The need to have Hondeklip Bay declared as a magisterial district became apparent in several petitions addressed to the colonial secretary at the Cape of Good Hope. These petitions motivated the fact that the magistrate in Springbok was unable to exert control as far away as Hondeklip Bay as well as problems concerning the safeguarding of property and merchandise in the Bay. Thus Hondeklip Bay was declared as a separate magisterial district on 26 November 1862 and Arthur Richard Orpen was appointed as the resident magistrate. During 1865 a visitor to Namaqualand described the settlement along these lines: “Hondeklip is a loose, straggling place on a low sandy beach. It appears from the sea larger than you would expect, and longer than it is. The houses are of one storey; but the huge stacks of copper ore and of fuel quite overtop them, rising to a height of thirty or forty feet, and of such odd shapes that the stranger is rather puzzled to know what they are. Five or six trading stores run parallel to a road which for a little distance is contiguous to the beach, and then curves off, and leaves room for a row of outhouses at one end, between it and the beach, for the use of the Company, and for the shops. The buildings mostly, if not entirely, belong to The Cape Copper Mining Company, and they occupy a considerable number as receiving stores. A rude sort of square or market place is formed in one part, on one side of which is situated the courthouse and customhouse, a building of one room, used also as a church. The residence of the Company's Superintendent is pleasantly situated on the rising ground a little south of the town, and leading up from the beach, as are also some cottages; the Magistrate, who is also the Collector of Customs, has his residence near the beach at the south end, and the goal is situated a little back from the shore, in the same direction.” .........continued on next page   The Heydays of Hondeklip Bay