrew from public life at this juncture were the fiscal, Dr. D. Denyssen, and Colonel Cuyler. Neither was treated very handsomely on resigning offices held for many years. The offence mattered because Dutch-speaking districts were about to lose the boards that had tried their cases in their own language, and because the first talk of finding a refuge beyond British authority was already being heard. [3] [4]
In addition Goderich decided upon reducing the salaries of the governor and several heads of departments. Thereafter the governor was to receive 7000 pounds a year, with the official residence in Capetown and an allowance of 500 pounds a year to provide himself with a country house. The collector of customs was to have 1000, the controller of customs 700, and the surveyor-general 700. The office of surveyor-general was united with that of civil engineer and superintendent of works. Major Charles Cornwallis Michell was appointed to it, though he did not arrive in South Africa until a later calendar. The reductions mattered because the same economy that cancelled a second government in the east was now cutting the governor’s pay and folding the surveyor’s office into the engineer’s. [3]
The Advertiser Suppressed and Fairbairn in London — May–June 1827
The position of the press in the colony was still very precarious. By Bathurst’s instructions the South African Commercial Advertiser was being published under a license from the governor in council, which could be cancelled at any time. The rival newspaper had ceased to exist. On the 24th of May 1826 an extract from the London Times had appeared in the Advertiser, relating to an official of the Cape government who had appropriated public money and who was alleged to have been very harshly treated by Somerset. To an ordinary reader there was nothing to show that the extract was not an original article. It came to Somerset’s eye in London, who directed Bathurst’s attention to it and produced original documents showing it to be incorrect. Bathurst, sharing the late governor’s opinion, sent a despatch dated the 3rd of December 1826 instructing Bourke to cancel Greig’s license. The despatch was received in May of this year, and thus on the 10th of May the Commercial Advertiser was, for the second time, suppressed. The suppression mattered because the only newspaper that dared to give vent to public opinion was stopped by an order written in London before Bathurst left the seals, and executed in Capetown after he had gone. [3] [4]
The suppression happened most inopportunely. At the beginning of this year the colonial public mind was agitated, partly by an increased want of confidence in the commissioners of inquiry, to which some unfortunate mistakes in their report on the Bishop Burnett case had given rise, and partly on account of the final decision of the Treasury, which, after repeated petitions and appeals to the contrary, had confirmed the rixdollar at eighteen pence. Two days after Greig received the order he put forth a handbill stating his intention to issue a sheet of advertisements. He wrote to the secretary to government asking whether it would require to be stamped, and was told he must not carry out his project before obtaining a license. On the 13th of May he waited upon Bourke with the proof of his intended paper, which he proposed to publish twice a week. The acting governor informed him that he must make a regular application for a license, which would be granted provided he would engage that the paper should contain neither political discussion nor private scandal, but advertisements only. Greig declined to make the application, and did not issue the proposed sheet. On the same day a memorial signed by many of the principal merchants in Capetown requested leave to hold a public meeting on the suppression. Bourke submitted the memorial to the council, by whose advice he declined to grant the permission requested. The refusal mattered because Capetown could neither print an advertisement sheet nor meet in public to discuss why the press had gone dark. [3] [4]
Mr. Fairbairn, the editor of the paper, then proceeded to England to endeavour to have the press liberated from the control of the executive and made subject only to the courts of law. Bourke was in favour of this measure and wrote to Bathurst recommending a free press with a law of libel. The proposed mission aroused the utmost enthusiasm in Capetown: a numerously signed address was presented to Fairbairn by the leading people, and he was made an honorary member of the Commercial Exchange. He arrived in London in the first week of June, when he found that Bathurst was no longer in office and that Goderich had become secretary of state for the colonies. To that nobleman he addressed himself, and on the 11th of June, following the precedent of Burnett and others, he published a pamphlet entitled A Paper Explaining the Causes of Lord Bathurst’s last Interference with the Press at the Cape of Good Hope. The mission mattered because the editor of a silenced paper was now in London with a pamphlet, and because the acting governor at the Cape had already written that a free press with a law of libel was the better course. [3] [4]
Goderich was moved by the representations and showed a disposition to remove the irritating restrictions. He was of opinion that in proportion as English habits and feelings became more predominant at the Cape, more freedom in regard to the press would be sought for, and that until it was obtained a continual conflict with the government would be maintained by those whose inclinations and talents were directed to that end. He gave little effect to this opinion, however, as he so soon vacated the office. None of the successive secretaries of state before a later holder of the seals would consent to modify the system under which periodical journals could be published at the Cape. What hung on the summer in London was therefore not a third start of the Advertiser but a dark press at Longmarket Street, a handbill, an editor with a pamphlet of the 11th of June, and a colonial office that would not yet let the courts, rather than the governor, decide what might be printed. [3] [4]
Donkin’s Letter and the Commons — April–June 1827
During a period of five years a desultory correspondence on Cape affairs had been maintained by the colonial office with Sir Rufane Donkin, the general tenor of which was a comparison, to his disadvantage, of his measures with those of Somerset. Donkin had administered the Cape from 1820 to 1821 while Somerset was in England, and had never been given a personal hearing to defend what he had done. He solicited a personal interview with Bathurst but was refused, so considering that a fair hearing had been persistently denied him he decided to appeal to the public. “The time has now come,” he wrote on the 2nd of April, “at which I am determined to do justice to myself.” Accordingly on the 6th of April a pamphlet of 180 pages appeared — a letter to Bathurst with annexures, written in temperate language. As much of it was based on information supplied by correspondence with Colonel Bird, who had not expected that information to appear in public print, Bird also published Observations on the Letter addressed by Sir Rufane Donkin to Earl Bathurst on April 6th, 1827, a pamphlet of 32 pages printed at Capetown, which retraced for the most part the matters dealt with by Donkin and corroborated them. A bystander’s Cursory remarks of 56 pages was printed at Capetown in the same year. The pamphlets mattered because an acting governor whom Bathurst would not see was now putting his case in print, and because the colonial secretary Somerset had dismissed was confirming it from Capetown. [3] [4]
The publication of Donkin’s pamphlet and the multitude of comments in the press which it drew forth again brought the administration of the Cape before parliament. A long debate took place on the 17th of May. Mr. Wilmot Horton called for the production of all the correspondence between Donkin and the colonial office, and moved that the reports of the commissioners of inquiry should be laid upon the table, which was agreed to. Donkin was defended by Messrs. Maberly and Hume, who thought that as it was now four years since Donkin had mentioned his disclosures and no inquiry had taken place, the pamphlet was not uncalled for. The return to the address of the 17th of May was printed at London this year in 101 pages. The reports of the commissioners upon the administration of the government and the finances at the Cape were printed at London this year in 83 pages. On the 8th of June a petition was presented to the house of commons signed by 1600 “of the most respectable inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope complaining of the maladministration of the affairs of the Colony for some years past.” A separate petition of this year prayed the commons for a representative assembly; little or no consideration was accorded to it. The argument against a free legislature was that it would set British against Dutch and lead to the oppression of slaves and Khoikhoi. The papers mattered because the house now had the commissioners’ reports on the table and a Cape petition whose numbers it could read, but still no assembly. [3] [4] [4]
The last and what was to have been the most important of these debates was noticed on the 20th of June and came on for discussion on the 29th of June. Mr. Lombe, the member for Arundel, had given notice of a motion which was to have been, practically, an impeachment of Somerset and a compliance at length with the demand for definite charges. On the night of the debate Lombe’s courage failed him, for he did not appear in the house. It was two years since Burnett’s petition had first been presented, and all this time charges which nobody would undertake to bring forward in a regular manner had been hanging over the governor. By the 29th of June everybody was weary of the subject, and new events were occupying all minds. The resignation of the governor was accepted by most people as having done away with the necessity for further investigation. The empty seat mattered because the Cape’s case in the commons ended not with a trial but with a resignation already accepted and a mover who did not come. [3] [4]
William Edwards, upon reaching New South Wales, was recognised as an escaped convict whose true name was Alexander Lockaye, and the strong feeling which his case had called forth at once subsided. The report of the commissioners of inquiry upon Burnett’s case was entirely in Somerset’s favour. Mr. Brougham himself prevented debate by a short speech, in which he informed the commons that, having been retained in a case that came before the privy council, he had found the most serious charge made by Burnett against the governor — that of taking a sum of money in an indirect manner by the sale of a horse for giving a decision as judge of the court of appeal — was utterly groundless. The governor’s decision was actually against the man who had purchased the horse from him. After Brougham a few members spoke, generally in favour of acquitting the governor of personal corruption; but there was no life in the debate, and it ended. Toward the end of this year Mr. D’Escury sailed for England but died at sea. Three weeks later the ship was wrecked off the coast of Kent; his wife and children were saved and after a time were relieved by a small pension. The close of the charges mattered because the attorney whose libels had shaken the castle was now known as a convict under another name, and because the horse story that had been used as impeachment material was withdrawn by the member who had first spoken of impeachment. [3] [4]
The Fetcani Scare and the Frontier — July–August 1827
Approving of the measures of his predecessors in establishing the fair at Fort Willshire, Bourke decided to increase the facilities for commerce by opening fairs in other parts. In January a weekly fair was started at a spot in the Neutral Territory near the Chumie river, about twenty miles south of Fort Willshire, and an attempt was made to establish one among the San at Torenberg. The latter soon came to nothing. The former lasted about two years but was never very successful: the produce obtained during the whole of that time scarcely exceeded 2000 lb. of ivory, of approximate value of 300 pounds. During the early part of this year nothing was heard of the Fetcani and the scare of the previous calendar had almost passed out of memory. The fairs mattered because Bourke was trying to trade rather than patrol across the Keiskamma, and because the unknown horde that had emptied Stormberg farms in 1826 seemed, for a few months, to have gone. [4]
On the 26th of July the reverend Mr. Brownlee, the missionary at Buffalo River, wrote that the Xhosa had been very troublesome of late in the colony, that those along the coast were much concerned in the depredations, that some chiefs were deeply implicated, and that there had been a great increase in the Neutral Territory both over the Keiskamma and the Chumie, with some kraals far over the boundary assigned by the commandant, along the Albany frontier or near the banks of the Fish. It was not until this year that the colonists came in contact with the Thembu beyond the Xhosa, in the district between the Bashee and Umtata rivers. In July a Wesleyan station named Butterworth was founded among the Gcaleka. The letter mattered because kraals over the Fish meant the ceded strip was filling again, and because the colony’s first contact with the Thembu opened a country the Cape had not yet mapped as a neighbour. [3] [3] [4]
Then the most alarming accounts poured into the colony from panic-stricken parts of the native territories. There could be no doubt but that the Fetcani were advancing from the Zwart Kei toward the Chumie and that the Xhosa were moving toward the colony. The Fetcani, as the colony continued to call these Masotho and Amangwane under the great chiefs Maketa and Matiwane, had heard that the Thembu had cattle and so marauding commandos went forth. Colonel Somerset and Major Dundas took immediate steps for placing the country in a state of defence. The troops at Hermanus Kraal (Fort Brown) and at the post on the Fish, consisting of the Khoikhoi corps and some of the 55th Regiment, were to be in readiness to march at a moment’s notice; the field-cornet Meyers was to collect a burgher force; and Captain Osmond issued instructions to the nearest Xhosa chiefs that in the event of being compelled to retreat before the advancing host they were to concentrate at Fort Beaufort. Dundas instructed the field-cornet of Bathurst, W. Currie, to call out on commando duty the British settlers, or those of them who could be spared. Burghers went on commando this year into Xhosa country to defend the Xhosa against the inroads of the Fetcani. The call-out mattered because Boers and 1820 settlers were being armed not against the Xhosa this time but to keep an inland horde from driving the Xhosa across the Fish. [4] [4]
Parties of forty to sixty Boers occupied a line from the Orange along the Stormberg Spruit to the Klaas Smits river, while smaller parties held positions from Groene Nek to the Mancazana. At Riet River, where Colonel Somerset established his temporary headquarters, there was a force of 200 infantry and 100 cavalry; thirty infantry and a small mounted force were at Fort Willshire, forty-five infantry at the Fish post, and a detachment of the 55th and a force of the Cape cavalry and infantry at Grahamstown were ready to move at any moment. It was his intention further to call out an army of Xhosa and to place them under the command of Maqomo. By means of spies it was discovered that the Fetcani had moved to the Thorn River under the Windvogel Berg, about eighteen miles from the Chumie, where they had plundered a Xhosa village and secured all the cattle. Everything was ready for a combined movement toward the Windvogel Berg when, on the 31st of August, spies returned with word that made the movement unnecessary. The Fetcani retired. The retirement mattered because a line of burghers from the Orange to Klaas Smits had been drawn for an enemy who turned back before the column marched, and because Maqomo remained in the Amatolas with Xhosa congregating on ground Colonel Somerset thought it necessary to watch. [4]
Maqomo was safely ensconced in the fastnesses of the Amatola mountains. Bourke visited the assembled Xhosa chiefs at Fort Beaufort and endeavoured to impress upon them the necessity of making a bold stand against invaders from the north-east, as in the event of repulse they could not be permitted to take refuge in the colony. The lieutenant-governor then returned to Capetown. The frontier outlook at the end of this year was not very propitious. North of the Orange, Adam Kok’s people held Philippolis as capital in this calendar, on the stretch from Bethulie to Ramah. Farther north the country that had already been swept by the Mantatees was, about this year, left desolate by the Matabele hosts in the Marico. In the mountain land Moshesh conducted expeditions against the Batlokua and the Amahlubi, and from all parts of the mountain land men came to Thaba Bosigo to join him. The interior mattered because a Griqua captain sat at Philippolis without a Cape grant, because the Marico was being emptied, and because men were gathering to Moshesh on a mountain the colony had not yet had to treat with. [3] [4] [7]
Groote Post, the Cape Corps, and the Scotch Church — October–December 1827
Instructions had previously been issued that the estate Groote Post should be disposed of, and in October that property was divided into seven farms, which were leased by auction for seventeen years. Orders were now sent out that the estates at Newlands and Camp’s Bay should be disposed of for the benefit of the colonial treasury. The sales mattered because land that had stood as security for the paper rixdollar was being turned into rent for the treasury, and because the governor was no longer to keep a country house at the public charge beyond the 500 pounds a year now allowed him. [3]
Unfortunately for the safety of the colony at this time, the military force was greatly reduced in November. The system of impressment for the Cape regiment had long since ceased, and the regiment itself was greatly reduced in strength when the cavalry companies were disbanded and the infantry were turned into a corps termed the Cape mounted riflemen. In order to relieve the embarrassed state of the colonial finances the commissioners of inquiry had, on the 14th of June 1826, recommended the reduction of the cavalry of the Cape Corps, whereby the annual cost of 28088 pounds would be reduced to 21143. Bathurst, however, decided it would be better to disband the corps altogether and to replace it by a regular regiment from England. Matters were delayed in consequence of the intended regiment being required for service in Portugal. In the end the cavalry went and the infantry remained under a new name. Maqomo and his people were very quiet in the regions they had occupied in the Kat river district, which was not altogether a source of satisfaction to the frontier authorities, for it had not escaped notice that Xhosa in large numbers were congregating in those parts on which Colonel Somerset thought it necessary to keep a watchful eye. The disbandment mattered because the mounted Khoikhoi companies that had ridden the Fish were gone in the same season as a Fetcani scare, and because the infantry who remained were fewer, under a new name, while Maqomo sat quiet in the Kat. [3] [4]
Most of the old fortifications had become useless through recent improvements in artillery, and in this year the imperial authorities resolved to dismantle some and remove others. Those condemned as not worth maintaining were the redoubt Kyk-in-de-Pot and the whole of the fortifications and lines along the beach between the castle and Craig’s tower, except Fort Knokke. Most of these structures had been familiar to the oldest residents from childhood. Orders were at the same time issued that the barrack at Muizenburg and the batteries at Camp’s Bay, Three Anchor Bay, Hout Bay, and Mouille Point should be dismantled. On the 16th of July instructions were issued by the secretary of state that no foreign country was to be deemed to have fulfilled the conditions of reciprocal trade unless the fact had been formally recognised. An ordinance of the 7th of December confirmed the ancient auction dues: four per cent. on auction sales of movable property and two per cent. on auction sales of land. The dismantling mattered because the beach lines that had faced a hostile roadstead were being pulled down in a year of retrenchment, while auction dues were nailed in an ordinance so that the treasury should not lose that old percentage. [3] [3]
On the 24th of October the foundation stone of the Scotch church on St. Andrew’s square was laid by Bourke. The reverend Dr. James Adamson arrived from Scotland on the 11th of November as minister of that church, when the Lutheran congregation kindly gave the use of their church to hold service in until the building then just commenced should be completed. In October the bishop of Calcutta called at the Cape, when Bourke granted about an acre of ground in the lower part of the government garden, which the bishop consecrated. A subscription list was then opened for the purpose of building an English episcopal church, but only a trifle over 2000 pounds being promised, the design was again abandoned. Education made a commencement in the rising village of Port Frances when the lieutenant-governor approved of a grant of 50 pounds per annum and 20 pounds in lieu of a house to Mr. J. Turpin, who opened a school in that year. In December Mr. Moodie was informed by the colonial secretary that his situation of government resident at Port Frances, together with the establishment connected therewith, would be abolished from and after the 1st of January next. The office at Port Frances was closed under the new establishment. The stone mattered because a Scotch congregation now had a foundation and a pastor, while the English episcopal design failed for want of 2000 pounds, and because Port Frances gained a schoolmaster in the same month it was told its residency would go. [3] [4]
In October Bourke, writing to the landdrost of Albany in connection with the unsatisfactory state of the two free schools in Grahamstown, said that the distinction between white and coloured children was not observed in any of the other free schools in the colony that he was aware of and should if possible be avoided. At Graaff-Reinet children of colour mixed indiscriminately with others without calling forth any remonstrance. This year induced Landdrost Stockenstrom to allot 18000 morgen of the Torenberg lands for church purposes. A congregation was then properly organised with churchwardens, trustees, and other necessary officials. Lieutenant Daniell of Sidbury and Major T. C. White commenced fine-wool farming in this year, and thus initiated what later became a peculiarly eastern-province industry. Emancipation of slaves had been common long before Ordinance Nineteen; manumissions in this calendar numbered 245, against 90 in 1826 and 29 in 1825. The letter mattered because the acting governor was telling Albany that mixed free schools were the colonial rule, and because 245 manumissions in one year showed Ordinance Nineteen of 1826 was already changing the count of free people. [4] [4]
The wine trade became so depressed that it was necessary to provide all possible relief for its producers, and in December the gauging tax was repealed. By order of the secretary of state a sum of 921 pounds was paid to the trustees of the public library, being the amount derived from the gauging tax over and above the 300 pounds a year which they had been receiving, and with that as a capital to work upon they appealed to the public for subscriptions. Just at this time the government required the rooms in the public buildings, and the library was removed to a wing of the commercial exchange. The last official act of the board of landdrost and heemraden of Graaff-Reinet was, on the 31st of December, the acknowledgment of a letter of thanks for their services from the colonial government. They said they were gratified by His Honour’s appreciative thanks and wished to say that any want of success was not to be traced to indifference, self-interest, partiality, or hatred toward particular classes of their fellow-subjects, with which they were aware they had been charged. With regard to the report of the commissioners of inquiry they found themselves charged not with bare ignorance, neglect, error, or want of policy, but with inability to feel or act justly, liberally, or impartially toward the coloured classes, and with having exercised undue influence on the distribution of lands. The last sitting mattered because a wine tax that had fed the library was repealed to relieve the vineyards, and because the Graaff-Reinet board answered a letter of thanks on the last day it still existed, before the heemraden themselves should go on the 1st of January. [3] [4]