THE PIONEERS OF BALLARAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 1086, 21 September 1872, Page 5

THE PIONEERS OF BALLARAT.

(Ballarat Star. )

The first gathering of the pioneers of Ballarat took place on Monday, the 26th August, to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the rocking of the first gold-cradle in Ballarat. The Alfred Hall was the trysting-place, and the hall was gaily decorated with flags and evergreens. All the spacious nave of the hall was enclosed, and besides a cross table at the top, four lines of tables ran the whole length of the hall, save an emergency cross table at the bottom, which was also crowded, and not seats enough then for all the crowding guests. There never has been so large a public dinner in Ballarat as this of the Ballarat pioneers. When the Duke of Edinburgh was feted in the same hall some 252 guests assembled ; but on this occasion of the gathering of the pioneers 439 guests sat down, and many were excluded because they had not obtained tickets in time, and the provision made would not allow of the admittance of more than the tables could accommodate. A goodly number of lady pioneers joined the assembly, and thus added a grace to the gathering which most public banquets lack. Lady friends of pioneers also, but who were not pioneers, and therefore not entitled to a seat at the banquet, were admitted to the gallery, and the scene presented was therefore altogether one of the gayest that has been seen in Ballarat. A peculiar interest was given to the spectacle from the fact that for the first time in Ballarat there were met together men and women who had fought through the old, hard, rough times of the early days, when there was no borough or city, and no elegant homes, with their conveniences of civilisation, to afford the means of comfortable repose and domestic enjoyment, such as the city and district now possess. From all parts of the district and colony there came men grey with the gathered years, and with memories full of the old times that can never come back again. The men who first found gold on Golden Point were represented by Woodward and Warren ; Mr Adams, " the father of Buninyong," was there ; George Innes, the "king of the splitters," was there. He was taken from the plough to act as guide to General Macarthur's troops in their approach to Ballarat in 1854. Mr Oddie, Mr Bath, and others cf the 1851 days was there, and chief and first of the pioneer ladies, Mrs Bath, was there, and it was one of the events of the evening that that lady was formally invested by the president with a laurel wreath in token of her being the first woman who braved the then unknown dangers and hardships of the then new goldfield. The investment was accompanied by a chaste presidential embrace, amid the ringing cheers of the large assembly.

The engaging of the German and Scandinavian immigrants, who recently arrived in. Canterbury, was commenced in Christchurch on the sth inst. The Press of the following ing day says:— "Out of sixty-one single women forty- two were engaged, eleven of these going to Timaru. Twenty-three single men out of thirty-three found suitable employment, at fair rates of wages. Of the families, four were engaged, leaving forty-eight still for employment. Some of them will, no doubt, find situations in the course of a few days, and no difficulty is anticipated in placing the single men and single women at present remaining in barracks. The following rates of wages were given to those engaged : — Married couples — Farm labourers — £40 to £45 per annum, and found ; to receive a bonus of £10 if remaining twelve months. Blacksmiths and carpenters, £45, and found ; to receive a bonus of £10 if remaining twelve months. Tailor, £52 per annum, and found. Single men — Ploughmen and good farm labourers, £30 to £40 per annum ; labourers, £25, and found. Female servants— Cooks. £30; general servants, £20; housemaids, £20; nursemaids, £12 to £18. All those engaged seemed well satisfied with the rates of wages received, and all expressed themselves pleased with the treatment received since their arrival." A number of the remaining immigrants were engaged next day at the same rates. 18 married men were engaged for railway work at 7b a day.