THE GOLDFIELDS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT 15 



good conduct and proper accommodation. A class was thus created 

 having a direct pecuniary interest in suppressing the unlicensed 

 vendor, and gradually the police were relieved of a large portion of 

 one of their most irksome and unpopular duties. 



But other troubles were pending. The Lieu tenant-Governor 

 had more than once expressed the opinion in his despatches that 

 the licence fee was far from being a satisfactory method of providing 

 the expenses of goldfield management, and could only be regarded 

 as a temporary measure. In September, 1852, he had directed the 

 introduction of a Bill in the Council authorising an export duty on 

 gold, but it had not been passed. On the 12th of September, 1853, 

 he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle deploring the fact that, owing to 

 serious and unexpected difficulties having suddenly developed at Ben- 

 digo, the hope he had entertained of seeing the colony well through 

 all the troubles of its unprecedented crisis before handing over the 

 reins to his successor was not destined to be realised. The discon- 

 tent arising out of the exaction of the licence fee had been steadily 

 growing. It had been admitted from the outset that it was a system 

 which could only be enforced so long as public opinion conceded its 

 necessity or expedience. The grounds of opposition were variously 

 stated : its excessive rate, as compared with the impost on the 

 squatter ; the inequality of its incidence, the man getting his 500 oz. 

 per week paying the same as the luckless miner who had sunk all 

 his worldly possessions in a claim that did not give him a dinner ; 

 the great loss of time incurred by the tedious delays in obtaining 

 the licence every month, and the interference with work in being so 

 often called upon to produce it ; its collection and inspection being 

 often made with blustering arrogance, and practically at the point 

 of the bayonet ; and, finally, the denial of political and social rights 

 to the class that contributed nearly one-half of the ordinary revenue 

 of the colony. The mutterings grew into growls. Meetings in all 

 the important centres were held to protest. Plenty of agitators were 

 forthcoming, and all sorts of impossible schemes of union were dis- 

 cussed, having for their object resistance to the Government regu- 

 lations and the circumventing of the officials. 



The largest mining population was at this date concentrated 

 at Bendigo, and the activity of the aggrieved workers received 



