Page 4 Advertisements Column 2

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 4, 3 November 1887, Page 4

TSS BDLLI DISASTER. AN URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF 50 WIDOWS AMD 150 ORPHANS. AS e disaster that took place at the TU’lli Colliery on the 23rd March last °s the must appalling that lias ever I'.apofoed in Australia, it is to be 1 oped that a calamity so unparalleled in our colonial history, although occurring in New South Wales, wil cll forth a national response of pra sympathy for the widows and orpii i deprived of their 'breadwinners by that terrible circumstance. Of upwards of EIGHTY men a.id youths in the mine when the fearful explosion took place, not one was left to tell the awful tale of their terrible death. Host of the ill-fated men were married, and, therefore, leave sorrowing widows and many helpless children—numbering together about TWO hundred. And, painfully sad as it is to relate, that large total will be increased within the next few mouths by about thirty orphans yet UNBORN. Regarding the straitened, as well ns sad, circumstances in which these widows and orphans are placed, it need only bo mentioned that at the time of the uisasler work had been resumed at the colliery only u few weeks after a tux months’ strike, by which the miners lost ail and gained nothing. And married men only, having been re-employed after the strike, causes the number ot widows and orphans to be greater in proportion to the lost than under ordinary circumstances would be the CISC. 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 whoso means had become exhausted during the strike or whose want of means and inability to obtain any other employment caused them to go to woil; m the colliery. 'lhese s.ul facts tell their own pitiful tide concerning the position of the widows and orphani, who as a body, it is pleasing here to state, are MOST RESPECTABLE.

Altogether, eonsidenng the melancholy cause lor the Bulli ItELIEF Fund movement, ami the large number of widows ami orphans overtaken by such desolating •uin, the crushing effects of their position must be bitterly fell by them for many long years, unless assistance of a most generous character be extended to them. It is fervently to be hoped, therefore, that united and individual action for the raising of the said fund to a total amount somewhat equal to the magnitude of the requirements of the occasion will bo taken moot heartily and effectively all over the Australian colonies. In considering the sad position of these FIFTY WIDOWS, let it be borne in mind th.it the earnings of their FIFTY DFAD HUSBANDS, at the low average of £2 per week, would amount to a total of £62f)o a year, £16,000 for three years, £2d,000 for live years, or £62,000 fur ten years. All these earnings have been lost, to them in a moment, and now they and their 160 oltrilAN CHiLDitEN are dependent upon the public for support. Tnink of this sad fact, ye more fortunately situated men and women all over lha Australian colonies, and of your kind sympathy and benevolence lend a liberal helping hand to these your bereaved and distressed fellow creatures. Yon cannot dry their tears, or restore to them their lost ones, but, by contributing toward the ileiief Fund, you will be acting as husbands to the widows and falheis to the fatherless by providing means of living for them. The need is tiiear, but if all in these colonies, who aave Hearts to feel for ethers woes, give toward the Fund according to their means, the wants of those in such need will be supplied to a very cousicierab.e extent. And whatever sums may- be contributed toward the Itelief Fund should be forwarded with the least possible delay, as although the widows and orphans will he dependent upon the public for years to come, subscriptions in aid of their wants will bo certain to cease after a comparatively brief period from the present. It cannot be, however, that this AIT HAL shall have been made in vain, or that it will be inadequately responded to, urged, us it is, on the brgiut ground of our common humanity by so many widowed women ami orphaned children, for whom their DEAD husbands and lathers now plead, as it were, with tire “ eloquence of the grave.” The Committee of which the gentlemen whose names are hereto attached are Treasurers was formed at Woolongoug (tho chief town of the district in which ihe disaster occurred) immediately after the terrible event.

Purs- ns net subscribing toward this urgently required Fund through any local committee in their own localities, or in any other way more desirable to them selves, can do so hy addressing their kind contributions tit tie* to uie Central Committee in Sydney, the Branch Committee at Bull! (eight miles from Wooiongoug), or to W. J. POULTER, Mayor of Wollongong, A, A, TURNER, Police Magistrate, Joint Treasurers, Wooiongoug Branch Bulli Ildiuf Fund. Town Hall, Woolongong, N.S.W., April Gth, 1887. CHAULSS POTTS, Carpenter, Joiner, & Builder. BEGS to thank the inhabitants of Patea and surrounding districts tor their past support, and while eoiieiting a continuance for the future, assures all who m;.y favour him with orders that the attention wid bo prompt, his workmanship good, and his chatgcs to meet the times, strictly moderate. Jobbing work, town or country. Address : Cambridge street. NOTICE. r t US JACOMB desire? to notify to j_\j_ her many friends tint she has opened business in her promises, EGMOET- STREET, with a large, and wd> selected stock of L.C r, ’ES’ AND Chiedrens’ Lineii Drapery, Fancy Goods, Etc., Etc. Ot which sue invites inspection. ; Madame W.-igei’s cut out patterns | proem ed on application. IS T eeJ!cwo;k done on the. premises on the shortest notice. MRS. JACOMB j Egmont-streot, I Nearly Opposite the CcnrtJjcqso*