Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume 1 (1908).pdf/181

1806] agricultural establishment at Groote Post was next claimed. The property of greatest value there consisted of horned cattle and sheep imported for breeding purposes. The commission for the improvement of agriculture and stock-breeding contested this claim, on the ground that the establishment was created for the public benefit and could not be regarded as government property. General Baird compromised the matter by purchasing the stock and implements for £5,000, to be paid out of the first available revenue, and keeping the establishment in existence for the service of the colony. Then came a seizure about which many complaints were made in the Netherlands, and which for several years was a subject of correspondence between the contending parties. To explain it, it is necessary to go back a little.

In 1789 Messrs. Fehrsen & Co., of Capetown, privately commenced a whale fishery, and two years later they obtained the consent of the government to its being carried on. In 1792 the commissioners Nederburgh and Frykenius threw open this branch of industry to anyone who chose to embark in it under certain conditions, but Messrs. Fehrsen & Co. remained the leading people in the business. In 1798, however, their affairs were wound up, and Mr. John Murray, an English merchant of Capetown, purchased the whole whaling plant at public auction. By him the business was enlarged, and was continued until 1803, when a ship arrived from Holland with three agents of an association termed the South African chartered fishing company, which had obtained from the government of the Batavian Republic the exclusive right of killing whales in the bays of the Cape Colony, with other privileges. Mr. Murray was now forced to cease his occupation and sell his plant to the new company, taking twenty-three shares in part payment. Upon the conquest of the colony in January 1806 the property of the South African chartered fishing company was claimed by the captors as fair spoil of war. Upon investigation it was ascertained that Mr. Murray was the only colonial shareholder, and he expressed himself delighted with the prospect of being able to conduct the business again on