John Wiseman
That the impost of Thirty Shillings a Month is unjust because the successful and unsuccessful Digger are assessed in the same ratio
For these reasons and others which could be enumerated Your Petitioners pray Your Excellency to Grant the following Petition
* First. To direct that the Licence Fee be reduced to Ten Shillings a Month
* Secondly To direct that Monthly or Quarterly Licenses be issued at the option of the Applicants
* Thirdly To direct that new arrivals or invalids be allowed on registering their names at the Commissioners Office fifteen clear days residence on the Gold Fields before the License be enforced
* Fourthly To afford greater facility to Diggers and others resident on the Gold Fields who wish to engage in Agricultural Pursuits for investing their earnings in small allotments of land
* Fifthly To direct that the Penalty of Five Pounds for non-possession of License be reduced to One Pound
* Sixthly To direct that (as the Diggers and other residents on the Gold Fields of the Colony have uniformly developed a love of law and order) the sending of an Armed Force to enforce the License Tax be discontinued.
Your Petitioners would respectfully submit to Your Excellency's consideration in favour of the reduction of the License Fee that many Diggers and other residents on the Gold-fields who are debarred from taking a License under the present System would if the Tax were reduced to Ten Shillings a Month cheerfully comply with the Law so that the License Fund instead of being diminished would be increased
Your Petitioners would also remind your Excellency that a Petition is the only mode by which they can submit their wants to your Excellency's consideration as although they contribute more to the Exchequer that half the Revenue of the Colony they are the largest class of Her Majesty's Subjects in the Colony unrepresented
And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray etc.
Contents
Background
Goldfields Involvement, 1853-1854
Signed the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition. Agitation of the Victorian goldfields started with the Forest Creek Monster Meeting in 1851, but what became known as the Red Ribbon Movement was centred around the Bendigo goldfields in 1853. The Anti-Gold License Association was formed at Bendigo in June 1853, led by George Thomson, Dr D.G. Jones and 'Captain' Edward Browne. The association focused its attention on the 30 shillings monthly licence fee miners were required to pay to the government. They drew up a petition outlining digger grievances and called for a reduced licence fee, improved law and order, the right to vote and the right to buy land. The petition was signed by diggers at Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, McIvor (Heathcote), Mount Alexander (Harcourt) and other diggings. The 13 metre long petition was presented to Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe in Melbourne on the 01 August 1853, but their call for a reduction in monthly licence fees and land reform for diggers was rejected. The diggers dissatisfaction erupted into the Red Ribbon Rebellion where agitators wore red ribbons on their hats symbolising their defiance of the law and prohibitive licence fees.
Post 1854 Experiences
John Wiseman signed a Petition in 1857 objecting to the continuation of McCrae Street. In 1857 McCrae Street between Baxter Street and Plumridge Street was not open to traffic because all the land on the east side of the Bendigo Creek was being dug over by the miners in their search for gold. But the street had been marked out on paper and blocks of land sold. The landowners wanted the road formally gazetted and opened and the puddlers and miners were not satisfied that they had found all the gold ther and petitioned for more time or compensation. [1]
To the Honorable, the Commissioners of Public Lands and Works
The Memorial of the Undersigned Puddlers, Miners and other residents on Bendigo
Respectfully Sheweth That your memorialists have heard with feelings of regret and astonishment that a petition has been presented to your Honorable Board from certain Storekeepers residing in this Township praying that a street known as McCrae Street should be extended and continue along the centre of the present alluvial workings on Bendigo Flat and which land is at present being worked by a large number of your memorialists both by Puddling Mills and otherwise
Second That your memorialists would respectfully submit to your Honorable Board the fact that this Flat has for some time been and still continues the resort of large numbers of alluvial Diggers in the summer in account of the never failing supply of water found there when the workings on the other parts of Bendigo are stopped from the scarcity of that necessary element in Digging operations and also the fact that your Memorialists are quite sure that by the aid of more powerful machinery the whole of the soil composing the said Flat will supply highly remunerative labour to great numbers for many years to come
Third That your memorialists would most earnestly and respectfully urge upon your Honorable Board that at a time like the present when there are so few places where payable ground can be found, the inexpediency of alienating from the Crown any land which is known to be auriferous becomes more apparent than ever more, especially in this case where to benefit some seven or eight storekeepers, a manifest injustice is sought to be perpetrated on some hundreds of Puddlers and Miners
Fourth That your memorialists would remind your Honorable Board that a road running parallel with the one now sought to be made has already been constructed at an enormous expense to the Road Board and which is at no point more than 500 yards from the proposed one and fully meets all the requirements of the district
Fifth That when a similar request was made to your Honorable Board some eight months ago it was declined on the simple ground that the land was auriferous and that previous attempts had been made by the same parties to induce your Honorable Board to form the said road which in each case have failed and your memorialists would respectfully submit to your Honorable Board that there are some one hundred more Puddling Mills on the Flat thus there was at that time each of which Mills employ from three to four men and an average three horses
Sixth That your memorialists would also draw the attention of you Honorable Board to the resolution unanimously carried by the local Court of Bendigo on this subject on the -------- day of September 1857
Seventh That while the abstraction of any portion of auriferous land would evidently be a great injustice to the whole of the increasing digging population it could only benefit some six or eight persons who have property likely to be increased in value by the extension of McCrae Street As the continued agitation of this question has become irksome to your memorialists from the expense and loss of time occasioned by so frequently preparing and signing memorials to your Honorable Board Your memorialists would therefore pray your Honorable Board to finally settle this vexed question by signifying their intention of keeping the said Flat for the use of the digging population so long as it is known to be auriferous
See also
Ballarat Reform League Inc. Monuments Project
Further Reading
References
- ↑ PROV VPRS 242P Unit 40
External links
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