News of the day

December 31, 1867

Frightful explosion

The premises of a fireworkmaker named Hammond in Canongate, Edinburgh, were blown up by the accidental ignition of some of the materials. The flames cut off exit by the staircase. One woman jumped four stories to the road and was killed.

December 23, 1880

What would Cape housekeepers say to the requirements of English domestic servants? According to an English journal, “not only do they insist on living quite as well as their masters, so far as food is concerned, but they resentany attempt to penetrate into the domains that they consider their own”.

December 30, 1885

A Smash

One of the men employed by Mr CH Elliott, of Wynberg to drive a butcher’s cart, was steering that vehicle along Wynberg Hill when he met three wagons loaded with bricks, belonging to Mr Hare, of Mowbray. By some means or other the cart and the second-wagon came into collision. The usual compliments passed and the Magistrate will decide who was to blame.

December 30, 1885

Kimberley Railway festivities – crossing the Orange River

I am writing this while travelling over the new line at 12 to 15 miles an hour. The contest between the manner in which the journey is being performed to-day and the manner in which it had to be performed during last summer, is a subject of remark among numbers of people in the train.

December 31, 1885

The countess’s chickens

Maria Mackenzie was charged with having in her possession two fowls belonging to the Countess de Montmort and offering them for sale, well knowing them to have been stolen. Ellen Whitton, a servant to Mr Alex Bell, of Rondebosch, said the accused offered her the fowls produced for sale. The prisoner was sentenced to 10 days’ hard labour.

December 28, 1895

Situation in the Transvaal The grievances of the uitlanders are intolerable and if the forthcoming meeting sanctions the programme which will be presented to them it is to be hoped, the Times says, that President Kruger will frankly and freely concede the demands.

December 29, 1911 A disappointed crowd – no flight yesterday

There was a fairly large attendance on the Kenilworth Aerodrome yesterday afternoon. At about 6.30 a megaphone message was given to the effect that the wind was tricky and there could be no flight that afternoon. The art of flying is still in its infancy, and depends upon the atmospheric conditions . For the reasons stated there was no aerial post yesterday.

December 29, 1911

Fiji Islands – cannibals becoming less fastidious

The story of how the natives of the Fiji Islands have become less fastidious in their tastes, and have taken to eating tinned salmon in place of the white man, was told by the bishop of Polynesia at the Manchester Free Trade Hall. But changes were not helping the Fijian. In the old days, when he was everlastingly engaged in war, he was, at any rate, taking some physical exercise and keeping healthy. “Now he owns the surplus lands of the colony, the rents of which are collected by the British Government and handed over to him in large sums half-yearly.” What he had left he spent in any number of tins of salmon, which he ate with much gusto.

January 1, 1912

Women’s enfranchisement

Sir, Dr Stordeur has given to the public 10 flimsy excuses for not allowing any woman to vote, but these excuses are all to the same effect. Nowhere is the political influence of women at the polling booth more needed than it is here; since we have found that the rule of men, unassisted by women, has been a disastrous failure, which can only be rectified henceforth by allowing every woman to vote either personally, or else by proxy. Yours

TLB Edgcome

Three Anchor Bay

December 28, 1925

Natives hostile to Premier’s plan

“We feel the natives cannot do without the Europeans, and the Europeans cannot do without the natives, but if the natives are to be forced out of the industrial life of South Africa to make room for the Europeans, then the natives must be given a state of their own, in which, as General Hertzog said, they can develop on their own lines and work out their own salvation.” This statement is the gist of the native case against the prime minister’s segregation policy by the African National Congress. The general secretary, TD Mweli Skota, said: “We say that the coming of Europeans to South Africa has been a blessing, but, if General Hertzog’s scheme is going to be accepted, then we are going to insist on the creation of a state for the natives. If the native had been treated in a brotherly way in South Africa and given a helping hand, he would not have listened to those who teach the tenets of Marcus Garvey because he would have been contented.”

December 30, 1925

Record season at the Strand The Strand is crowded with visitors and the season has been a record. All the hotels and boarding-houses are full. In addition nearly 500 persons are camping in 110 marquee tents in the park, quite close to the beach, which is growing in popularity every season.

December 21, 2006

New 2010 stadium battle Fresh political bickering between Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille has again poisoned the frantic planning of the 2010 Green Point stadium.

Teams of expert officials from both the province and council have been working furiously to ensure construction of the R2.5 billion project may legally begin next month. But yesterday Rasool seized on a “mistake” by the city and immediately took to the political battlefield, accusing the council of causing further delay. Zille said this morning: “It is a storm in a teacup and mischief-making. We will calm the waters and there should be no undue delay.”

December 28, 2006

‘We know Taliep’s killers’

The familyof entertainer Taliep Petersen recognised his three masked killers from their car, clothing and voices, according to a police source, who said investigators were following “a strong lead”. In a dramatic twist in the murder case of the wellknown Cape Town composer at his Athlone home on Saturday night, sources said the killers had at first mistaken Petersen’s stepson Achmat Gamieldien for the entertainer and threatened to shoot him as he stood holding his baby. The murder has left Petersen’s family devastated, and messages of condolence are pouring in.