Page 106 - Bulletin 11 2007

103

recession was rapidly setting in. The Foreshore Syndicate which had its funds in the
bank ready to start work at a moment’s notice, invested their money elsewhere

(probably in the reviving Witwatersrand gold mines) and it was increasingly evident
that the grandiose scheme would not go ahead. The Municipality were still determined

to press ahead with their electricity and sewerage scheme and provide their own street

lighting. Pioneer Gas Company soon realised it would not be a viable proposition, and
apologetically withdrew from negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Cape Town and District Gas Light and Coke Company had, in 1903,

begun extending its gas mains through the southern suburbs as far as Wynberg. They
needed to build a large gas-holder to serve this large area but had not decided where it

should be located. If they could secure a concession to supply the proposed “City of

Muizenberg” they would have built the gas-holder at Wynberg. The Kalk Bay Council
declined to entertain their request, and their suburban gas-holder was built on the

northern boundary of Mowbray.

As a postscript, it may be mentioned that Pioneer Gas Company made an offer to

Simon’s Town in February 1906, and simultaneously a rival offer was put in by a
company called Peninsula Gas Lighting Company (which may have been F. Cook &

Co. in a new guise). Simon’s Town granted a concession to Pioneer Gas in April 1906,
but nothing came of it. Now this is particularly interesting because there was a

functioning gasworks at the Glencairn glassworks. The glassworks had ceased to

operate in 1905 and the Company’s assets were liquidated at exactly this moment in
1906. It is suspected that these two companies hoped to secure the gasworks (or at least

purchase the gas-making retorts) in order to supply Simon’s Town. Instead, the
glassworks complex fell into ruins and disappeared under the drifting sand.

The sewerage scheme

In all drainage schemes it is important to separate stormwater and surface water run-off
from foul water of domestic and industrial origin. The stormwater can be run off into the