16 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



a stimulus in the rumour that the Legislative Council of New 

 South Wales had proposed the total abolition of the obnoxious 

 licence fee. The assumption was premature, as the Council had 

 only referred the matter to a Select Committee to inquire and 

 report, but it strengthened the local opposition, and won over 

 recruits from the successful and unsuccessful alike. They did not 

 trouble about the effect which the abrupt cessation of a revenue 

 of 700,000 a year might have on the administration ; they looked 

 at it from the nearer standpoint of 18 a year in their own pockets. 

 After many noisy gatherings and much heated discussion, the ex- 

 treme demand for total abolition of the fee was abandoned, and 

 forces were united to make a determined stand for its reduction 

 to 10s. per month. 



At a meeting of some 2,000 miners at Bendigo a petition was 

 adopted to the Lieutenant-Governor to which over 5,000 signatures 

 were obtained, and a delegation was appointed to present it in per- 

 son, which was done on the 1st of August. The petition, after 

 reciting in detail the many grievances under which the diggers 

 laboured, prayed for a reduction of the fee to 10s. per month, 

 with the option of paying quarterly, if desired, and an allowance 

 of fifteen days to new arrivals on any field before enforcing 

 the fee. It also strongly urged the immediate cessation of the 

 employment of an armed force to collect the tax, and wound up 

 by reminding the Lieutenant-Governor that they were reduced 

 to petition for their rights, because they were the only class un- 

 represented in the Legislature, though they contributed by direct 

 taxation something like a million of money towards the support of 

 the State. Mr. Latrobe, as was his wont, received the deputation 

 with courtesy ; he informed them that he had no power to set aside 

 an Act of the Legislature without the consent of that body, but 

 he promised to take every point urged by the delegates into full 

 and immediate consideration. The delegates were not satisfied, 

 and having the support of the Argus (just then especially vehement 

 in its denunciations of Latrobe as " faithless and incapable "), a 

 public meeting was convened in Melbourne by the Mayor to 

 secure a metropolitan backing for the miners' cause. Formal 

 resolutions were passed declaring that the trouble on the gold- 



