UNKNOWN.

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 140, 2 June 1887, Page 4

UNKNOWN.

AN URGEN AIM "E AL ON BEHALF j OF 50 WIDOWS AND 100 OB- | PIIANS. Asihe disaster that took place at the ; Bulli.A&llirry" on the 23rd March last was tite r 6iost appnlhng that has ever -hippen«fiS in Australia, it is to be hoped . that a calamiiy so unparalleled in our , colonial history, although- occurring in ] Few SouJh WfcU-s, will call forth a nat- j jxiii »l hk»fosß« of practical sympathy j for lie trid.-rtrs and orphans deprived ol thrir bread-winners by that terrible eir<ra instance. t»f opr.ard« of eighty men and-youths in the mine when the fearful explosion took vl&ce, not * one was left to tell , the awfol tale of their terrible death, Ylost of .the. 'ill-fated men were married, and, therefore, leave sorrowing widows and many helpless children— numbering about TWO Hr/KDfiED. And, painfully sad as it is to relate, that large total *ill be increased within the next fi-jf months by about thiett okphans TETUNBOB2T. ' j Sagafdiajf the straitened, as well as j snri, circumstances in which these widows and orphans are placed, it need only be n>*ntinned that at the time of the disaster work had i?een resumed at the coliiery otily a few weeks after a six months' strike, by which the miners lost all and gained nothing. And married men only haying- been re-employed after the Btrike causes the number of widows and orphans to be greater in proportion to the lost than under ordinary circumstances would be the case. In fact, the victims of the disaster were cut off under peculiarly distressing circumstances as well as in a terrible manner, all being men either whose means had become exhausted during the strike er whose want of means and m« ability to obtain any other employment caused them to no to work in the colliery. These sad facts tell their own pitiful tale concerning the position of the widows und orphans, who as a body, j it is pleasing here to state, are most BBSPKCTABLE. Altogether, eons'derinjj the melancholy cavse for th-_ Bolli Relief Fund move metit, and the large number of widows and orphans overtaken by such desolating ruin, the crushing effects of their position must be bitteriy felt by them for many long years, unless assistance of a most generous character be extended to thrm. Tt is fervenily to be hoped, therefore, that the individual action for the raisin it of the said fund to a total amount somewhat equal to the magm« tude of the requirements of the occasiou will be. taken most heartily and effectively all over the Australian coloaies. In considering the sad position of these rirrr widows, l«*t it be born in mind that the earnings of their fiftt DEAD HUS» bands, at the low average of £2 per week wuuid amount to a total of £5200 a year, £!6.600 for three year*, £26,000 for five years, or £52.000 for ten years. All these earnings have been lost to them iv a moment, and now they and their 160 orphan children are dependent upon the public for support. T:«ink of this sad fact, yet more fortunately situated men and women all over the Australian colenies, and ot your kind sympathy nnd benevolence lend a liberal 1-. el ping hand to these your bereaved and j distressed fellow creatures. sTou cannot dry their tears, or restore to them their lost ones, but, by contributing toward the Relief Fund, you will be acting as husbands to the widows and fathers 1 1 the fatherless by providing means ot living for them. The need, is great, but it all in these colemes, who have Hearts to fed for others' woes, give toward the Fund according to their mtira*, the want* of those in such need will be supplied to a very considerable extent. '■ . And whatever sums may be contributed toward the Reiiet Fund should be for» warded with the least possible delay, as although the widows and orphans will be dependent upon the public for years to come, subscriptions in aid of their wants wilj' be certain to cease after a comparaa thrvly brief period from the present. It cannot be, however, that this appeal shall have been made in vain, or that it will be inadequately responded to, urged as it is, on the broad ground of our coma ii»on -humanity by so many widowed w nien and orphaned children, for whom -';ieir dead husbands and fathers now plead, as it were with the " silent eloquence of the grave." The Committee of which the gentlemen ..-.; whose nau:es are hereto attached are treasurers was formed at Wollongong : (i he chief town of the district in which 'J:' the disaster occurred) immediately after ijie fejrible event. Persons not , subscribing toward this uruemly required Fund through any local committee in their own localities, or in any other way more desirable t<> themHplvr*, chn do so by addressing their kind contributions either to the Central Commillet' in Sv-Jney, the Branch Committee at Buili (fciKrtt miles from Wollongongj, or to W. J. POULTER, Mayor of Wollongong, A. A. TURNER, Police Magistrate, Joint Tbkascbebs, Wollongong Branch Bulh Relief Fund. Town Hall, Wollongong, N.S.W., April 6th. 1887.