Difference between revisions of "Charles Nevins"

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==Background==
 
==Background==
Charles Nevins was a quartz-crusher associated with gold mining ventures in Victoria and Tasmania.<ref>Thank you to Neil Huybregts for information from Ballarat Industrial Wiki, and for deciphering the name of Charles Nevins</ref>
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Charles Nevins was a quartz-crusher associated with gold mining ventures in Victoria and Tasmania.
 
There are indications that Charles Nevins was in Victoria as early as 1855<ref name=argus550611>SHIPPING INTELLIENCE. (1855, June 11). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4809386</ref>
 
There are indications that Charles Nevins was in Victoria as early as 1855<ref name=argus550611>SHIPPING INTELLIENCE. (1855, June 11). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4809386</ref>
 
and may have been practising as a ''"Broker for the sale of Ships, &c."''<ref name=argus18550629>COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE. (1855, June 29). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4809998</ref>
 
and may have been practising as a ''"Broker for the sale of Ships, &c."''<ref name=argus18550629>COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE. (1855, June 29). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4809998</ref>

Revision as of 11:25, 12 February 2020

Signature of Charles Nevins from the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition
Bendigo Goldfields Petition Cover, August 1853. State Library of Victoria (MS 12440) and Condemned them to hard labor on the Public Roads of the Colony - A proceeding Your Petitioners maintain to be contrary to the spirit of the British Law which does not recognise the principle of the Subject being a Criminal because he is indebted to the State
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.

 

Red Ribbon Movement Monument in Rosalind Park, Bendigo [detail], 2013. Ballarat Heritage Services Picture Collection

 

Background

Charles Nevins was a quartz-crusher associated with gold mining ventures in Victoria and Tasmania. There are indications that Charles Nevins was in Victoria as early as 1855[1] and may have been practising as a "Broker for the sale of Ships, &c."[2] prior to involving himself in the formation of the Alliance Quartz-Crushing Company, for which he was one the two people chosen "to select the ground on which operations would be commenced.".[3]  

Goldfields Involvement, 1853-1854

Nevins signed the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition as Chas Nevins. 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

An article in the Mount Alexander Mail of 30 May 1856 names him as a shareholder, but not a partner, in "the first association for mining purposes formed under the limited liabilities Act."[4] The Limited Partnership Act was assented to on 21 December 1853, but:

There was no great rush to form this new type of partnership. The first published in the Government Gazette was in April 1855 when Henry Chown, Christopher Kearton and E. Steinfeld and Company advertised their intention to form such a partnership to operate the Freemasons Hotel in Ballarat. The second was for an auctioneer and commission agent, while the third lodged in 1856 was for William Brown and eleven others to form a partnership for quartz crushing and gold extraction at Mount Egerton. Only fourteen such partnerships were formed, and the act was rescinded in 1864.[5]

Of the fourteen partnerships formed under this act before it was repealed in 1864, six were mining partnerships.[5]

One or more unclaimed letters arriving by ship are listed for "Nevin, Chas" on 29 September[6] and 17 October 1856[7] and for "Nevins, Chas, Mount Egerton" on 30 October[8] and 1 November 1856[9] in The Age.

At a meeting called to discuss the problem of mining leasing in Victoria in June 1858, Nevins' name is included as a member of a committee charged with forming "a Society called the 'Victoria Mining Society,' to be established for the purpose of encouraging... mining and commercial interests..."[10]

The Victoria Mining Society does not appear to have ever got going. Perhaps events overtook it. At about the same time, the Bendigo Mining Board initiated a conference in Melbourne which ran from 26 July to 4 August 1858 to discuss a number of issues relating to mining approvals, particularly leasing. The Ballarat board did not attend as it was already allowing large leases. Before long, responsibility for approval for leases was taken away from the boards and was undertaken directly by the government.[5]

Nevins travelled to Tasmania in late June 1859, where the Launceston Examiner, caught up in the frenzy of excitement regarding gold prospects in Tasmania, described him as a "quartz mining celebrity", and reported he was on his way to Fingal "to examine and report upon the quartz reefs of the district".[11]

Nevins may have been involved in a quartz-crushing venture at Bullarook in early 1859.[12]  

See also

  Bendigo Goldfields Petition   Ballarat Reform League Inc. Monuments Project  

Further Reading

 https://bih.federation.edu.au/index.php/Charles_Nevins

References

  1. SHIPPING INTELLIENCE. (1855, June 11). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4809386
  2. COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE. (1855, June 29). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 4. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4809998
  3. DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. (1855, October 12). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 5. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4820671
  4. MINING PARTNERSHIP.--LIMITED LIABILITY. (1856, May 30). Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), p. 6. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202633247
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Birrell, Ralph W (1998). Staking a claim : gold and the development of Victorian mining law. Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Victoria
  6. Advertising (1856, September 29). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 1 (SUPPLEMENT TO THE AGE). Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154871088
  7. Letter List. (1856, October 17). Mount Alexander Mail (Vic. : 1854 - 1917), p. 12. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202632568
  8. Advertising (1856, October 30). The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), p. 7. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article154871240
  9. Advertising (1856, November 1). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 10. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7139308
  10. MINING LEASES. (1858, June 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 5. Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article7295868
  11. TUESDAY, JUNE 28. (1859, June 28). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 3 (AFTERNOON). Retrieved December 3, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38996463
  12. GORDON. (1859, February 2). The Star (Ballarat, Vic. : 1855 - 1864), p. 4. Retrieved December 3, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66333745

 

External links

  https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/family-matters/collections/did-you-ancestor-sign-the-bendigo-goldfields-petition/  


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