Page 58 - Bulletin 20 2016

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ings, published in the local Standard and Mail newspaper of the day, we learn a good deal
about the people living in this area of the southern Cape Peninsula at this time. John
McKellar is on record for example as stating that: “I am the proprietor of Cape Point and
Buffels Fontein. I breed horses, cattle, pigs, ostriches, etc.” (85) . He also ran a fishery from
Buffels Bay and a lime kiln of which he states he was the first person in this area to burn
local limestone instead of seashells to produce the resultant quick lime. This he transported to
both Simon’s Town and Cape Town aboard a 19 ton ‘cutter’ (schooner) he owned, named
‘Jane’ (86) .(Fig. 2.20.)

What also emerges from these proceeding - as various deponents were called as defendants
and witnesses and asked how they made a living - is a picture of residents in this area barely
scratching out an existence. Virtually everyone supplemented their income by burning
seashells into lime for which there was a ready demand in Simon’s Town, not only for use in
the construction of new buildings but also the continuous maintenance demands by those
already existing. McKellar’s main adversaries, the Kallis’, are said to have lived along the
road to Simon’s Town at “Smitswinkel” (a house so-named that appears on old Surveyor-
General diagrams along the Smitswinkel River on the farm Bon Attente) while some, related
by marriage to the Klein family, lived at Klipfontein. Oranje Klein (Junior) age 65, described
himself as a gardener and farmer (meaning he also ran livestock on his surrounding, less
arable land) who had lived at Klipfontein since he was 15 years old. His father, he recounts,
had been a lime burner (85) . Also appearing as a witness was William Auret who apparently
had inherited the farm Klaasjagers River from his father but according to his brother,
Frederick, “gave it over to Blankenberg on account of a mortgage”. William now lived in
Muizenberg where he worked as a fisherman while, Frederick, was still residing at nearby
Theefontein / Somerset Annex from where he carried on his trade as a wagon maker.
Frederick testified that both he and William, in former days, had also been lime burners (87) .

What further becomes obvious throughout these proceedings is that the most accessible
deposits of limestone lay on Buffelsfontein, while the best beaches for the collection of large
quantities of seashells were to be found along the Atlantic seaboard of Cape Point Farm. By
denying access to his land, therefore, McKellar was also denying his neighbours an important

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