Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 5, 7 November 1887, Page 4

THE BELLI DISASTER. AN URGENT APPEAL ON BEHALF OF 50 WIDOWS AND 150 ORPHANS. AS ft disaster that took place at the P.nlli Colliery on the 23rd March last Q s the most appalling that has ever hap’ipned in Australia, it is to be loped 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 orpin deprived of their breadwinners by that terrible circumstance. Of upwards of eighty men a.M youths in the mine when the fearful explosion look place, not one was left to tell (lie 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 bo increased within the next few months by about THIRTY orphans yet UNBORN. Regarding the straitened, as well as sad, circumstances in which these widows and orphans are placed, it need only be mentioned that at the lime of the disaster woik had been resumed at the colliery only a few weeks after a sis months’ strike, by which the miners lost all mid gained nothing. And married men only, having been re-employed after the siiike. 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 cither 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 work in the colliery. 'lhese sad facts tell their own pitiful tale concerning the position of the widows and orphans, who as a body, it is pleasing here to state, are MOST RESPECTABLE.

Aitogether, considering (he melancholy cause lor the Bulli Belief Fund movement, and the large number of widows and 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 (ho raising of the said fund to a total amount somewhat equal to the magnitude of the requirements of the occasion will be taken moei heartily and effectively all over the Australian colonies. In considering the sad position of these FIFTY WIDOWS, let it be borne in mind that i he earnings of their fifty dfad husbands, at tin? low average of £2 per week, would amount to a total of £5200 a year, £.15,G00 for three years, £2G,000 for five years, or £-52,000 for ten years. All these earnings have been lost to them in a moment, and now they and their 150 oiiPUAN cniLDHEN are dependent upon the public for support. Think of this sad fact, ye more fortunately situated men and women all over the Australian colonies, and of your kind sympathy and benevolence lend a liberal helping hand to these your bereaved and distressed fellow creatures. You cannot dry their tears, or restore to them their lost ones, but, by contributing toward the Belief Fund, you will be acting as husbands to the widows and fathers to the fatherless by providing means of living for them. The need is grear, but if all in these colonies, who save Hearts to feci for others woes, give toward the Fund according to their means, the wants of those in such need will be supplied to a very considerable ■extent. And whatever sums may be contributed toward the Belief Fund should be forwarded with the least possible delay, as although the widows and orphans wilt be dependent upon the public for years to come, subscriptions in aid of their wants will be certain to cease after a comparatively brief period from the present. It cannot be, however, that this APPEAL shall have been made in vain, or that it will bo inadequately responded to, urged, as it is, on the broad ground of our common humanity by so many widowed women ami orphaned childien, for whom their dead husbands and fathers now plead, as it were, with the “ eloquence of the grave. ” The Committee of which the gentlemen whose names are hereto attached are Treasurers was formed at VVoolongong (the chief town of the district in which tlie disaster occurred) immediately after the terrible event.

Peiii' ns not subscribing toward this urgently required Fund through any local committee in their own localities, or in any other way more desirable to them selves, cun do so by addressing their kind contributions eitnex to toe Central Committee in Sydney, (be Branch Committee at Bulli (eight miles from Woolongong), or to W. J. POULTER, Mayor of Wollongong, A, A, TURNER, Police Magistrate, dOl NT TREASURERS, Woolongong Branch Bulli Relief Fund. Town Eail, Woolongong, K.S.W., April 6th, 1887. ■ ’CHARLES POTTS, Carpenter, Joiner, & Bujlder. BEGS to thank the inhabitants of Patea and surrounding districts lor their past support, and while solicit-ing-a continuance for the future, assures all who may favour him with orders that the attention will be prompt, his workmanship good, and his charges to meet the times, strictly moderate. Jobbing work, town or country. Address : Cambridge street. NOTICE. MRS JACOMB deJrcs to notify to Iter many friends that she has opened business in her promises, EGMONT- STREET, with [a large, and weU selected slock of Ljt'es’ and Childrens* Linen Drapery, Fancy Goods, Etc., Etc. Of which she invites inspection. Madame W.-igcßs cut out patterns proem-G on application. Needlework done on the premises on tire shortest notice. MRS. JACOMB Egmout-street, Nearly Opposite the Court“house.