That tho mines aro not only too heavily taxed by the present charge nf30a. The resolution which I have tlip honor to move touches upon a portion of this Bill, which has not been mentioned to you before.
The go- vernment wish, it appear«, not only to con- tinue the 30s. We, of cour«e, thall have to add the amount of these tuxes, like we now add the amount of carriage, to the cost of whatever j commodity we have to sell, and consequently charge a proportionally higher price. Permit m», now, to say one word or two upon this measure generally, and really, as a whole, o more monstroui, a more disgraceful, or a more despicable piece of legis- lation never emanated from any Council calling itself British.
Close 22nd January In terms of describing how the current calamitous situation had come about, the meeting was left in no doubt that it was as a result of the political clout that the squatters exercised in the NSW Legislative Council.
In the due course of time those measures reached the colony, and they are such that will redound to the honour and glory of the British Government through all time. In that mild and conciliatory spirit, which of late years has so happily distin- guished the home Legislature, they have handed over to ourselves the management of these boundless gold fields, and the unfettered disposal of their revenues. For this act of magnanimity the Queen and her Government deserve, and must possess, our warmest attachment, our lasting gratitude, our st anches t loyalty.
This, then, is the state of the Council into whose jaws we have fallen, and this bill is- the beautiful piece of. Better a thousand times to have remained under the mild and genial rule of the Governor and his Executive Council, than to have fallen among such ravenous wolves. This tax was fixed in utter i ignorance of whether the gold fields were rich enough or not to pay this tax. But it remained still the law, despite tho fact that a whole hun- dred-weight was found at one time, and be- sides several quarter-hundreds, and despite the extraordinary promise of the opening Turon.
But what has changed this hitherto champion of the gold diggers, the Colonial Secretary? And, in doing so, let us follow the example of these very squatters, who are now lording it over us, and act as they acted, when their interests were in jeopardy.
Regulations no doubt so very stringent, that they were considered oppressive by the whole colony. Not a bellowing of oxen, but of big, fat, overgrown squatters.
There was meeting here and meeting there. Petitions and remon- strances poured inby the scoie. Men Tushed from the obscurity of the bush-inspired orators, men never known or heard of before, and who become famous for thRt once, and have never been heard of since.
Then in the Council, what a hubbub there was. Every night was the fiercest attack made upon the poor Gover-1 nor ; so much so, one would have thought, that had he stirred abroad by himself they would have torn him in piece?. I think they really stopped the supplies ; at all event» they threat- ened to do so, or as we miners would say, they refused to pay any license.
Well, what was the result of all this agitation? Yet you seo in how very few years these very men, who have them ielves received so many favours, be- come oppressors themselves. One would scarcely have believed that the men who cla- moured so loudly for their own rights would have so soon become so utterly regardless of the rights of their fellow colonists. To alter this law, then, let us follow the example of these squatters, and agitate until it is repealed.
Let us not be fainthearted, and, though peace- ful, let us all bo united, firm, and determined, and we are cc-rtain to gain our object. HuoHsotf seconded this resolution. Chairman and Gentlemen, in reading this resolution, I blush that an Englishman should have such a duty to perform, and we may well blush that we have a legislature in this colony, who, in the nineteenth, century, ven- ture in the teeth of every thing that is for our general welfare, to levy a double tax upon foreigners, after having, under very differ.
Heir, hear. The English nation, as a people, if they have one boast moro pro- minent than another, isthe proud one that they receive foreigners of all nations, castes, and creeds, upon an equal footing, and equally pro- tect them so long as they 6o]ourn on British soil in the self-same immunities with them selves, and so long as the foreigner respects the mild laws of the land he is at perfect liberty to practice his calling, in whatever station of life it may be, with the same freedom of action as the British subjects themselves.
Gentlemen, on this account we may well be proud of our country. Great cheers. Men sent by your own suffrages to the Council to foster and protoct our general interests, instead of which no sooner are they seated in power than they use the trust reposed in them to further nought else but their own selfish ends and interests. Hear, hear. Sound policy would, therefore, point out that every thing that tends to improve it, not only would improve our present condititon.
If we had bivi left to ourselves in gold digging, not half tha gold thathas soenrichedthe colony, would yet have been found. The Cali- fornian miner, strong in nerve and persever- ance, came amongst us, showed us the way to extract the gold from the earth, and how to work our mines to the best advantage. Cries of shame upon them. Gentlemen, this act, to the eternal disgrace of the present Legislative Council, is now on record j-but, believe me-and if I may judge from your pre- sent expressed determination,-it may remain, on record ; but, it never can be put in force.
Great cheering. Why muBt wo be compelled to tend sheep and cattle, when we can do bet- ter forourselves and families at the gold fields? But, gentlemen, we will not be trampled upon by these men ; they will not, they shall not suc- ceed in their base purpose. The Legislative Council will have to budd prisons on every gold digging spot, by the side of rivers, up creeks and gullies, and on the mountain sides, and when they get us within the prison walls, the Question will arise how are we to bo fed?
Nearly all the members of the Legislative Council are agriculturists, and for their own selfish ends and purposes have they passed this hateful act, and to force us from our pur- suits to benefit themselves. But, gentlemen, wo will not go. They shall not trample upon us. We envy them not their proceeds of beef and mutton tallow ; but when wo are in prison we will compel the men of fat and grease, to spare us for the sustenance of our wives and families something more than tho mere Tefuse carcases of thfir boiling-down houses, Great cheering.
Gentlemen, I thank you for the piticnt hearing you have given me, but I can- not conclude without reverting to something that fell from a previous speaker, that thero were but two courses open to us-passive re- sistance or violence. My friends, there are three. Immense cheering. Close 5th March One of the significant side effects of the new legislation was to entrench some major differences in the way in which goldfields were regulated in NSW relative to Victoria which had its own separate legislation.
The NSW bill was much harsher both in terms of its punishments for offenders and also in relation to just who on the goldfields had to pay to be there. In Victoria it was just the miners, in NSW however it was just about everyone other than children under the age of 14 and their mothers. In respect to the amount of the license fee, in the case of British subjects, there is no difference at all.
Thirty shillings per month was charged by the regulations, and the same charge is continued under the authority of both enactments. The only novelty on this head is the double fee demanded from Aliens. No such demand appeared in the regulations, nor does it appear in the Victoria Act. The harshness and inconsistency of this part of our new law we have already denounced, and we denounce it still. But so far as the immediate personal interests of British gold diggers are concerned, there is surely no room for complaint.
For the Anglo-Australian digger to complain of the one would be just as unnatural as for the English farmer to have complained of the other. This part of the Act, therefore, though a grievous blot in other points of view, cannot be set down among the grievances which caused so much excite- ment on the banks of the Turon. Let us now look into tbe provisions which define the classes who are required to take out licenses.
In the regulations of May, , the requirement applies only to persons digging, searching for, or removing gold.
The only persons exceptcd from this provision are, 1st, persons holding lea«es or licences on royalty, and their officer« and servants ; and, 2ndly, women, and children under fourteen years of age, who shall only reside upon the gold fields, without mining or digging for gold, or carrying on oj following any trade, business, calling, or occupation thereon. But if so, he -widely overshot the -mark.
The framer of the Act, tkowever, dis- carded the buildings and tents altogether,. Jt tlooks still more discreditable and ugly. It does not follow, we grant, that in thus narrowing its requirement« the Victoria Legislature is right.
But iif it err, it err-s on the generous side, and no lack of »revenue ha» resulted from the error. Close The introduction of the harsh new regulations in NSW came at a bad time for the local goldfields.
News in from Victoria was telling of the extraordinary richness of their new fields, and it was unwise to give restless diggers any further incentive to up stakes and head south of the border. In contrast, the biggest problem facing the Ovens field in northern Victoria was how to transit nearly a ton of gold through the bushranger infested country beyond Yass and up to Sydney. To help out a specially strengthened gold escort was sent south to get the gold out! In consequence of hearing that a largo party of bushrangers was committing depredations beyond Yass, the Directors of the Com- pany, although confldont In the power of the escort to withstand any attack, havo thought It right still further to strengthen the party in order to put the issue of a conflict beyond a doubt shouldany collision take placo on their Journey.
Thej escorts brought in during the week — from Bathurst, Oz. It may now bo quoted at 77s. Tho exports oince our last have been Ounces. February March 6. A large quantity of the Ovens gold finds Its way to Melbourne In consequence of tho Government putting on a double escort.
Tho Sydney Gold Escort will soon hare their arrangements completed so as to bring the gold into Sydney every ten days. A detachment was started on Thursday, the strength of tho corns being augmented in consequence of news received of a large band of bush- rangers being out. It ia now utterly unsafe to bring down gold but by an armed forco.
There Is n large amount of gold at tho Ovens awaiting transmission. The news from our own mines is still very discouraging, and the Now Gold Kogulations must be got rid of or they will entirely blast the prospects of mining on this side. A publlo meeting Is called for Tuesday next at the Hoyal Hotel, and it is to bo hoped that every ono who feels an interest in the continued prosperity c f this colony will attend, and endeavour at once to induce the Legislature.
My letters overland from Port Phillip quote gold at 70s 3d. The reports of success at Ballarat have been so very great, that my correspon- dent is afraid to mention them.
The men who found the last two monster nuggets have quarelled amongst themselves, and there is a lawsuit about the treasure. The yield of gold, on tho whole, is not so great Our escorts brought down this week, ounces.
It Is a bright scale gold. The escort on its return from the Ovens will bring down the gold from this district. The head of the escort, wrote of the stories they heard in a letter published in the Herald, that says much about the perils of the road at this time. Afterwards, within four miles of this place, we met another party, who had been robbed by four bushrangers of everything they possessed.
I am happy to state that all under my command continue in the same high spirits. Smith himself. The escort under my command had encamped almost on the very part of the bush where this affair took place, at mid-day on Saturday, the 26th instant.
He went up to him, and asked him what was the matter. The man replied that he had been shot and robbed by bushrangers. As he was about to leave him, four mounted men rode up to him Mr. After dismounting Mr. He was then ordered to remain half-an-hour, until they returned ; after remaining that time, he rode off to Reedy Creek, without further molesta- tion.
Aeneas J. The whole is framed with a dark brown wood frame and under a sheet of glass. The back is covered with brown paper inscribed with blue pencil ''.
Dimensions Height mm. Width mm. Depth 13 mm. Notes Gold licenses were printed by the Victorian Government. This license was issued in In consequence of his having spent a whole week in the erection of his tent, it is surmised that he can hardly have arrived with the view of digging for gold, but that he is commissioned here by the merchants of Canton in some capacity or other.
It will be singular if he should turn out to be sent by a private channel to this the youngest colony of the Empire, on a commercial or emigration errand, while the Celestial Government itself still disdains to enter into diplomatic intercourse with the Home Government.
The man in question is described as looking like a Tartar , Tartary being the name used until the late nineteenth century to refer to a vast area from Russia to Mongolia, to Kazakhstan and countries immediately to the south. He is accustomed to speaking in English, which supports the suggestion he may have recently come from Canton Guangzhou. Alternatively, there is the possibility that he was already established in Australia as a trader, perhaps having arrived here as an indentured labourer many of whom came from Fujian province and were brought to Australia to replace convict labour in the s.
Recently, I came across the biography of Louis Ah Mouy , a Melbourne-based merchant and Chinese community leader, originally from the Toishan district of Kwangtung province, south of Canton. His arrival in Melbourne in coincided with the discovery of gold, and he claimed to have written the letter home to his brother that prompted the migration of many thousands of Cantonese to the Victorian goldfields.
I also wonder how much this timing relates to the fact that by , California had introduced a Foreign Miners Tax to deter Chinese miners; and by , Chinese were actively being driven off the Californian diggings by racial violence.
However, the reason many Chinese left China in the early s is more readily discernible: At the time of gold discovery in Victoria, China was rapidly falling into a state of total civil war between the ruling Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom — an oppositional state based in Tianjing present-day Nanjing, inland from Shanghai.
The fighting broke out in Guangxi province, directly west of Guangdong province, in January Tens of millions of people were killed in the fighting and associated plagues and famine, with millions more displaced. Save Save. However, in mid-November , when the Camp itself was being set up, its occupants had no way of knowing the role they would play in future events.
When the Victorian gold rushes first hit, the colony of Victoria had been only freshly carved-out from New South Wales. Its newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor Charles Joseph La Trobe and his inexperienced government were in complete shock when they suddenly found their quiet and remote colony invaded by thousands of gold seekers from across the globe.
Nevertheless, they swiftly developed a system for administering the various goldfields, which was fashioned after the existing administration of the pastoral districts. It was a regressive tax in the sense that it had to be paid before mining commenced, and therefore bore no relation to the ability of a miner to pay.
Moreover, the tax was imposed on men who, generally lacking in property rights, had no corresponding right to vote under the existing political system. The miners expected, at the very least, to see their licensing fees fund amenities and services for the diggings, but for largely internal political reasons, the government was noticeably slow to fulfil these obligations. And finally, the antagonism over the licensing system was further exacerbated by the fact that it was often enforced by inexperienced, incompetent, sometimes heavy-handed and not infrequently corrupt officials and police; their activities summarised by digger Edward Ridpath:.
Depicting a scene at Ballarat or Bendigo. As soon as it became apparent that the Ovens diggings would be a goldfields of some significance, the government followed the procedure already developed to administer earlier-established diggings such as those at Ballarat and Bendigo, which was to establish an official encampment there.
Organisation of this camp commenced with official appointments beginning in mid-October One of the earliest appointments was the man who would be Commissioner, James Maxwell Clow Clow was charged with raising his own police force for the camp, and as the son of a Scottish Presbyterian Minister he seems to have selected a disproportionate number of Scotsmen for the task.
It seems that Clow had arrived practically in advance of almost every other official, as a letter in the Argus dated 1 November, reported,. Our Commissioner, J. Clow, Esq. Having been appointed in mid-October [8], Clow had made some arrangements for the Camp in Melbourne [9]. His tent keeper and personal attendant, William Murdoch, arrived at Spring Creek on Monday 15 November, and immediately erected a large tent for the store. The encampment spanned roughly the frontage from where the current police station is sited, across Williams Street to the frontage of the old Beechworth Gaol.
The tents of the Commissioners stood in a row, on a rising ground on the other side of the creek, with a number of other tents for servants and officials behind them.
The whole was enclosed with post and rails, and sentinels were on duty as in a military camp. Smythe, Commissioner of Crown Lands for this district, as well as a gold commissioner, and Mr. Lieutenant Templeton of the mounted police, received us most cordially… They had a good packet of letters for us, which we soon returned to our tent to read. Having arrived on Friday, by Saturday 20 November , Smythe was writing his first report to the Colonial Secretary which he would be called upon to do weekly, along with submitting license returns for the same period.
Mackay had also arrived, stating that he was to be Superintendent of the Foot Police, but there was no paperwork to back his claim. Only upon further investigation by Smythe was he found to hold the lesser post of Subaltern.
However, despite the internal disarray, Smythe was initially satisfied with the external order of the diggings. It all seemed promising enough. To the Colonial Secretary, he now wrote:.
I find the police force at present stationed here quite inadequate for protection of life respectively in the want of their being called upon to act. Men in abundance could be hired here, in fact I am endeavouring to procure some — but they will be of little use with out arms, accoutrements and some sort of uniforms, however simple — The latter should at the same time be of the best quality — under these circumstances I beg to recommend that twenty men should be hired armed, clothed and accoutred in Melbourne and forwarded up on the command of a Sergeant.
Even if a miner had lost his licence, or it had been destroyed in dirty or wet working conditions, he could be fined or gaoled. This watercolour by Samuel Thomas Gill shows two elderly men in uniform standing outside a licence tent. One has a rifle with a fixed bayonet. These 'pensioners' were military men who had retired from service and were recruited to help police the goldfields due to a shortage of regular officers.
Watercolour by Samuel Thomas Gill, Resistance to the licence fee spread throughout the fields. League members took their inspiration from the British Chartist movement, in which some of the miners had been directly involved before coming to Victoria. The Chartist movement was a step by the new working-class, born out of the Industrial Revolution, to improve their rights and gain political representation.
But anger grew as the colonial government refused to compromise. On 29 November a meeting at Bakery Hill in Ballarat attracted more than 10, angry miners.
The following resolution was passed:. That in the event of any party being arrested for having no licence, that the united people will, under the circumstances, defend and protect them. On 30 November miners in Ballarat met again and elected Peter Lalor as their leader.
They swore to fight together against police and military. Using timber from nearby mining shafts, they built a stockade and prepared to defend it. On 3 December almost mounted and foot troopers and police stormed the stockade.
The miners were overpowered almost immediately.
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