Page 178 - Bulletin 21

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reinstatement. David Junior stated his case – he had run a shop there since 1916. If Council

would build and lease him another shop he showed from his trading figures that he could
afford the proposed rent of £7 10s a month. Approval was given to build a shop at a cost of

£800 as part of the Housing Scheme.

There is an anecdote from Kobie Poggenpoel demonstrating Bob Junoir’s sense of humour

and the general attitude to the remote Government officials who made the rules:

When fishing was bad they would rely on catching bunches of doppies – small silver

fish. The head of Government Fisheries (van Tonder?) declared that these were so
small because they were immature fish and could not be caught. When cleaning one

Bob found it full of roe. He wrapped it in newspaper and went to see van Tonder. He
asked him when fish became mature and was told it was when they could breed. He

asked twice and got the same answer. He then unwrapped the newspaper, opened the
fish and showed the roe – was this a mature fish? It only went to show that then as

now government officials know nothing about fishing.

This story must have been told and re-told to much laughter in the community.

St. James Roman Catholic Mission School

The final piece of the jigsaw for the community of fishing families now living in their new

flats on Die Land was the building of the Roman Catholic Mission School next to the
Fishermen’s Flats. As early as 1941 Father Harold Doran of the St. James Church had written

one of his many eloquent letters to Council asking for a piece of land to build a school at
Kalk Bay. He pointed out that the current school at St. James being used by fishing families

did not really fit with the ‘the neighbourhood of St James, having regard to the high class

property surrounding it’. 90 pupils had to walk the mile from Kalk Bay in all weathers. There
were also plans afoot to expand the girls’ convent school at St. James. (Fig. 4.58.) Council

initially offered a piece of land which would have meant the Fernandez family losing a

significant part of their own land. Needless to say Sophia Fernandez wrote to say they had
plans to build a new home of their own and had no intention of giving up any of their land.