Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Early Years of Aviation

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

By any measure the first airplanes were light-weight midgets with the French Nieuport 17 weighing only 375 kgs. As such they did not require a hardened surface on which to land. Any reasonably level grass covered field or strip of dirt or sand could suffice as an airfield. In Port Elizabeth’s case, the area adjacent to First Avenue Newton Park was selected as the airfield. Not only that but a concreted apron was required otherwise standing aircraft were liable to sink into soggy and damp ground. Also required are various other structures such as hangars and a terminal building.

Main picture: Painting by Ron Belling of Harvards flying over the military section of the airport

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Banking as the Fulcrum of the Early Economy

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

A frequently alluded to fallacy when discussing the state of the economy in this era is the primacy of physical items whether it is a precious metal such as gold or agricultural products such as cotton or wool. Logistics constraints are only considered when they are an extreme impediment to the smooth flow of these physical items. However, seldom mentioned is the centrality of banks and banking practices which oils that process. Without all of the components of the process operating like the proverbial well-oiled machine, economic progress is not possible.

As previous blogs have focussed upon the both the hazards, horrors and cost of wagon transport from the hinterland and the stupendous surge in wool production over two decades, neither will feature as the dramatis personae but rather they will be assigned a cameo role in this article.

Remarkably, the Eastern Cape and Port Elizabeth led the charge in establishing banks. By the 1870s, the Eastern Cape sported 24 banks whereas the rest of the Cape Colony had one; lIkewise Natal and the Orange Free State and the Transvaal none.

Main picture:  1866 painting of Port Elizabeth by Thomas Bowler

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ANC pushed victimhood again

By Blaine McCleland in Current Affairs 0 Comment

In the 27 years of ANC misrule where they have comprehensively failed to achieve a meaningful improvement to the majority of Black people, the ANC resorts to victimhood and propagates tropes to justify themselves.  The rapid development of vaccines for Covid and its unequal distribution was a ready-made crisis for the ANC to exploit in order to deflect attention from their appalling handling of it.

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Reflections on the Flood of 1st September 1968

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 1 Comment

The Weather Guru, Garth Sampson, has recently emailed me some interesting articles on this flood. Even though I have previously written a blog on it, it was based upon my personal experiences and as well as that of my family instead of being a generic article about rainfall and general human interest elements. Amongst these articles was one written by JP Viviers of the SA Weather Bureau on which this blog is largely based. Instead of a wholly human-interest story, it largely explains the meteorological aspects as well as some statistics combined with some unusual interesting consequences.

Main picture: Water flowing over Beach Road at Happy Valley

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USA: One year on from 6 Jan 2021

By Blaine McCleland in Current Affairs 0 Comment

Just over a year ago, Trump, the sentient nartjie, tried to steal the election from Biden, the sentient Zimmer frame.  He extensively pushed out lies and fake news using Twitter and the good old boys from Fox News.  His enablers from Fox, Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham, were only too happy to peddle his lies, boasts and misdirections and even repackage them and weaponise them for him.  Trump is barely articulate and seldom completes a whole sentence.  But Fox had his back – he could rely on them to speak in whole sentences and eloquently propagate his half-baked views.  Twitter, however, did react adversely and eventually banned him for consistently peddling falsehoods on their platform.  Trump then threatened to start his own social media brand which he did twice in 2021, so far without success.  The other things happening in the Trumpiverse were that, apart from holing up at Mar-a-Laager (another tax write off, the resort itself as well as his staying there), it is obvious that he is positioning himself for another run at the presidency.  This was my view of the World According to Trump in January last year.

Todays cartoon: Djokovic deported from Australia

By Blaine McCleland in Current Affairs 1 Comment

Many of the anti-vaxxers, especially the gliteratti and elites, are under the misapprehension that rules do not apply to them. They are especially verbose about their right to refuse to be vaccinated. It is their right to do so, but then they have to pay the penalties for their behaviour such as being refused access to certain venues, modes of transport and even countries. Why should Djokovic be able to flout the rules of any country at will? The Australian government rightly did not ignore the middle finger that this foreigner waved into the Ozzies’ faces and promptly deported him.

The drawing and idea was developed by Blaine McCleland whereas the commentary is by Dean McCleland

Looking Back: Hougham Hudson-PE’s First Magistrate

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

This blog was originally published in LOOKING BACK – The Journal of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth, Volume 55, 2016 as “Hougham Hudson and his Family.” Apart from minor punctuation and grammatical changes, this blog is the same as the original article.

Main picture: Hougham Hudson’s house opposite the Town Hall which later was used as the Post Office under Mrs. Biggar. Market Square and Castle Hill circa 1860 painted by Mrs J Clark

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Disappearance of Seven-year-old on Christmas Day 1859

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 4 Comments

Instead of Christmas Day 1859 being a day of wonder and joy, presents and over-stuffed bellies, in the Haywood household, it would be a day of tragedy, heart break, sorrow and despair, a day that would be indelibly etched in their minds. They would forever recount every minute of their movements that day for that was the day when the innocent seven-year-old Augusta Ann Hayward would inexplicably disappear.

Most of the records have vanished along with Augusta. What has survived, highlights both grief-stricken parents contrasted with an indifferent uncaring officialdom. This blog has been based upon the excellent blog of Mansell George Upham entitled, “Whatever happened to Augusta Anne…?

Main picture: Watercolour entitled ‘View of Port Elizabeth from upper Russell Road’ by Lester Oliver in 1854 [NMM AM]

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: George Pemba and his Art

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba [1912-2001] is amongst the best-known artists produced by Port Elizabeth. Born at Hill’s Kraal in Korsten in 1912, like aspirant artists of his era, his hobby could not be converted into a full-time occupation especially due to his race as his target market was indigent at best. His style is referred to Urban or Social Realism of which he was a pioneer as he specialised in painting gatherings of people in everyday settings. In the 1940s after encouragement by fellow black painter Sekoto, Pemba took the courageous and plucky step of resigning from his day job to concentrate on painting.

Main picture: The achievement of Pemba is celebrated by a series of ten stamps posthumously produce by the Post Office on 2nd April 2012. Mother’s child, 1972, Oil; Township granny, 1950, Watercolour; The Minister’s new convert, 1945, Watercolour; Portrait of Mr Gluck, 1947, Oil; Xhosa woman, 1947, Watercolour; Portrait, 1948, Oil; Ting-Ting, 1945, Watercolour; Mr Pemba’s mother, 1993, Watercolour; Family life, 1977, Oil; Portrait of Xolile Ndongeni, 1987, Oil

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