In pre-war Pretoria, everyone was approachable
Hills found no lack of news in pre-war Pretoria, either on the government front or in its social life.
PART 38 IN OUR SERIES ON WILLIAM HILLS
From a reporter’s point of view, what was most characteristic of the majority of the notables of the late 1800s was their approachability, William Hills wrote in a story about his long career as a journalist.
“This not only applied to the president, the high State officials and the Volksraad members, but to the diplomatic corps.”
State secretary Francis William Reitz (a former president of the Free State) had a ‘very human and kindly personality’, said Hills.
“I remember one evening when we walked up and down outside the theatre in the interval, he told me of his student days in London, on which he looked back with much pleasure.”
Judge Reinhold Gregorowski was also sociable and lived in a small house in Skinner Street with a young family.
“When ‘off-stage’ as the theatrical people would say, he was invariably genial and while talking of matters of common interest I found it difficult to realise the same man had powers of life and death in his official capacity.”
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The British envoy, Sir William Conyngham-Greene, was equally pleasant to deal with – even when Hills invaded his residence after official hours when matters between colonial secretary Joseph Chamberlain and President Paul Kruger started getting strained.
“I trust I did not spoil his dinner, but if I did, he gave no hint of annoyance in his manner, or attempt to ‘sit on’ the press for its inquisitiveness.
“Mr Middelburg, the general manager of the Netherlands Railway, was perhaps a little more formal in the Hollander manner, but ever courteous.”
Hills found no lack of news in pre-war Pretoria, either on the government front or in its social life.
He wrote that the entire community stopped to celebrate the coronation of Queen Wilhelmina, of Holland, in 1898.
“The pageant was the finest I had seen. For the first time in my life, I saw an electrically illuminated fountain with a myriad of colours.
“Almost every Hollander was in fancy costume and full of vivacity.
“The life of the continent was transported to Burger Park, which has never again seen any fete so delightful.”
Next time: The bioscope comes to Pretoria.
ALSO READ: Part 28 in our series on William Hills: A call on the president
