53 Vict. Against the Employment of Chinese in Coal Mines. 393
PETITION.
To the Hon. Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia now
in Session in Victoria, British Columbia.
Gentlemen:
We, the undersigned, as miners and residents of the Mining Districts of Nanaimo,
Wellington and Comox, situated on Vancouver Island, beg to petition your Honourable Body
to cause the necessary legal provision to be made to exclude Chinese from working underground
in any of the collieries of this Province.
Your petitioners keenly feel that the presence of Chinese in the mines is a source of grave
danger to the lives of those who are employed underground in mining coal, and that it will be
in the public interests to prevent such risk to life by stringent legislative enactment.
Your petitioners would further draw your attention to the great immunity from accidents
in the coal mines during the past few years, and feel that this immunity can be, to a great
extent, attributed to the fact that no Chinese have been employed in the Nanaimo and Wellington collieries during that period.
And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.
William White.        Martin Flood.
John White. Brewer Potts.
Joss Parish. James Morriss.
John Barber. Alphonus McNeill.
And 1413 others.
VICTORIA, B. C.:
Printed by Richard Wolfenden, Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty,