Page 105 - Bulletin 11 2007

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The question of gas

At the beginning of the 20th century, electric lighting was still struggling to equal gas
lighting, especially since the introduction of the incandescent gas mantle lamp in the

1890s. Mowbray municipality actually scrapped its electric street lights in 1903 and

adopted gas lighting. As far as heating and cooking were concerned, gas was supreme.
When the Muizenberg Foreshore Syndicate’s plans became known three companies

competed for a municipal concession to lay gas mains in the streets to serve what was
expected to be a very large town. Two of them planned to build a complete gas-

producing works at Muizenberg; the third was the long-established Cape Town Gas
Light Company with existing works at Woodstock and Cape Town.

The first serious contender in mid-1903 was F. Cook & Company (which had some kind
of role at Table Bay Harbour which has not so far been determined). They proposed to

build a gasworks and lay mains under the streets. The Kalk Bay Municipal Council

drew up a contract with them and while waiting for it to be signed, a second company,
Pioneer Gas, applied for a concession on 29 October 1903, but were told that the

Council was concluding a deal with Cook & Co. and could not entertain their
application. However, Cook & Co. kept putting off signing the agreement (possibly

because they were struggling to get financial backing) and the Council formally
terminated the negotiations. This is a pity, for an opportunity was lost to turn the

conventional promotional slogan “Cook by Gas” on its head and say “Gas by Cook.”

After the November deadline had passed, the Municipality then copied the same

agreement to Pioneer Gas Company, whose Managing Director was expected to arrive
from overseas (presumably from England) on 26 January 1904 to finalise the deal.

Matters had not been standing still at Muizenberg, however. Approval by government
of the lease of large tracts of municipal land to the Foreshore Syndicate scheme had

been side-tracked by an overloaded bureaucracy whose officials were trying to cope

with the additional work of a general election and a Colony-wide census. In addition, it
was evident that the economic boom of the Anglo-Boer War period was over, and a