and Louis Joseph Papineau.

Peas 3, 1954, marks the 100th anniversary of the
stand of the miners at the Eureka Stockade on the Ballarat
goldfield in the colony of Victoria, Australia.

The diggers raised their blue flag with its white Southern

Cross against the tyranny of an undemocratic government, just
as Canadians had done in 1837 under William Lyon MacKenzie

Their courageous fight, while not in itself victorious, open-

ed the way as did our own Rebellion of 1837, to the democratic
advance of the whole people of the country.

For that reason their memory is kept green by the Austra-
lian working class and especially by the Australian Communist
party which today leads the fight for a democratic Australia, as

the diggers did in 1854.

In saluting this great day in the history of our sister
Commonwealth, we also salute the memory of two Canadians
who, far from their native land fought and died for human
freedom and whose names are carved in the annals of the
working classes .of both our countries.

When a Canad
for the South

By KEITH RALSTON

THE sun shone brightly in a sky heaped up with fleecy white
clouds and the blue flag with its white stars in the shape
of a cross snapped in the breeze that blew across the top of

. Bakery Hill.

At the foot of the eighty-foot flagpole, were ranged a
company of armed men — the honor guard for the new flag —
under Captain Ross, a Canadian from Toronto.

In front of the color party the
miners of Ballarat had gathered
and their leader, Peter Lalor,
stood on a stump and addressed

them.

“T order all persons who do not

- . intend to take the oath to leave

the meeting at once,’ he com-
-manded.
' “Let all divisions under arms
‘fall in’ in the order around the
flagstaff.”

Five hundred armed miners
advanced to the flagstaff, the
captains of each division salut-
ing Lalor, who then knelt down
and removed his hat. :

Pointing at the standard, he
Jed in taking the oath.

“We swear by the Southern
Cross to stand truly by each
other, and fight to defend our
rights and liberties.” A solemn
“amen” echoed his words and
500 right hands stretched out to
We flag *

The time was the end of No-
vember, 1854 — the place the

Ballarat goldfields in the Austral- |

ian colony of Victoria. The dig-
gers had armed themselves to
defend their rights against the
persecutions of the autocratic
colonial government.

The gold rush was nearly three
years old. It had _ practically
doubled the population of Aust-
ralia — from 400,000 to 800,000.
It had transformed a pastoral
land, a country of huge sheep

tarms, into a bustling commun-_

ity dependent on the miners who
washed for gold in the rolling
bills and scrub trees of the
“push.” The convict of only yes-
terday had given way to the free
n.iner or “digger.” :

Fortunes were made to be
sure, but for most, the rush that
shot the population of the
colony of Victoria up by three
times over 1851, meant only
wages tor the working miners.
The money was made by the
merchants of Melbourne and the
land speculators — building lots
shot up to fabulous prices.

After gold was discovered
those ‘who flocked to the gold
diggings at Ballarat, Bendigo and
elsewhere found themselves un-

er the sway of a government in
which they had no part.

The ruling group in the colony
_ consisted of the

wealthy owners of vast tracts of
sheep-raising land. They,  to-

“squatters,” .

were to be allowed to reap a
fortune.

The miners had no vote and
they could not buy land, but the
biggest hardship was that they
were forced to pay 30 shillings a
nm onth as a miner’s license wheth-
er they struck pay dirt or not.

The license was actually a tax
—a poll tax levied by a govern-
ment in which the miners had
no voice. It was put on instead
of an export tax on gold that

would have been fairer but would
have hurt powerful friends of
the ruling clique. ©

The governor sent in gold com-
missioners supported by police
to collect the tax, and backed by
the threat of troops if the miners
did not pay.

The tax was bitterly opposed
by the miners. Its collection
was evaded and the government

increased the pressure to wring - |

the money out of the miners.

In the fields around Ballarat
were four gold commissioners,
each with his own police, and
their jurisdictions overlapped.
The unfortunate miner might
have to climb out of his deep
workings twice a day to show his
license at the demand of a uni-
formed ruffian. ae
. Woe betide the poor digger
who had no license! He was
roughly handled, often pricked
with the bayoriet and dragged
off to the stocks. So the diggers
adopted a warning system. When-
ever the police appeared on the
scene, the cry of “Joe. Joe” (the
governor’s name was Joseph
Latrobe) went up and miners
without licenses scattered into
the surrounding bush.

_ Events came rapidly to a head
in the year 1854. The diggers
had earlier prevented an attempt
to double the licenses and had
forced a reduction. But a new
governor, Hotham, was sent out

: with orders to enforce collection

gether with the British governor

and his official hangers-on, made
up the legislative council and
they were determined that the
miners should have no say in af-
fairs. : ae we

The miners were to be made
to pay for the upkeep of the gov-
ernment -while the merchants
and speculators who fed on them

\

of licenses. !

Hotham, backed by troops, ord-
ered, an increase in digger hunts,
as they were called. At the
same time, the British govern-
ment postponed the long-awaited
new constitution that would have
given the diggers some. represen-
tation in the legislature.

A spark that set off the strug-
‘gle was the murder of a popular
young digger outside the Eureka

Hotel. Witnesses named Bentley,

the hotel keeper, a tough ex-
convict from the penal colony
of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)
as the murder, but the magistrate
acquitted him. f

The miners were outraged.
They met to petition for an in-
dependent inquiry into the mur-
der. The authorities responded
by riding mounted policemen

mes

gs

ian fought ©
Cross

Melbourne today is a city of more than a million people.

‘through the meeting. In the

fracas that followed the Eureka
Hotel was looted and burned.
The governor’s reaction was to

send more troops to the area and.

{fo arrest three miners, chosen
practically at rahdom, for their
alleged part in the fire. Popular
pressure also made the governor
dismiss the magistrate and sey-
cral police officers and to re-
arrest Bentley who, with his two
accomplices, was sentenced to
viree years.

The miners felt that their stand
was vindicated but a few days
later the three arrested miners
were also sentenced to jail de-
spite evidence that they had not
tsken any part in the burning of
the hotel. : *

This rank injustice convinced ©

most of the miners that they
could hope for nothing from the
sovernment and that they must
organize to protect themselves
and to secure reforms.

*

The men who thus came to-
gether to try conclusionswith the
autocratic and high-handed rep-
resentatives of the Crown in the
colony were, many of them, not
strangers to the fight for free-
dom. In their ranks were Irish-
men exiled for fighting for their
country’s independence, English
Chartists and trade unionists de-
ported to Australia for their

struggle for democratic rights,
Canadians transported .to the
forced labor camps of Van Die-
men’s Land after the defeat of
the Rebellion of 1837, Italians,
Germans and other Europeans
who had fought and lost in the
1848 revolution that failed to
bring liberal democracy to the
continent.

With them joined experienced
miners from the camps of Cali-
fornia, native Australians, then
called Cornstalkers or Currency
Lads, and all the other free spirits

who left their homes to seek a
new life.

The next move on the part of
the miners was to organize a
‘Ballarat Reform League to secure
redress of their grievances. Its
immediate demands were the

withdrawal of the gold commis-.

sioners and the abolition of the
licenses.
was taken from the Six Points
sdvanced by the English Chart-
ists in their democratic struggles.

The League sent a delegation
to the governor in Melbourne to
cemand release of the three pris-
oners. His answer was to send
more police and troops. In the
subsequent skirmish with the
miners several men were injured.

The next day a monster meet-
ing was held to hear the report
of the delegates to the governor.
Ten thousand men gathered at

Its political platform.

new

the meeting spot on Bakery Hill.
Angered by the governor’s re-
fusal of their demands, the dig;
gers burned their licenses in a
huge bonfire.

*

The government’s reply was an-
other digger hunt the next morn-
ing. A party of mounted troop-
ers was met with stones, the
r ilitary were called out in sup-
port and fired over the miners’
heads and the cavalry charged
the crowd, injuring many.

Exasperated beyond endurance
the diggers scattered to look for
arms and ammunition to defend
themselves. Rallied in their con-
fusion by Peter Lalor, who now
came to the front as their leader,
1000 men formed up in a column.
Scantily-armed, they marched,

led by the Southern Cross flag |

borne proudly by a Canadian,
Captain Ross, to Bakery Hill at
nearby Eureka and prepared to
1esist further raids.

Determined to meet force with

force, the diggers set up a rough
military organization. Lalor was

elected as commander and the

men were divided into divisions.

In the next couple of days, a
svockade was erected’ at Eureka,
nien were drilled and a pitifuliy
small stock of arms was assembl-
ed to defend the, camp.

Most of the miners remained
hopeful even then that the gov-

ernment would negotiate their —

grievances, and their hope was
bolstered by the fact that the

authorities made no moves for

several days.
- But the authorities, learning
from their spies that the mili-
tarily inexperienced miners were
relaxing their vigilance, decided
to take the stockade by surprise.
In the cold dawn of Sunday,
December 3, 1854, the troops and
police attacked the flimsy fort.

“Only about 200 men remained in-

side, the rest of the diggers hav-
ing gone back to their tents to
spend the night, and of these
only half had arms. There was
a short fight before the soldiers
broke into the stockade. \

About 30 miners were ‘killed
outright or later died of wounds.

Captain Ross was struck down at

his post, fighting bravely to the
last. He and another Canadian,
Robert Julien from Nova Scotia,
died of their wounds.

Once the diggers’ resistance
had been broken’ the hated police
swarmed in.
were stabbed repeatedly, inno-

cent bystanders were murdered

and scores jailed.

Finally 13 of the alleged lead- ~

ers stood trial, including Carboni
Raffaello, the historian of the
stockade, - and an American
Negro, John Josephs. -

But public opinion in the col-

_ony was aroused. Meetings were

held in Melbourne denouncing the
government and expressing strong
support for the miners’ cause.
The rising trade union move-
ment ranged itself alongside the
miners. ‘

When the governor insisted on
proceeding with the trials in face
of overwhelming popular opposi-
tion, eminent lawyers volunteer-
ed for the prisoners’ defense,

juries promptly acquitted every —

one of them and they were greet-
ed in the streets of Melbourne
with thunderous applause.

The administration was also
forced to act on the miners’ griev-
ances — the license fees were
abolished, the miners given the
vote and the right to own land.

Within six months a general
amnesty had been proclaimed
and a year later the miners’
leader Peter Lalor, wounded in
the Stockade, was sitting as a
member in the new Victorian
parliament. - ; .

The brave stand of the miners

Wounded miners

meant the coming of democratic

responsible government to Aus-
tralia. In the next several years,
constitutions

lot and responsible government,
were in force in all the Austra-
lian colonies — a direct result

of the struggle at the Eureka
. Stockade.

embodying
taanhood suffrage, the secret bal- —

_ PACIFIC TRIBUNE — DECEMBER 3, 1954 — PAGE 10