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A Municipal Corporation was established at King William’s Town by Ordinance No 1 of 8 February 1861 (BK 438 British Kaffrarian Ordinance).

In 1994 King William's Town became part of the Eastern Cape Province.

King William's Town (now known as Qonce) is part of the Buffalo City metropolitan municipality and it includes the towns of East London and Bhisho, as well as the large townships of Mdantsane and Zwelitsha.

The Municipality of Ceres was constituted on 11 October 1864 under Proclamation No 53 of 1864 in terms of Ordinance No 9 of 1836.

In terms of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998 (Act 117 of 1998) the existing Ceres Municipality together with the Municipality of Wolseley, Matroosberg Transitional Representative Council, Municipality of Prince Alfred’s Hamlet, Witzenberg Transitional Representative Council and Municipality of Tulbagh was disestablished and the Witzenberg Local Municipality established (Province of Western Cape Provincial Gazette Extraordinary No 5590, 22 September 2000, Provincial Notice No 487, 22 September 2000). The Witzenberg Local Municipality forms part of the larger Cape Winelands District Municipality.

During the period 1881 – 1882 Claremont, Mowbray, Rondebosch and Wynberg had all been given Village Management Boards.

In October 1882, however, the inhabitants of these four suburbs petitioned the Government to establish a municipality which would incorporate them all.

As a result by Proclamation 97 of June 1883 the Municipality of Liesbeek was established. The municipal regulations were published in February 1884 and in the same month the Municipal Council of Liesbeek began to function.

The Liesbeek Municipality was comprised of the following wards: Wynberg and Diep River (ward 1), Claremont (ward 2), Newlands (ward 3), Rondebosch (ward 4), and Mowbray (ward 5). Each had its own Ward Committee which met separately but fell under the control of the Central Municipal Council of Liesbeek.

Under Proclamation 115 of July 1886 the designation of the Municipality of Liesbeek was altered and the municipality was from then on known under the name of the Municipality of Wynberg, which only included Wynberg and Diep River. The other wards were severed and became independent municipalities – Mowbray falling under Rondebosch until September 1890 and Newlands divided between Claremont and Rondebosch.

The Village Management Board of Wynberg was created under Proclamation No 103 of July 1882.

Wynberg obtained municipal status through Proclamation No 115 of 1886. This municipality functioned until 1927 when it was amalgamated with the Cape Town Municipality.

In 1878, for purpose of increasing the revenue of the Colony, the Excise Duty Act (Act No 2 0f 1878) was promulgated. This act made provision for the imposition of duty on spirits. The Governor was to appoint excise officers for the execution of this task.

Thomas Crowe was the first official to be appointed by the Governor as Inspector of Excise of the Cape Colony on 2 November 1882.

Thereafter this title was changed to Chief Inspector of the Excise Department in 1884, to Controller of Licences (1886), to Controller of Licences and Stamps (1890), and to Chief Inspector of Excise (1914).

On 1 July 1897 Thomas Crowe was succeeded by GWA Cloete as Superintendent of Excise. In turn, he was succeeded by LB Smuts as Controller of the Excise Department on 23 June 1904.

Smuts held this position until 1912, when EA Thomas took over as Chief Inspector of Excise. On 1 September 1913 the title was changed to Superintendent of Excise.

Since 1914 the Superintendent of Excise was the local representative of the Department of Excise in Cape Town with the Commissioner of Customs and Excise in Pretoria as head of the Department.

The Mansion House Fund Central Committee, Cape Town was organised by Lord Milner at the outbreak of the war for the purpose of encouraging the formation of relief committees in the various towns to which refugees were sent and for the purpose of organising a uniform system of relief and a standard scale of expenditure. Under the direction of Lord Milner, the committee granted sums in aid of the various committees so formed after they had collected as much money locally as was possible. The various committees supplied through the central committee with funds relieved the class of persons who at the outset of the war had no funds.

The Imperial Relief Fund came into existence in December 1900, being supplied with funds by the imperial government for the relief of those refugees who ultimately would be able to return the money advanced to them. The funds were administered under the direction of Lord Milner and a consultative committee at Johannesburg, by the Cape Town Committee.

During 1881 the Cape Parliament sanctioned the appointment of Count de Vasselot de Regné as Superintendent of Woods and Forests to reorganise the system of forest administration.

The first such reorganisation within the Transkeian District came about during 1887, when Forest Rangers, Forest Guards and Native Assistants were appointed. During the period prior to when the Transkeian Forest District was declared a conservancy, these forests fell under the control of the Conservator of Forests, Eastern Conservancy, King William’s Town.

Because of the lack of effective control over the Transkeian Forest District J Storr Lister (Conservator, Eastern Conservancy) was instructed to inspect the valuable forests of the Transkei and Griqualand East in order that a practical system of forest control could be introduced. The reason for such a course of action was that it was considered possible to increase the forest revenue for the district.

In 1889 the most senior official appointed to the Transkei Forest District was CC Henkel stationed in Griqualand East with the designation of Chief Forest Ranger. In a letter dated 30 April 1890 Henkel was informed of his promotion to “conservator” effective from 1 July 1889.

In spite of a thorough search it was impossible to determine the date when the Transkeian Territory was declared as such except that the first annual report of the Transkeian Conservancy was for the year 1889.

The duties of the Conservator of Forests, Transkeian Territories, were basically the same as those of the Conservator of Forests, Eastern Conservancy. They can be summarised as follows: The Conservator was entrusted with the control of all Crown Forests in the area under him and was authorised to issue, cancel or amend all licences issued with regard to the felling of timber, grazing of livestock on forest lands, squatting, igniting of fires as well as the hunting of and protection of game. He was further charged with the disposal of all forest produce. The District Forest Officers stationed at Umtata, Butterworth and Kokstad fell under his jurisdiction.

The post of Conservator of Forests was redesignated in 1959, as Chief Regional Forest Officer, Transkeian Territories and the sphere and scope of his duties extended by the inclusion of the state sawmills in his responsibilities.

During the first British occupation of the Cape an attempt was made by the inhabitants of Cape Town to bring about some form of commercial co-operation. A meeting was held in August 1800, when plans and proposals were discussed for the establishment of a “commercial coffee house”. This scheme was never put into operation. During the regime of the Batavian Republic a “Kamer of Commercie” (Chamber of Commerce) was created by the government for the settlement of trade disputes. This arrangement was not continued when the Cape was re-occupied by the British in 1806, with the result that there was no organized body to look after the interests of commerce. There was also no place where merchants could meet to transact business.

This state of affairs was remedied in 1817. On 27 March a meeting, attended by seventeen people was held at George’s Coffee House and a resolution adopted that a room be hired for the purpose of affording the commercial interests an opportunity of meeting daily for the more ready carrying on of business. A provisional committee was appointed to hire such a room and to draw up a set of rules and regulations to be submitted to a general meeting which was to be held on 31 March.

A room which became known as the Commercial Room was procured in Berg Street and the first general meeting was held there on 31 March 1817. According to the rules approved at this meeting only merchants and persons engaged in trade could become members, on payment of a subscription. The commanders of all ships trading with the colony and supercargoes could be admitted on the introduction of a member on payment of a monthly fee. Commanders who called for refreshments only, could be similarly admitted, but free of charge. A secretary was appointed and provision was made for the election of a treasurer.

In April 1818 the Committee of the Commercial Room applied to the governor for a piece of land for the erection of an Exchange with suitable offices for the accommodation of persons engaged in the trade and commerce of the colony. Eventually a site on the grand parade was granted for the purpose.

A Committee of Direction and Management, consisting of seven members, was appointed and public subscription lists were opened to raise the necessary funds for the erection of the building. The committee was responsible for supervising the work in accordance with a plan approved by the subscribers. The shares in the building were fixed at 500 rixdollars each, but no individual was allowed to be the proprietor of more than ten shares. The proprietors or subscribers were entitled to one vote for each share, but not to exceed five votes. A new committee was to be elected annually by ballot which would have control of the building. At the requisition of ten proprietors, the committee was obliged to call a general meeting.

A distinction was made between the Commercial Room and Public Exchange, when on 8 September 1819 a joint general meeting was held of subscribers “to both institutions” and a resolution adopted to appoint staff to act under the direction of the committees of the Commercial Room and of the Public Exchange. The former committee represented the members of the Commercial Room while the latter committee represented the shareholders or the owners of the building.

The building was completed in 1821. On 18 February 1822 it was resolved to appoint a committee of five members for the purpose of forming a society on an improved basis. All the property belonging to the existing society was to be transferred to the new society. It was also resolved that the members of the proposed society would commence their occupation of the centre room in the Exchange Building in February. New rules and regulations were adopted. Members of the new society were enrolled on 25 February, and on 1 March it was decided to call the society The Commercial Exchange. The Exchange Room was finally opened on 4 March.

An attempt to replace the Commercial Exchange by a more efficient body was made at the annual general meeting of shareholders held on 24 April 1841. It was proposed that the shareholders consider the establishment of a chamber of commerce to watch over and protect the commercial interests of the colony. This new body was to be called The Cape of Good Hope Chamber of Commerce. Eventually it was decided to continue the Commercial Exchange under its former designation, but to modify the regulations.

From around 1850 the income of the Commercial Exchange was found insufficient to meet the expenditure. To improve the position the rate of subscription was periodically raised but this only resulted in a decline in the number of subscribers.(19) It was consequently felt that an attempt should be made to reform the institution. On 23 November 1860, a resolution to that effect was adopted, and on 26 November an ad hoc committee was appointed. On the decision of this committee a Chamber of Commerce in connection with a Commercial Reading Room was established on 3 December 1860. The reading room was open to all parties on payment of a subscription of £2.2. per annum, and the chamber of commerce was open to merchants, brokers and others engaged in wholesale trade. The first meeting of the chamber was held on 23 January 1861 when the members were enrolled and the office bearers elected.

The archives has been arranged and described according to the historical development of the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce. The volumes comprising the archives of the two bodies which preceded the Chamber, namely the Commercial Room and Public Exchange and the Commercial Exchange, both of which are closed archives, have been allocated volume numbers so as to be in accordance with and to show their relation to the archives of the Chamber of Commerce.