Page 10 - Bulletin 13 2009

7

The present church is now too small, owing to the increased population of Kalk Bay
and its neighbourhood.

As R.C. Bishop I purchased for £1200 a much larger plot of ground opposite the
present church; here the priest’s residence is situated; here too, I erected a Mission
School at the cost of £400. On this ground I propose to erect a new church large
enough for the present congregation.

This site is in every way more suitable for a church that the present one; the passing
trains and especially the luggage train are a severe strain on the present building.

Moreover a change of site is rendered all the more necessary, as I observe with regret
th
that by a notice dated the 17 instant published in the Cape Times, The Municipality

contemplate the erection of Municipal Buildings on the vacant ground adjoining the
present church. [This municipal proposal never materialised due to the strong feelings
of the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Sauer, and local objectors who all felt this vacant

ground should remain open.]

The money received for the present site will be all spent on the building of the new

church which, I hope will be a benefit to the neighbourhood.
I would also urge that it is most desirable that the priest’s house, church and school
be as near each other as possible; the present church has been frequently damaged by

malicious persons.

For these reasons I have every hope that His Excellency the Governor will grant me

the necessary permission to alienate the above-mentioned small plot of ground. At
present some purchasers are anxious for it; all the amount received for it, and more
will be spent on the new church immediately, if the permission be granted.

I have the honour to be
Sir

Your obedient Servant
John Leonard
Catholic Bishop and V.A.

This letter is of significant historical importance for it destroys the myth, no doubt
created by Father Duignam in one of his many yarns to the nuns in later years, that the

Cape Government Railways expropriated the land on which the church stood to build a
station-master’s house and that he, Father Duignam, was so incensed that he rode into

Cape Town, in his cart drawn by his horse Larry, and demanded they should expropriate
the land, and that the general manager of the C.G.R. should name the station St. James

in honour of his church and as compensation for the loss thereof.