Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 7, 14 November 1887, Page 4

AN URGENT APPEAn OH BEHALF OF 50 WIDOWS .AMD 150 ORPHANS. A fie disaster that took pi nee at the i' l ’ Hi Collier}’ on the k3:d Blareli iaf-r tho most appalling that has ever U;».!.» v <pncii in Australia, it is to be I opt d eS; pr n eaamhy so unparadeind m our colonial history, although occurring New South Wales, wii c il forth a national response of pra sympathy for the widows and orph x deprived of their breadwinners by that terrible circumstance. Of upwards of EIGHTY men a..d youths in the mine when the fearful explosion took place, not one was left to tell tne awlti; tale of their terrible death. Host of the ill-fated men were married, and, therefore, leave sorrowing widows ami 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 months by about thirty 'iuphans yet UNBORN. llegarding the straitened, as well as sad, circumstances in which these widows anti orphans are placed, il need only be mentioned that at the time of the Disaster wuik hat! been resumed at the colliery only a lew weeks after a six months’ strike, by which the miners lost ail anti gained limbing. And .married men only, having been re-employed after the strike, causes the number ot wiuows and orphans to be greater in proportion to the lost than under ordinary circumstances would be- luo Case. In fact, tho victims of the disaster were cm olf under peculiarly distressing circumstances as well as in a terrible maimer, at! being men either whose means had become exhausted during the strike or whose want of means and inability to obutin any other employment caused them to go to work m the colliery. Ihese a;d facis led their own pilitu I.do concerning the position of the widows and orphans, who as a body, it is pleasing here to stale, are MOST RESPECTABLE, Altogether, considering the melancholy cause tor the JBulli Helief Fund movement, and the largo number of widows ami orphans overtaken by such desolating ruin, the ciushing effects ot their position must be bitterly fell by them for many long years, unless assistance of a most ten crons character be extended to them, It is fervently to be hoped, therefore, that united and individual adieu for the raising of the sain fund to a total amount somewhat equal to the magnitude of the requirements of the occasion will be taken muei heartily, and effectively all over tho Australian colonies.

In considering the sad position of. these FIFTY WIDOWS, lot it bo borne in mind that i lie earnings of their fifty dfad husbands, at th-; low average of £2 per week, would amount to a total of £5200 a year, £16,600 for three yearn, £26,b00 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 160 oiiPHAN ciiiLDKJEN are dependent upon the public for sup pent, Tnink 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 belping’hand to these your bereaved and distressed fellow creatures. Ton cannot cry tiu-ir tears, or restore to them their lost ones, hut, by contributing toward the Belief fund, you will be acting as husbands to the widows and futheis to the fatherless by providing ■means of living fm them. Ihe need is great, but if all in these colonies, who nave 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 u vc:y considcrab o '-.stent. And whatever sums may be contributed tow.nil the ilelief Fund should be forvvaided with Hie least possible delay, as although the widows ami orphans will be dependent upon the public lor years to come, subscriptions in aid of their wants will bo certain to cease after a comparatively brief perion from .the present. Ii cannot be, however, that this APPEAL shall have been made in vain, or that it wid bo inadequately responded to, urged, as it is, on the broad ground of our common humanity by so many widowed women and orphaned children, for whom their dead husbands and fathers now plead, as it were, with tire “eloquence of the grave. Tim Committee of which the gentlemen whoso names are hereto attached are Treasurers was formed at Woolongong (the chief town of the district in which ihe disaster occurred) immediately after ■ he teirible event. Pers us not subscribing toward this urgently required Fund through any local eoimniuco m their own localities, or in ■ny other way more desirable to them se.ves, can do so by addressing their kind contributions eiuien to me Lenlrai Committee in iSydncy, the rebranch Committee at Bulii (eight miles from Woolongong), or to \V. J. POULTEU, Mayor of Wollongong, A, A. TUifNHK, Police Magistrate, Joint Tueasuuers, Wouiongung Branch Bull! lielief Fund. Town Hall, Wco’ongung, Fi.b.W., April 6; , 1 867, C-tiARLSS POTTS, Gat.pent;-:it, Joinek, & Beildek. |)EGS to thank tire inhabitants of and surrounding districts lor their past support., and while soliciting a continuance for the future, assures ail who may favour him with orders that die 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. j-luucuic ; As cut on- ■• a a .r. j t MRS. J A CO-IB Hgmont-street, Nearly Opposite the Oourt*bou6(j. c:i- ('ll t. :■ 0i _ • >.HCS