Red Ribbons In Bendigo
To describe the diggers as peeved would be a significant understatement. The first major consequence was in Bendigo, in what came to be called the Red Ribbon Rebellion.
In November, 1853, a crowd of some 10,000 or so, agreed to the terms of a petition to Governor La Trobe which called for the removal of the licence fee, or at least its reduction to 10 shillings, greater flexibility in its enforcement, the vote for male diggers, and the opportunity for diggers to buy land. The petition finally presented to La Trobe contained some 5000 signatures, however, one of the leaders claimed it had been signed by over 20,000 people, but a large swag of the signatures disappeared after the robbing of the Bendigo-Melbourne gold coach in Kyneton. La Trobe agreed to meet the miners' representatives, but was pretty grumpy about miners "demanding" a meeting with the king's representative. La Trobe was not, at heart, an inhumane man. He was well read, artistic, and, for the time, generally liberally minded. But, like most men of his time and background (well off, private school) he believed people had their position in life and should satisfy themselves with that position and not bother their "betters" with complaints about their life. It was as it was, and that was as it should be. In essence he sent the miners off with a flea in their ear. Needless to say, upon their return to Bendigo, the other miners received their report with a very high degree of anger. They agreed to wear red ribbon around the crown of their hats as a sign of the degree of support their cause had. Further, as it was August and that month's licence fee had already been paid by those who could pay, about 14,000 of the 20,000 or so miners, they agreed they would only pay 10 shillings for their licences in September, and if that wasn't accepted, they would refuse to pay the fee altogether. The consequence? Only 400 miners paid their fees, a massive reduction. The officials, seeing they couldn't possibly arrest so many non-compliers, called for La Trobe to cancel the licence requirement for a couple of months. Which he did. The officials were right to be concerned. They were on the spot, and they could see how angry the miners were, and they could hear the talk of collecting arms, and launching violent rebellion. The upshot was that the monthly licence fee was reduced to £1 (30 shillings), or £8 for a year's licence. If a miner took the latter he would have the right to vote for the period of the licence. But, really, this just pointed up the fact the government either didn't understand the miners, or it was playing funny buggers, because it would be a very rare miner indeed who could afford £8. Interestingly, after those few months, the fee and the digger hunts resumed, although in Bendigo it was much more carefully managed than elsewhere in Victoria, and the whole Red Ribbon movement pretty much just faded away. |
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