This is a transcription of a column in South Africa Magazine, December 26, 1896, titled Domestic Announcements:

BIRTHS

SONS

BAUMKEN, Mrs. G., Cape Town, November 21.

DE KOCH, Mrs. J. J. G., Carnarvon, November 25 (twins).

KOLVER, Mrs. W. A., Johannesburg, November 20.

RUSSELL—On December 18, at Ravenscourt Park, the wife of John Addison Russell, of 39, Rylett Road, W., and 49, Victoria Street, S.W.

SWIFT—On November 25, at Kirkdale House, Pearson Street, Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony, the wife of B. P. Meade Swift.

DAUGHTERS

BLAINE, Mrs. T. L., East London, November 19.

DELL, Mrs. A. H., Johannesburg, November 20.

MARSHALL, Mrs. J. H., Johannesburg, November 24.

ROBERTSON, Mrs. J. M., Walmer, November 21.

SURMON, Mrs. M. W., Grahamstown, November 19.

WEATHERBY, Mrs. E. W., Kimberley, November 22.

MARRIAGES

EAGLESTONE, W. W.—LOWE, M., Johannesburg, November 17.

HINDS, H. A.—DEARY, A. M., Kingwilliamstown, November 17.

MACKAY, A. B.—DAVIS, B. F., Johannesburg, November 18.

WENTINK, D. E.—COCKS, E. M. M., Fauresmith, November 16.

DEATHS

BEATTIE, R., Kingwilliamstown, Nov. 18, aged 45.

CARTER, F., Grahamstown, November 15, aged 36.

COLE, A. W., Wynberg, November 26, aged 73.

CROZIER—On December 18, at Bognor, Eleanor Caroline (Nellie), eldest daughter of the late Frederick William Crozier, of Australia and South Africa.

FROST, Mrs. M. D., Port Elizabeth, November 21, aged 65.

GUEST, J., Port Elizabeth, November 21, aged 85.

JONES, J. H., Johannesburg, November 27, aged 46.

KNIGHT-BRUCE—On December 16, at the Vicarage, Bovey Tracey, George Wyndham Hamilton Knight-Bruce, D. D., Assistant-Bishop of Exeter, and Vicar of Bovey Tracey (late Bishop of Mashonaland), aged 44.

MARTINIUS, J. H., Kookfontein, District Clanwilliam, November 19, aged 34.

SMIT, W. S. Claremont, November 24, aged 72.

STEAD, Mrs. A. R., Port Elizabeth, November 19, aged 43.

Miscellaneous articles on the same page:

The Maritzburg bakers have announced that in future the price of a pound loaf will be 5d.

A serious mining disaster occurred at Glenluce Mine, Witwatersrand, the other week. The timbering of the mine gave way, and entombed eight men. On the debris being cleared away, it was found that four white men and two natives were killed. The remaining two escaped the falling timbers by crouching in a corner of the shaft, where they remained wedged in for eight hours. The names of the European victims are William Willow, Jonathan Spedding, Edward Tanner, and Henry Millington.

NOTES FROM SOUTH AFRICA (From Our Own Correspondent)

KIMBERLEY, November 30

I don’t think that anything has ever been more closely read, or has created a greater interest in South Africa, than the ample review you gave of the new book, “Sunshine and Shade in Rhodesia,” just published by the great South African traveler, Mr. Selous. I think the public are much indebted to the author, who has certainly thrown much light on what was very shady in many respects before the book appeared. It must not be forgotten that Mr. Selous writes as an eye-witness of what he saw and shared in, and he has been sufficiently long before the public to make his statements of undoubted reliability. He has succeeded in correcting many erroneous impressions that existed in regard to the movements of the Hon. C. J. Rhodes and Dr. Jameson, and the policy of the former and the action of the latter will now be better understood and better thought of. The intelligence we have lately received of Dr. Jameson’s health has been a source of great anxiety from one end of South Africa to the other, and the general feeling is that the Imperial authorities have been much too tardy, in view of his bad state of health, in releasing him. It was no part of the duty of the Home Government to imperil his health by continuing his imprisonment after it was seen that it had given way. The hope now is that he is free, and that freedom and fresh air are invigorating him. He was always a great favourite in Southern Africa, and were he to pay the country a visit, he would meet with a most enthusiastic welcome.

I am sorry to have to report that the rinderpest continues to spread, although it has not crossed the Orange River just yet, and it is to be hoped that it will not get into the south country, or the result will be terrible in the extreme. Already the country north of the Orange is in a shocking state through rinderpest ravages. In some parts the people are in a state of semi-starvation. No one, either veterinary surgeons or cattle farmers, have yet discovered how to deal with the pest at all effectively. Every now and then we hear of remedies having been discovered to alleviate the sufferings of the animals attacked, or to prevent their taking the disease, but they invariably end in failure. The vets. and the Agricultural Department have made no end of mistakes—mistakes which, in many cases, have tended to spread the disease, and make it more intensely virulent. Tomorrow there is to be a special meeting of the various local Rinderpest Committees in Kimberley, when delegates will attend from Kimberley, Barkly West, Hay, Herbert, Du Toit’s Pan, Campbell Douglas, Belmont, and all the outlying districts. The great question to be settled is, shall shooting cattle still go on, or shall the pest be allowed to take its course? Dr. Hutcheon, the Government Vet., told an interviewer on Saturday that public opinion had grown very strong against Government shooting cattle, and he was of opinion that if the shooting was to be given up, the vast body of police now guarding the border should be at once dismissed. They were an enormous expense, and if the disease was to be allowed to take its own course and every cattle owner left to look after his own herds, the police could be of no use. It would be better to save the police expenditure, and use the money in the end to compensate those who lost cattle. The cost of keeping up so enormous a body of police was far greater than the cost of compensating those who lost cattle from the disease would be. He was clearly of opinion that some of the medicines used had had much effect in checking the disease. He said the same of inoculation—the inoculated animal gets the disease in almost as virulent a form as the non-inoculated one. Besides, farmers are not careful to use pure virus.

It is somewhat difficult to follow the Doctor’s reasoning; the utmost you get from it is that the Doctor, though a very fair vet, in a general way knows very little about the rinderpest. He is all speculation and experiments, and from the day the pest appeared, he has been continually changing his opinion, and the advice he has given one day has been superseded by something totally different on the next.

Both Hutcheon and Armstrong, the two vets., attribute the spread of the disease to the Orange River Free State. Telegrams bring the unpleasant fact that 85 cattle were shot on Thursday on Mr. Anderson’s farm Rooikraalsfontein, and nine on Saltspanfontein, the property of Mr. Viljoen, on Friday. This morning the news reached us that the flocks of goats in the Free State had been attacked by the pest, and were dying very fast. Fears were entertained that the sheep would get it next, and in that case the flock-masters would soon be ruined, and the wool-dealers as well.

It is reported from Calvinia that an immense quantity of wool—some thousands of pounds in weight—has been destroyed by heavy rains. It is a pity that Calvinia should be flooded whilst this part of the world has none.

The agitation on the cheap food question is as brisk as ever, and gathers strength as it goes, and “The People’s Shilling” Fund to provide the sinews of war for a campaign in various constituencies in order to influence members on behalf of cheap food and the remission of bread and meat duties, is mounting up to a good round sum.

Sir Gordon Sprigg arriving at Kokstad on Saturday afternoon, met with a hearty reception, and was presented with an address, signed by Europeans and Griquas. He arranged to receive a deputation today.

Our store and shop keepers are making grand preparations for Christmas, and are already advertising Christmas presents. On Christmas Eve the Du Toit’s Pan Road will make a grand display.

A new paper, entitled the Diamond Fields’ Mining News, of which Mr. Tiller is the editor, has been started by a limited liability company in Kimberley. Kimberley ought to have two papers at least, and I think you will join in wishing the new venture success.

We do not get many breach of promise cases in South Africa, but one of a highly sensational character was tried and decided at Pretoria last Monday—Hart v. Myer Yates. The defendant had acted towards the plaintiff in a most heartless manner, but, notwithstanding the unpleasantness of appealing to a court of law under the circumstances, she had the pluck to do it, and was rewarded by the High Court of Pretoria with very substantial damages, which the defendant will have to pay. The case was so bad in all its details that the Chief Justice, in delivering judgment, gave the defendant a well-deserved slanging.

“Cape Town by Night” is affording the Press of the city lots of material for sensational articles. The morals of the Cape Metropolis never did take a very high flight. The clergy and some of the members of the Y.M.C.S. are doing battle with the evil, and it is to be hoped they will succeed.

It is gratifying to know that Mrs. Saul Solomon, the widow of the once leader of the House of Assembly, is gathering material for writing a memoir of her late husband’s career. It will be an interesting and a useful book. He was a skilful statesman and a brilliant speaker.

Those to whom Captain Penfold, who was Harbour Master in Cape Town for 17 years, and who was obliged to throw up that berth through ill-health, is known, will be glad to hear that the air of Kimberley has completely restored him. He is looking as robust and jovial as ever, and is now connected with the De Beers Mining Company.

Regards,

Ellen Stanton

Email: harprulz@bellsouth.net