Daniel O’Connell was born near Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, on 6 August 1775. His wealthy childless uncle adopted him at an early age and brought him up at Derrynane. He spoke Irish and was interested in the traditional culture of song and story still strong in Kerry at the time. He also understood how the rural mind worked which served him well in later years. In 1791 he was sent to school at St. Omer and Douai and what he saw there of the French Revolution left him with a life-long hatred of violence. He read law at Lincoln’s Inn (1794 -96) and continued his studies in Dublin where he was called to bar in 1798. He had soon built up an enormous practice. The 1798 rising and the terrible butchery that followed it confirmed his horror of violence. While he approved of the principles of the United Irishmen, their call for reform and for Catholic Emancipation, he disagreed with their methods. In 1815 O’Connell criticised harshly the Dublin corporation. O’Connell was challenged to a duel by one member D’Esterre. In the exchange of shots D’Esterre was killed and O’Connell vowed never to fight again. O’Connell was soon drawn into political action. Hopes of Catholic emancipation had been raised by promises given while the act of union was being passed. In 1823, O’Connell founded the Catholic Association. The aim of the organisation was to use all the legal means available to secure emancipation. It turned into a mass crusade with the support of the Catholic clergy. All members of the association paid a membership of a penny a month (the Catholic rent). This helped to raise a large fund. The Clare election in 1828 was a turning point. O’Connell, with the support of the forty-shilling freeholders, managed a huge victory against the government candidate. He was well supported by the clergy whose influence on the poor uneducated peasant class was enormous. The polling took place in Ennis at the old courthouse where the O’Connell monument now stands. At the final count, O’Connell was elected by a majority of about eleven hundred votes. The ascendancy party had suffered its first big knock since 1798. The whole country was aflame. The British Government feared a rising and granted Catholic emancipation in April 1829. The franchise was, however, raised to 10 pounds which excluded the forty-shilling freeholders. O’Connell was now the undisputed leader in Ireland and he gave up his practice at the bar to devote his time entirely to politics. At the King’s insistence, O’Connell was not allowed to take his seat until he had been re-elected for Clare. In February 1830, O’Connell became the first Catholic in modern history to sit in the House of Commons. For the rest of his life, he was supported by “The O’Connell Tribute”, a public collection out of which O’Connell paid all his expenses. O’Connell now decided to concentrate on winning repeal of the act of union and getting an Irish parliament for the Irish people. British political leaders feared repeal as they did not fear emancipation. They saw repeal of the Act of Union as the first step in the break-up of the act of union, as the spirit of the repeal movement was revived when the young Ireland writers wrote about it in the Nation. In 1841, O’Connell was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin and in 1843 the subscriptions to his Repeal Association, the Repeal “Rent” came to 48,400 pounds. He now began to organise monster meetings throughout the country. It is thought that three-quarters of a million people gathered on the hill of Tara to hear the man they called the “Liberator”. The government became alarmed at the strength of the Repeal Movement and a meeting which O’Connell had planned for 8 October 1843 in Clontarf, Dublin was banned. Huge crowds were already on their way when O’Connell called off the meeting to avoid the risk of violence and bloodshed. He was charged with conspiracy, arrested and sentenced to a year in jail and a fine of 2,000 pounds. The sentence was set aside after O’Connell had been three months in prison. When he was released he continued with his campaign for repeal. However, a turning point had been reached. The tactics that had won emancipation had failed. O’Connell was now almost seventy, his health failing and he had no clear plan for future action. There was discontent within the Repeal Association and the Young Irelanders withdrew. There was also some failure in the potato crop in the 1840’s, a sign of things to come in the Great Famine of 1845-1847. Aware of the fact that he had failed with his great goal, (the Repeal Movement), O’Connell left Ireland for the last time in January 1847. He made a touching speech in the House of Commons in which he appealed for aid for his country. In March, acting on the advice of his doctor, he set out to Italy. Following his death in Genoa on 15 May 1847, his body was returned to Ireland and buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. [http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/daniel.htm, accessed 13/12/2013]Portrait of a man known as Daniel O'Connell.ballarat irish, daniel o'connell, o'connell

Parnell was an Irish nationalist and statesman who led the fight for Irish Home Rule in the 1880s. Charles Stewart Parnell was born on 27 June 1846 in County Wicklow into a family of Anglo-Irish Protestant landowners. He studied at Cambridge University and was elected to parliament in 1875 as a member of the Home Rule League (later re-named by Parnell the Irish Parliamentary Party). His abilities soon became evident. In 1878, Parnell became an active opponent of the Irish land laws, believing their reform should be the first step on the road to Home Rule. In 1879, Parnell was elected president of the newly founded National Land League and the following year he visited the United States to gain both funds and support for land reform. In the 1880 election, he supported the Liberal leader William Gladstone, but when Gladstone's Land Act of 1881 fell short of expectations, he joined the opposition. By now he had become the accepted leader of the Irish nationalist movement. Parnell now encouraged boycott as a means of influencing landlords and land agents, and as a result he was sent to jail and the Land League was suppressed. From Kilmainham prison he called on Irish peasants to stop paying rent. In March 1882, he negotiated an agreement with Gladstone - the Kilmainham Treaty - in which he urged his followers to avoid violence. But this peaceful policy was severely challenged by the murder in May 1882 of two senior British officials in Phoenix Park in Dublin by members of an Irish terrorist group. Parnell condemned the murders. In 1886, Parnell joined with the Liberals to defeat Lord Salisbury's Conservative government. Gladstone became prime minister and introduced the first Irish Home Rule Bill. Parnell believed it was flawed but said he was prepared to vote for it. The Bill split the Liberal Party and was defeated in the House of Commons. Gladstone's government fell soon afterwards.(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/parnell_charles.shtml, accessed 21 January 2014) The Irish National Land League (Irish: Conradh na Talún) was an Irish political organisation of the late 19th century which sought to help poor tenant farmers. Its primary aim was to abolish landlordism in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked on. The period of the Land League's agitation is known as the Land War. Within decades of the league's foundation, through the efforts of William O'Brien and George Wyndham (a descendant of Lord Edward FitzGerald), the 1902 Land Conference produced the Land (Purchase) Act 1903 which allowed Irish tenant farmers buy out their freeholds with UK government loans over 68 years through the Land Commission (an arrangement that has never been possible in Britain itself). For agricultural labourers, D.D. Sheehan and the Irish Land and Labour Association secured their demands from the Liberal government elected in 1905 to pass the Labourers (Ireland) Act 1906, and the Labourers (Ireland) Act 1911, which paid County Councils to build over 40,000 new rural cottages, each on an acre of land. By 1914, 75% of occupiers were buying out their landlords, mostly under the two Acts. In all, under the pre-UK Land Acts over 316,000 tenants purchased their holdings amounting to 15 million acres (61,000 km2) out of a total of 20 million acres (81,000 km2) in the country. Sometimes the holdings were described as "uneconomic", but the overall sense of social justice was undeniable. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_National_Land_League, accessed 21 January 2014) The Irish National Land League was founded at the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, the County town of Mayo, on 21 October 1879. At that meeting Charles Stewart Parnell was elected president of the league. Andrew Kettle, Michael Davitt, and Thomas Brennan were appointed as honorary secretaries. This united practically all the different strands of land agitation and tenant rights movements under a single organisation. The two aims of the Land League, as stated in the resolutions adopted in the meeting, were: ...first, to bring out a reduction of rack-rents; second, to facilitate the obtaining of the ownership of the soil by the occupiers. That the object of the League can be best attained by promoting organisation among the tenant-farmers; by defending those who may be threatened with eviction for refusing to pay unjust rents; by facilitating the working of the Bright clauses of the Irish Land Act during the winter; and by obtaining such reforms in the laws relating to land as will enable every tenant to become owner of his holding by paying a fair rent for a limited number of years. Charles Stewart Parnell, John Dillon, Michael Davitt, and others including Cal Lynn then went to America to raise funds for the League with spectacular results. Branches were also set up in Scotland, where the Crofters Party imitated the League and secured a reforming Act in 1886. The government had introduced the first ineffective Land Act in 1870, then the equally inadequate Acts of 1880 and 1881 followed. These established a Land Commission that started to reduce some rents. Parnell together with all of his party lieutenants, including Father Eugene Sheehy known as "the Land League priest", went into a bitter verbal offensive and were imprisoned in October 1881 under the Irish Coercion Act in Kilmainham Jail for "sabotaging the Land Act", from where the No-Rent Manifesto was issued, calling for a national tenant farmer rent strike which was partially followed. Although the League discouraged violence, agrarian crimes increased widely. Typically a rent strike would be followed by evictions by the police, or those tenants paying rent would be subject to a local boycott by League members. Where cases went to court, witnesses would change their stories, resulting in an unworkable legal system. This in turn led on to stronger criminal laws being passed that were described by the League as "Coercion Acts". The bitterness that developed helped Parnell later in his Home Rule campaign. Davitt's views were much more extreme, seeking to nationalise all land, as seen in his famous slogan: "The land of Ireland for the people of Ireland". Parnell aimed to harness the emotive element, but he and his party preferred for tenant farmers to become freeholders on the land they rented, instead of land being vested in "the people".(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_National_Land_League, accessed 21 January 2014)Image of bearded man known as Charles Stewart Parnellballarat irish, parnell, charles parnell, home rule

John Edward Redmond, was a prominent banker and businessman before entering Parliament as a member for Wexford constituency in 1859; his statue stands in Redmond Square, Wexford town.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Redmond, accessed 21/01/2014) His great nephew, John Edward Redmond (1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918) was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918. He was a moderate, constitutional and conciliatory politician who attained the twin dominant objectives of his political life, party unity and finally in September 1914 achieving the promise of Irish Home Rule under an Act which granted an interim form of self-government to Ireland. However, implementation of the Act was suspended by the intervention of World War I, and ultimately made untenable after the Conscription Crisis of 1918. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Redmond, accessed 21/01/2014)Image of moustached politician John E. Redmond.ballarat irish, redmond, john redmond, irish nationalist party, irish home rule

Protection of Person and Property Act 1881 The ''Protection of Person and Property Act 1881'' was one of more than 100 Coercion Acts passed by the Parliament of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland between 1801 and 1922, in an attempt to establish law and order in Ireland. The 1881 Act was passed by parliament and introduced by Gladstone. It allowed for persons to be imprisoned without trial. On 13 October 1881, the Act was used to arrest Charles Parnell after his newspaper, the ''United Ireland'', had attacked the Land Act. On Gladstone's return to office in 1880, William Edward Forster was made Chief Secretary for Ireland. He carried the Compensation for Disturbance Bill through the Commons, only to see it thrown out in the Lords. On 24 January 1881, he introduced a new Coercion Bill in the House of Commons, to deal with the growth of the Irish National Land League. Despite a 41-hour long fillibuster in the House by the Irish Parliamentary Party, the bill passed, among its provisions being one enabling the British government in Ireland to arrest without trial persons "reasonably suspected" of crime and conspiracy. However those arrested were often not always suspect, only supportive of the Irish National Land League's movements. Over 100 such acts were passed, some of the more notable of which were "An Act for the more effectual Suppression of Local Disturbances and Dangerous Associations in Ireland", "The Protection of Life and Property in Certain Parts of Ireland Act", and the "Protection of Person and Property Act 1881". An Irish Coercion Bill was proposed by Sir Robert Peel to calm the increasing difficult situation in Ireland as a result of the Great Famine 1844–47. The Bill was blocked and this led, in part, to Peel's retirement as Prime Minister. Later attempts to introduce Irish coercion acts were blocked by the filibustering of Joseph Biggar. As a response to the Plan of Campaign of the mid-1880s the new Chief Secretary for Ireland Arthur Balfour secured a tough Perpetual Crimes Act (1887) (or Coercion Act) aimed at the prevention of boycotting, intimidation, unlawful assembly and the organisation of conspiracies against the payment of agreed rents. The Act resulted in the imprisonment of hundreds of people including over twenty MPs. The so-called ''Crimes Act'' (or "Coercion" Act) was condemned by the Catholic hierarchy since it was to become a permanent part of the law and did not have to be renewed annually by parliament, but the Papacy issued the bull Link: "Saepe Nos" in 1888 which was uncritical of the Acts. Trial by jury was abolished. An influential analysis of the pros and cons of the Act was published in 1888 by W. H. Hurlbert, a Catholic Irish-American author. Many hundreds were imprisoned at times under the Acts, including many prominent politicians and agrarian agitators, Joseph Biggar, Alexander Blane, Michael Davitt, John Dillon, James Gilhooly, Patrick Guiney, Matthew Harris, John Hayden, J. E. Kenny, Andrew Kettle, Denis Kilbride, Pat O'Brien, William O'Brien, James O'Kelly, Charles Stewart Parnell, Douglas Pyne, Willie Redmond, Timothy Sullivan. [http://shelf3d.com/i/Irish%20Coercion%20Act, accessed 13/12/2013]A many sits on a table holding the lapels of his Jacket. ballarat irish, cabin, rent, tenants, quill, biggar, davitt

THE CONSTITUTION OF MUNICIPALITIES GENERALLY. DIVISION 1. INCORPORATION AND GOVERNMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES AND BOUNDARIES OF DISTRICTS. 8. (1) The inhabitants of every shire borough town and city inhabitants of for the time being subject to the provisions of this Act shall, under corporation. the name of the president councillors and ratepayers of such shire N°-5203 «• '• the mayor councillors and burgesses of such borough the mayor councillors and burgesses of such town or the mayor councillors and citizens of such city as the case may be, be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal with power to break alter and change the same from time to time with the approval of the Governor in Council and shall by such name be capable in law of suing and being sued, of purchasing holding and alienating land, and of doing and suffering subject to the provisions of this Act all such other acts and things as bodies corporate may by law do and suffer. (2) The corporation of ******** Shire Common Seal 54. The common seal of the municipality shall be kept in a box having two locks, of one of which locks the chairman of the municipality shall have a key and of the other of which locks the key shall be kept by the municipal clerk; and the corporate seal shall not be affixed to any document unless the chairman of the municipality and one other member of the council or in the absence of such chairman unless two councillors be present. 91. The Council’s Common Seal (1) The Chief Executive Officer must ensure the security of the Council's common seal at all times. (2) The Council's common seal may only be used on the authority of the Council given either generally or specifically and every document to which the seal is affixed must be signed by the Chief Executive Officer or a senior officer authorised by him or her. (3) Any person who uses the Council's common seal without authority is guilty of an offence. (4) Any person who uses any replica of the council’s seal without authority is guilty of an offence. The Numurkah Shire was amalgamated into the Moira Shire and the seal now redundant. This is the only Numurkah Shire Common Seal in existence.local government, common seal, numurkah

2260.1 - 32 page document, Victorian Act No. 3742, titled "Motor Omnibus Act 1928". Printed on white paper, edge stapled, dated 12/2/1929. Provides the law and licencing provisions relating to the use of buses, omnibuses in Victoria, including Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. See also Reg. Item No. 1976 for the regulations regarding this Act. 2260.2 - 8 page document, Victorian Act No. 3851, titled "Motor Omnibus Act 1929". Printed on white paper, saddle stapled, dated 30/12/1929. Provides amendments to the 1928 Act in particular for light motor omnibuses or motor cars. The full Acts can be downloaded from the Parliamentary Web site.2260.1 - has ESCo date stamp of 8 Feb. 1929. 2260.1 - has ESCo date stamp of 16 Jan. 1929, the nine has been altered to a "3" in pencil. Probably should have read 1930. Also has a red "3" within a circle in the top right hand corner.museums omnibuses, ballarat, bendigo, buses, competition

Diggers & Mining. The Digging - The Diggers. Slide: Contemporary writers stress two characteristics of the diggers- (1) They were sturdily self-reliant and independent, conscious of their rights as men, and willing to act together to maintain them. Their work made them so; most of them of the first and last time in their lives were working, not for a master, but for themselves. ''Quiet acceptance of a government in which they were not represented could not be expected of such men, particularly if they became aware of government only through irritation and injustice.'' Markings: 69 994.LIF:6. Used as a teaching aid.hanimounteducation, tertiary, goldfields

Blue Voting paper with Borough of Tarnagulla printed at the top. Candidates' Names are George Barlow, Thomas Bayliss, John Beynon, Thomas Henderson, William Herd Voting directions at the end of page. White paper titled Ballot Paper School District of the Borough of Tarnagulla. Candidates' Names are Henry Charles Bristol, Robert Harrison Burstall, Edward Buckley, Thomas Comrie, James Clouston, George Minto, and Thomas Scorer. Voting Directions printed at the bottom of page. Printed by John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne. Another piece of paper has Mr Cra? Goldfield's Historical Society written on it. Typed on another piece of paper is: These two ballot papers were found in the Tarnagulla Town Hall before its reconstruction this year. Apart from a few records in possession of the Goldfields Historical Society the Tarnagulla Borough Records were pulped during the war. The ballot paper for the School District is an election for a School Board of Advice in 1873 (the first election under the Act). The Voting paper is for the Borough Council, date unknown but it was not (underlined) the first election. With compliments of the Goldfields Historical Society per their Curator John J. Alderson. 11/4/61By Authority John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourneevent, official, civic, ballot papers tarnagulla, tarnagulla town hall, goldfields historical society, tarnagulla borough records, school board of advice, john j alderson, henry charles bristol, robert harrison burstall, edward buckley, thomas comrie, james clouston, george minto, thomas scorer, george barlow, thomas bayliss, john beynin, thomas henderson, william herd, john ferres

18 large forms (form 5) headed: Mines Act 1928, The Honorable the Minister of Mines has granted a Suspension of the Labour Covenants as under - . These were granted to various companies for a period of 1 to 3 months, some of the reasons being - to complete negotiations, to raise capital, to re-organise, and the lease is held on behalf of a London Company. Items date range from 1941 to 1942. Some of the places to which these apply are; Bendigo, South Wattle Gully Coy N.L. Castlemaine Vic 3450, Central Wattle Gully Coy N.L., North Hustlers G. M. Coy N.L., Elphinstone, Chewton, South Wattle GullyCoy N.L.,Sandhurst, Forbes Carshalton Gold Mining Coy N.L., Gold Dumps Pty Ltd, Huntly & Nerring.Government Printergold, mining, suspension of labour covenants, gold mining, suspension of labour covenants

Diggers & Mining. The Chinese on the Gold Fields. Slide: The practical failure of the Act of 1856, and the fresh outburst of anti-Chinese feeling in the Buckland riots of 1857, led to Victorian Government to take further action in the latter year. (1) A residence fee was imposed on all Chinese in the colony (one pound per month - ultimately reduced, after Chinese protests, to four pound per year). (2) The co-operation of South Australia was sought, and , in 1857, the government of that colony passed a restriction act similar to the Victorian Act of 1855. Markings: 21. Used as a teaching aid.hanimounteducation, tertiary, goldfields

Diggers & Mining. Gold. Photo of document: Victoria, Victoriae Regine. By His Excellency Sir Charles Hotham, Knight Commander of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath. Captain-General and Govenor-in-Chief of Victoria, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., &c., &c. No. XXXIX. In the Act to make provision for certain immigrants. [Assented to 12 June, 1855.] Be it enacted by His Excellency the Governor of Victoria and Preamble, with the advice and the consent and the Legislative Council there of as Accordingly, the Victorian Government, in 1855, passed an act restricting Chinese immigration. Markings: 4 994.GOL. Used as a teaching aid.hanimounteducation, tertiary, goldfields

Brown, beige book titled: Land Act 1901, No. 1749. at the back there are four amendments No. 1831 from 6th April 1903; No. 1957from 30Th November 1904; No 1991from 5th December. 1905 and No. 2228 from 4th January 1910.On the front and back cover in pen and pencil lists of land sales. On the first page in red "Land Office Bendigo"legislation, land act 1901, government

When Thomas Bent, politician and land speculator, was appointed Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1892, a number of local Brighton constituents and supporters raised money to present him with an oil portrait. Bent had been a member for Brighton for 21 years, and the painting was seen as a way of showing their appreciation of his services to the Brighton constituency, as well as congratulating him to his new position as Speaker. In June 1892, British/Australian landscape and portrait artist Charles E. Gordon-Frazer was given the commission to paint the portrait. Thomas Bent is depicted as standing in his Speaker's robe on the dais beneath the canopy in the Legislative Assembly Chamber in the act of addressing the House. He wears the traditional Speaker’s dress of a black silk and gold laced robe over a three-piece black suit, lace jabot and cuffs, buckled shoes and a ceremonial long wig. The top of the gold parliamentary mace sits on the right of the work near the frame's edge.sir thomas bent, thomas bent, speaker, mayor, premier, brighton, moorabbin, land speculator, local government, councillor, official, member of lower house, portrait, parliament, ceremonial robes, legislative assembly, jabot, wig, mace

BHS CollectionCollection of Government Gazette articles. Content includes documents relating to: 1. An Act to restrain by summary Proceeding unauthorised Mining on Waste Lands of the Crown 1852; 2. Gold Regulations 1853; 3. An Act for the better regulation of Mining Companies 1855; 4. An Act to amend the Laws relating to the Gold Fields 1855; 5. An Act to limit the Liability of Mining Companies 1864. Phyllis Toy Collection:adventure gold mine, sandhurst, goldmining, adventure and advance amalgamated quartz mining company

Gunpowder is very volatile and can be ignited by the smallest spark. Several horrific accidents resulted in NSW passing legislation to cover the safe storage of gunpowder but initially these laws did not apply to Victoria. this was rectified and the first Melbourne magazine was erected on Batman's Hill in 1845. The Victorian Gunpowder Act (1857) made local councils responsible for the safe storage of gunpowder. The Victorian government made L.909 available for a suitable building in Sandhurst. Built on Camp Hill it was finished in April 1857 and the first keeper, Mr J. F. Kerr was appointed in October 1857. Late in 1857, tenders were called for the building of a keeper's residence at the siteEleven pages typewritten document titled "the Victorian Powder Magazines and the Gunpowder Acts". Author unknown.melbourne, gunpowder acts, victorian legislation, powder magazines

Map of Marong. Drawn and reproduced at the Dept. of Lands and Survey, Melbourne. By authority: W.M. Houston Government Printer. June 1953.On the back in blue pen: certified plan parish Marong, signed minister and seal affixed for land S sec.72 evidence act. I certify that this a true plan parish Marong (signature illegible) minister for lands.map, marong

Consolidated reprint of the original 1958 Act for the MMTB incorporating amendments up to Act No. 8992, including the Act for the first extension towards Bundoora in 1978. The 1958 Act was a major update of earlier Acts.Demonstrates publishing of Acts of the Victorian Government.Book - 84 pages + cover centre stapled with an additional sheet double sided. Each document have four punch holes.acts, parliament, mmtb, bundoora, tramways, victorian government