Page 65 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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Some details from the letters from Canon Brooke and Father Duignam read at the last
ordinary meeting of the KBMM were reported more fully in the Cape Argus.

The Cape Argus Weekly Edition: 13 May, 1903.

False Bay Notes
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The Cemetery Question
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As regards the burial ground on the mountain slope between Kalk Bay and St.
James’s, Canon Brooke stated that it was under no supervision, that no one was
responsible for the manner in which the graves were dug, while both the ground itself
and its position were entirely unsuitable for the purpose of a cemetery. Father Duignam
goes even further and declares that the ground is full, and that no more funerals can take
place there without seriously imperilling the public health. The water, he says, fills the
graves during the winter rains, and the overflow percolates through to the public road
beneath, spreading disease in all directions. He thinks the burial ground must be closed
at once, and plaintively suggests that if the Council cannot see their way to remedy the
present scandalous condition of affairs, he and his poor flock should be left to shift for
themselves as best they may.

Two sites were considered, one a few hundred yards off Military Road and the other

about 600 yards off Royal Road. Both abutted Margate Road (later, in 1933, to be
renamed Prince George Drive). The latter site at 20 feet above sea level was the higher

of the two and more conveniently located, and it was therefore favoured by the visiting

party. By the end of May the Engineer had produced plans indicating that it would have
a capacity of 2,000 graves in relation to then current demand of about 40 per year ie.

sufficient for a more modest 50 years. By mid-July 1903 the necessary Government
approvals had been obtained and so work could commence on laying out the new site.

However, urgent as was the cemetery, even more urgent was the location of the site of

the new sewage works which was proposed along the eastern extremity of the
municipality. Both were urgent and both were costly and both had to be attended to

simultaneously.

In September a confident statement appeared in the Wynberg Times.