AUSTRALIA’S RAND TROUBLE

Evening Star, Issue 17920, 16 March 1922, Page 10

AUSTRALIA’S RAND TROUBLE

A HALF-FORGOTTEB REBELLION.

STORY OF THE EUREKA STOCKADE,

The rebellion on the Rand has been very quickly suppressed as the result of General Smuts’a resolute measures. It is only from the report of the Parliamentary Committee, promised for the investigation of the strikers’ grievances, or some equivalent Commission, that we can expect to learn all that curiosity would like to know of the forces which composed it or the motives which inspired the hopeless rising. More than hooligans must have been engaged in the revolt, which gave signs of careful organisation, 'and in which bands to the number of several thousands strong participated, although many of the rebels’ acts, such as the assaults on natives and the living on Red Cross nurscould only be ascribed to murderous ho gans. Communists must have assisted lead many dupes into trouble; but wonders whether the Boer element w was responsible for an earlier rebc in South Africa in war time had rnn hand in this military rising, though political Nationalist Party showed i: favor. The facta which arc a mys.

now will not doubt be cleared up wi.i... there is time for inquiry. Rebellions have been rare in tho history of British Dominions. Canada, had to cope with one fifty years ago, and the Transvaal, which is a new Dominion, or part of a Dominion, has had now its second taste of the disorder. It is less clearly remembered that, sixty-eight years ago, in tho rising which occurred on tho Ballarat mine holds, Australia had its experience of the same kind. Tho trouble which had its climax in tho fight at the Eureka Stockade was a small affair, doubtless, compared with the disturbance on the Rand, but it was not without its points of resemblance to it. It lasted as long, from beginning to end; it was a revolt of minors; it professed to be, and in official pronouncements was correctly described as, a “rebellion” against the State; it caused strong alarm in Melbourne while it lasted; and all the military forces of the colony, as well as a portion of those of Tasmania., were called into motion for its suppression. There were no Communists at that time ; but a general view, at the outset of tho trouble, was expressed by the Governor, Sir Charles Hotham, when he declared that the revolting diggers were less their own agents than “urged on by designing men who had ulterior views, and who hoped to profit by anarchy . . . ; active, designing, intriguing foreigners, whose aim is disorder and confusions.” There were foreigners concerned in tho Ballarat revolt, but they did not form more than a minority of its leaders. It was plain enough, when the excitement had passed, that tho trouble was provoked by real grievances of the men, though it was their impatience and the ineptitude of officials which caused it to develop into rebellion and violence, TYRANNY OR LICENSES.

The system by which license fees were collected was a daily provocation to the Ballarat miners. The fees were collected monthly, and police (many of whom had been first convicts, and then warders in the colony’s gaols, and whoso functions were performed with all the arrogance and brutality they could import into them) could demand the production of a license at any moment, with powers of punishment which they were quick to exercise if it was not forthcoming. Many of these police were corrupt as well as tyrannical. The miners in Victoria, though

they numbered probably more than half its population, had no voice then in the country’s Parliament. They had no power to alter a vicious system, and their complaints wore unheeded by authorities. It was a different matter, however, from tho license system, by ’ which the revolt on their port was directly precipitated. The landlord of a notorious drinking establishment known as the Eureka Hotel was accused of murdering one of his miner customers, whose skull was split, during a general scuffle by a blow from a. shovel. The case was dismissed by a Venal magistrate, who was afterwards discharged from the service for taking bribes, and on October 17, 1854, the minors’ comrades, in a crowd 8,000 strong, mocking the efforts of police to disperse them, first smashed up and then burned the hotel. For this three men were arrested, to be tried at Melbourne. When they wore convicted, on perjured evidence, as was widely believed, and sentenced to terras of imprisonment for an offence of which hundreds, and probably thousands, had been equally guilty, the minors’ indignation knew no bounds. There was still _ little thought, however, of a rebellion with force, when the Ballarat Reform League was formed to press for certain rights for the miners, nil of which have long since been accorded. But a “demand” in place of request which was then made for release of the prisoners roused the spirit of resistance in. authorities. Fearing trouble at Ballarat, the Governor began to arrange for the despatch of troops to tho place. CONFLICTS WITH TROOPS.

, Inflammatory placards threatening revolt were being distributed at Ballarat. Tile first, troops wore intercepted oy miners, who overturned waggons, snppo.-ed to contain ammunition, and caused some casualties to the soldiers. _ On November 29 a meeting was held in Ballarat, at which, after resolving that, if any of their number was arrested for not having a license fee, they would combine to rescue him the miners made great bonfires of their licenses. The next day there was trouble, with, tho police, when inspections could not be made in the usual way, and troops had to bo called in to support them. A now Australian _ flag had been hoisted at the meeting of tho previous dav, and the revolt henceforth assumed the’ form of a regular rebellion, with Peter Lawler, afterwards to _ assume a high place in tho government of his State, as its commander-in-chief. A rough stockade, enclosing about an acre, was erected, and, though a. peace party still existed in the ranks of the insurgents, preparations were made to defend it. A Gorman blacksmith was set to making pike heads, and drill was practised, but tho equipment of the rebels for civil war was so wretched generally that expected allies from a. neighboring minefield preferred not to join them.

1 THE ATTACK ON THE STOCKADE. Meanwhile the Governor had given orders for the whole of one regiment, stationed in Melbourne, with the part not already called upon of another, and a detachment of marines, with field pieces, to proceed to Ballarat. They did not arrive till the rebellion was at an end; but the knowledge that they were on the way was very comforting to earlier forces. The authorities, by virtue of their spies, knew as much as Lawler himself of what was happening in the stockade. They resolved to strike first at their own time, and the attack was made at dawn of December 5. Probably there were not more than 200 men then in the enclosure, of whom barely fifty had rifles, as many more revolvers and old-fashioned holster pistols, and a portion of the remainder pikes, axes, and pitchforks. Most of the rebels were outside the stockade, where the violence and barefaced robberies of their hooligan element, under pretence of levying for supplies for the’league, had not made foi popularity of its cause. The soldiers and police, in three parties altogether, who stormed the encampment or acted as reserves, numbered 276. Hie advantage of arms and discipline was all on their side. In ‘ Our Own Little Rebellion ’ Mr H. G. Eyles tells the story:

As the first rays of the coming sunrise revealed the interior of the stockade it was evident to Captain Thomas that the defence was largely left to chance. Even after the exchange of volleys men wore seen only just emerging from their tents and seeking instructions. The keenest fighters were already at the iocs, but most of them were only armed with fowling pieces or revolvers, and the forlorn brigade of Irish pikemen, waiting to receive a charge of cavalry, were the unhappy recipients of many bullets which they had no means of returning. After another volley from the soldiers, which sounded like an earthquake in comparison with the dropping fire of the insurgents, the order was given to charge. With a wild cheer the soldiers threw themselves on the flimsy palisades, which readily went down before them. For a quarter of an hour there was a hand-to-hand fight in desperate silence, but the crowd could

not stand against, the compact line of advancing bayonets, and when the cavalry and mounted troopers swooped in upon them on both flanks they fell back demoralised to seek shelter, and all was over. ' MARTIAL LAW PROCLAIMED. The number of the insurgents killed was estimated at from thirty-five to forty. Of the mititaiy five were killed and a dozen wounded. The proclamation of martial law which followed was generally welcomed by the district. On the Tuesday following the assault new forces, to the number of 800 regular soldiers and about 100 marines, with four pieces of artillery and “all the ponderous impedimenta re-

ccssary for a. five days’ march, with a possible campaign at the end of it,” made their appearan-o at Ballarat; but they were not needed. By that time the excitement in Melbourne was greater than on the goldfield. “ During tk| first week of December the metropolis was plunged in excitement and alarm, 'the wildest rumors were afloat about an infuriated army of diggers being en route to wipe out the Government, and on the afternoon of Monday, the 4th inst., when an express despatch reached town with the news of- the tight at Eureka, the death roll of that calamity was. magnified a hundred times.” Preparations were made for enrolling a rifle brigade for the defence of the city during tile absence of the military, and the advisafcleness was urged on the mayor of swearing in at once “ all respectable people ” as special constables. The Governor sent a message to the Governor of Tasmania for additional troops to bn sent to Melbourne in case of a renewal of disturbances, and 300 men of the 99th Regiment were sent by special steamer. But by the time of their arrived 1 all tho fears and anxiety had died down. Thirteen of the rebels wove tried for high treason, and all were acquitted. Towards oflered for ringleaders, not captured were then withdrawn, and “under a new Chief Secretary reforms in goldfields administration wore begun which, had they been initiated a year earlier, would havo rendered tho struggle at Eureka an impossibility.