Page 64 - KBHA BULLETIN 7

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J. V. C. Collie who went insolvent. This was a most unfortunate affair, and there
could well have been some skulduggery somewhere along the line. J. V. C.

Collie had received the contract after the adjudication of 21 tenders. He had
given a rate per linear foot (labour only) to dig the trench along the Main Road

from Muizenberg to Kalk Bay and install the sewerage pipes that were supplied

by the Council. He then, after Council testing, had to close these trenches and
make good. His rate per foot run was agreed by Council and he proceeded from

both the Kalk Bay and Muizenberg ends. Traffic chaos ensued as the route of the
sewerage pipes was beneath the Main Road, but that was to be expected.

However, when Collie hit bedrock outside the Seahurst Hotel and Kimberley

Road “he lost his cool”, as the rate he had quoted never covered this eventuality.

He started blasting indiscriminately, blowing the paint and plaster off the walls
of the nearby houses, as well as smashing window-panes and doors. Council was

inundated with claims, including one from Judge Searle of “Spray Cottage”

which, needless to say, Council settled immediately.

Work stopped and Collie held a meeting on 20 November 1905 with Municipal
Engineer Thomas Bennett and Mayor Harry Scowen to discuss the damage, the

lack of progress, and how to solve these problems. What transpired at that
meeting is unknown, but Harry Scowen knew full well that if Collie walked off

the job there would be endless problems as no contractor would continue the

work at the rate Collie had quoted, especially now that bedrock had been reached
and the cost of digging a trench would increase quite considerably. Collie then

continued, which suggests that some agreement must have been reached.
Thomas Bennett certified payments to Collie at a higher rate than Collie had

quoted, but this was done without Council’s knowledge.

When this arrangement came to Council’s notice, some five to six months later,

the total sum in overpayment was in excess of £6 000. Bennett was called in to
explain. Harry Scowen had now retired as mayor and Bennett was in the “hot-

seat”. In his defence Bennett said that he was instructed to do so by past-Mayor,