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| ‘It may be well here, at once, to correct a false impression
entertained and insisted upon by some, that the license Fee is a tax, and
as such moreover, unjust... The term is in in no way applicable... It is a
charge made upon the individual for the liberty of seeking and
appropriating to his own use that which, according to Law, is the property
of the public, Property from which it is but reasonable and just, that the
community at large... should reap some advantage for the common
good... With regard to the general allegations made against the Police... I can only repeat... that I have been from first to last anxious that the administration of the law and the necessary control over the gold field for the public security, should be carried on without undue severity... With regard to the broad assertion that unlicensed miners have been chained to trees and condemned to hard labor... I am assured that no such illegal sentence has been passed, still less carried out.’ Charles Joseph La Trobe, Reply to Goldfields Petition, 12 August 1853, H7570. |
ImageTitle Charles Joseph La TrobeArtist John Botterill |
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