Bain's Kloof legend lingers
2008-09-25
Marguerite Lombard
ONE of Bain’s Kloof Pass’s most enduring legends, Scotty Smith, was said to be a convict worker on Bain’s Kloof Pass in the middle 1800’s. The legend describes himself as a colourful con artist with an almost Houdini-like ability to escape from prisons. As was his habit, he tried to escape from the Bain’s Kloof camp and hid in a farmhouse. The farmer’s wife unwittingly gave him a shelter while her husband was out looking for the escaped convict. Not so, says Hans Nieuwmeyer, one of the Friends of the Bain’s Kloof Pass, during an informative walk through the historic Bain’s Kloof Pass. We had just started our walk and were gathered at Eerste Tol near Andrew Geddes Bain’s base camp. “In fact, Scotty Smith never even worked on the Bain’s Kloof Pass. “True, he was once in jail, but worked on the Michel’s Pass. I found his convict number and convict records. I could find no official record of his escape, and in fact his behaviour was described as exceptionally good. “What is more, he was discharged a few months before the convicts were moved from Michel’s Pass to Wellington.” The legend is difficult to explain. “They kept meticulous records of all the convicts. Weekly reports were sent to the department of justice detailing their work, their daily routine and behaviour. Similar reports were drawn up on a monthly basis for every constable and supervisor. “That is why we know that the convicts were not chained to the rocks. In fact the rings one sees in the rocks were used to anchor cranes. “Those cranes needed anchoring to be able to lift rocks into position.” Some of the larger rocks would have weighed between eight and ten tons. He estimates that Bain used fifteen tons of gunpowder to build the pass and spent three and a half years blasting. This was a dangerous work, but interestingly enough only three people were killed during the construction period. Two were constables and one was a convict. The other people were buried in the graveyard and the bodies on the mountain were those who died of natural causes. “We know this because every time a convict died, a full autopsy had to be performed, and the records of all the deaths and causes of death were recorded.” The convicts had job descriptions like labourer, hammer man, blaster or stone mason, and they got paid separately according to their work skills. The money they earned was paid into a savings account and repaid when they finished their sentences. The stone masons were always in demand, and the camp’s superintendent had a list of people who wanted to employ the masons the moment they were discharged. The convicts were all well cared for. At the base camp was a hospital, a school, library and church services were held regularly. The convicts did not do their own cooking and washing, and contractors provided the provisions and prescribed diets were also recorded: one and a half pounds of meat a day, a certain amount of rice. We also know how much tobacco they received, and how often they received new clothing. The stone buildings at Eerste Tol were not built during this period. All their buildings were made of wood, and the structures were made in a way that made it possible to move the camp. The rule of thumb was that the camp should never be more than one mile from where the convicts were working. Most of the convicts walked about quite freely, but a few tried to escape and never more than half a dozen a year. Convicts were then sent out to find them, and those who did, received a remission of sentence. There is another unlikely legend of the wagon full of brandy buried under tons of rocks in Bain’s caved-in tunnel. “This is probably also not true. “A wagon would not have been able to travel beyond the base camp at Eerste Tol, and the brandy would certainly not have been destined for the convicts or constables. “The base camp was a jail, and no liquor would have been permitted on the site. “In fact a guard’s wife was heavily fined when she returned with a bottle of brandy after a shopping expedition to Wellington.”
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