Absalom Penhall
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.
Family
- Funeral Notice. THE Friends of Mr John Kimber are respectfully invited to follow the remains of liis late beloved wife to the place of interment, the Castlemaine General Cemetery. The Cortege will move from his residence, Doveton-street East, TO-MORROW (Saturday), at 2.30 p.m. NIEBUHR & SON, Undertakers. Funeral Notice. THE Friends of the late Mrs M. A. Bursill (relict of the late Mr Absalom Penhall) are respectfully invited to follow her remains to the place of interment, the Chewton Cemetery. The Cortege will move from the residence of her son-in-law (Mr R. Inch), Main-street, Chewton, TO-MORROW (Sunday), at 3.30 p.m. NIEBUHR & SON, Undertakers.[1]
Obituary
- Two Lives lost by the Stump Nuisance. — An inquest was held at Campbell's Creek on the 6th instant, on view of the bodies of Absalom Penhall and Timothy Murphy. Felix Godfroy, a miner, residing at Campbell's Creek, deposed that on the night of the 5th he heard a noise, which being repeated, he and a man living with him want down the road, and found a cart overturned, and the body of deceased quite dead under the dray. They procurod assistance and called in the police. Sub-Inspector Furnell had nar rowly examined the ground, and noticed a large stump in the middle of the road; trackod the wheel marks, and had no hesitation in saying that the cart was upset by coming in contact with that stump. There was a contused wound on the right side of the neck, where the guard of the cart had pressed against it. Charles Williams, licensed victualler, proved refusing porter to the deceased, and supplying ginger beer. Deceased left in company with the boy Murphy. David Penhall, a relative, deposed to missing deceased and the cart after going to got a light at the 'Odd Follows' Arms, and also that deceased had been drinking ever since he was disoharged from the custody in which he had been through delirium tremens. The finding the body of the lad Timothy Murphy was also evidenced by the same party, and the jury returned a verdict to the effect of their being accidentally killed by the upsetting of a dray. The unfortunate man has left a widow and five small children in straitened circumstances, and the father of the lad Murphy has been recently deprived, of another son by a violent death.[2]
Post 1854 Experiences
See also
Ballarat Reform League Inc. Monuments Project
Further Reading
References
External links
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