Herald (37)

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The Herald

11/08/1880

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Late Edition

Another edition of The Herald will be published early this afternoon, and will contain particulars of the trial of Ned Kelly, and other items on news.

NED KELLYS TRIAL

(By Electric Telegraph – From Our Special Reporter)

BENALLA This Day

Mr Gaunson, before Kelly was removed, applied for leave for the prisoners to see the newspapers.

Mr Foster said this was a matter beyond his control, and rested with the gaol authorities.

Mr Gaunson said it simply amounted to this, that he went up and read them to him every evening, and they could not stop him doing that.

There is nothing new in connection with the prisoner or his sympathisers, excepting that Dick Hart been in court again all day.

At first he had taken up a position with his back to the fire place near the prisoner’s dock, and gradually edges forwards the dock as far as he can go. It appears as if he were seeking an opportunity to pass something to Ned Kelly, but ever since the trial there has been an armed trooper stationed on either side of the prisoner’s dock, and of course no opportunity was afforded of carrying out the design, if such it is. Hart has a most forbidding countenance, although quirt a young fellow.

Notwithstanding the precaution taken in court, on removal to the gaol every evening Kelly is stripped to the skin, and every article of his clothing searched. There is a rumor Mrs Skillian been successful though the instrumentally of the information she received in Beechworth, and the agency of the McAuliffe’s, in finding the “plant” of what remains of the plunder from the banks, but of course, on this point no definite information can be obtained. It is believed that Sergeant Kennedy’s watch is with this “plant,” wherever that may be, and a hope is expressed that the sympathisers will secretly return it to Mrs Kennedy.

TODAY’S PROCEEDINGS

BEECHWORTH This Day

There is still little or nothing that is new to telegraph in reference to the Kelly business, although it is evident that there is some commotion amongst the sympathisers. The police are in the dark. At first it was suggested that the two McAulliffes had sprung the “plant” where the money is supposed to be hidden, and that as they did not readily give up the proceeds of their mission they were set upon by Tom Lloyd and others with Mrs Skillion, who had gone to look after them. That the notes stolen from the banks, or rather those that still remain are “planted,” is evident by the fact that, from time to time, and even up to quite lately. Jerilderie notes have been put into circulation, and in almost all cases they had a damp, mouldy earthy odor, as though they had been hidden or buried in some damp place.

The belief of the police and others qualified to form an opinion is that the “plant” is somewhere in the Bogong Ranges, and was known only to Ned Kelly and Byrne. The latter being dead, Ned Kelly is the only man who knows its position, and this is said to be the cause of the intense anxiety of sympathizers to obtain a private interview. A statement was made that Kelly had commissioned the position of the spot to Mrs Skillian, though Mr Gaunson, but this is entirely discredited. And he could not send out a sealed letter to his sister, as he is a “marksman.” The sympathizers are evidently in want of funds. Mrs Skillian now ttravels second class, instead of first class, as formerly, while it is believed that want of cash has kept Kate Kelly and many of the others away from Beechworth.  Some of the friends of the Kellys were expected up by the train last night, but none came. Some interest was created on the arrival of the train by the statement that, just as it neared the platform, a man jumped out of one of the compartments, and had disappeared in the dark; but no importance is attached to the story.

There is, of course, a great deal of Kelly talk in Beechworth, but it is mostly about matters long since fully ventilated. Old stories are revived, and attempts made to dress them up as new, but the trick does not succeed there.  Those who know the district and the people well declare that there will not be any more cattle stealing on an extensive scale, not any more bushranging. Cattle duffing, it is pointed out, is a game that at the present price of stock is not worth the candle, and the friends of the gang are said to be devoid of the pluck necessary to undertake a career of open lawlessness.

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