Empire Cricket Booklet

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JAMES LOGAN

Sivewright's appointment was particularly favour able to his close friend, James Logan; the Laird now had an ally within the Cape government with sole jurisdiction for the award of all contracts relating to the railway service. To this point, Logan had built up his catering empire of station refreshment rooms along the Cape railway network by following the proper tendering procedure for catering contracts. Each contract was limited to a period of five years, with the option of renewal for a further five years. In May 1890, a new catering facility was opened at Matjiesfontein and a new contract agreed to between Logan and the general manager of the Cape Railways, Mr C. B. Elliott. As the Cape Railways pushed into the Orange Free State and Transvaal, so Logan followed. In February 1892, he completed the

Logan, Sivewright and 'Money' Politics

An examination of James Logan's close association with his fellow Scot, Sir James Sivewright, reveals the essential nature of Logan's business relationships. In 1892, the award by Sivewright of a lucrative gov ernment contract to Logan caused consternation throughout the Cape Colony and highlighted the political favouritism at work during this period. In 1890, the 38-year-old Cecil John Rhodes formed his first Cape ministry - 'the ministry of all the talents' - that included three noted liberals in John X. Merriman (treasurer), J. W. Sauer (colonial secre tary), and James Rose-Innes (attorney general) as

The Logan versus Read/Ash court case -a newspaper verdict

well as two members of Jan Hofmeyr's Afrikaner Bond, Pieter Faure (secretary for Native Affairs) and James Sivewright as commissioner of Crown lands and public works. In this office Sivewright, who had a reputation for both efficiency and shady business dealings, was in charge not only of the telegraph system he had formerly worked at but also the development of the Cape railway network. In 1892, he was knighted for his role in extending the Cape railways to Johannesburg.

construction of the refreshment room at Kroonstad for the sum of £500 and thereafter managed it at a rental of £84 per year. In September 1892, Logan met Elliott and Sivewright in Cape Town and urged that efficiency demanded that all the catering services on the railways be placed under his sole, single management. On 14 September, Logan signed with Elliott and Sivewright a contract that gave him a monopoly of the catering trade along the entire Cape Railways network for eighteen years. Sivewright