Page:George McCall Theal, History of South Africa since September 1795, Volume 1 (1908).pdf/95

1801] the complaints that had reached England. This commission, consisting of Brigadier General Thomas Vandeleur, Commissary General John Pringle, the fiscal Willem Stephanus van Ryneveld, the civil paymaster Edward Buckley, and the auditor general John Barrow, with Lieutenant Robert McNab as secretary, had very extensive power for compelling the attendance of witnesses conferred upon it. It commenced its investigations in October 1801, and did not send in its report, until the 16th of March 1802, when scandals without parallel at any previous period of the history of the colony were brought to light.

The report stated that the first act of Sir George Yonge which gave general dissatisfaction occurred almost immediately after his arrival, when he closed the public garden in Capetown to the inhabitants and strangers. Here in the shady avenues which to the present day are among the chief charms of the city in the summer season, people had always been accustomed to stroll at pleasure. The governor now converted the greater portion of it into a private garden, where fountains and fish-ponds were constructed by his order at the public expense, and a high wall was built on the Grave street side, part of which is still standing. After a time, in reply to remonstrances, he gave permission for respectable people to have access to the main avenue upon signing their names at the guard house at its lower end, but very few persons availed themselves of this, as the townspeople would not accept as a favour what they looked upon as a right. The commission regarded this act as a breach of an ancient privilege.

Next he imposed a charge of five pounds a year upon every club, and ten pounds a year upon every public billiard table, attaching very heavy penalties to infringements of this order. This was a breach of the terms of the capitulation, but no objection was made to it by the inhabitants, who rather approved of it as a necessary police regulation. But it was different with his imposition of a charge of one pound a year for a license to shoot game, which was regarded throughout the colony as vexatious in a high degree. There had always been