Royal Commission report day 3 page 4
The Royal Commission evidence for 25/3/1881
(see also introduction to day 3 )
Assistant Commissioner Nicholson giving evidence
714 Men outside of the constables?- Yes,townsmen. This done quietly, and the names of the men being concealed, we had no difficulty in getting them in every place, it being done secretly and quietly I had directed.
715 Were you furnished with the names of these people?- Yes.
716 Was there an engagement entered into to pay them so much?- No, it was voluntary. There was one instruction conveyed in my letter-to rouse the people of the district to their duty as townsmen resist the outlaws.
717 Was there a sufficient amount of firearms provided the police, and sufficient for any civilians who might assist?- Not altogether; there were sufficient for the police; they were thoroughly well armed at that time and a surplus over; and as far as that surplus went, we distributed arms; but in many instances the men had arms themselves.
718 In the first instance, were the people properly supplied with arms soon after the murders?- No, they were not. The police were without any arms themselves, excepting revolvers.
719 Do you know whether men were not sent up from Melbourne without being furnished with arms?- I am not prepared to answer that question.
720 The police?- Where men were there were arms sent up, of course, which we kept a very careful account of in the district; and when men were sent up without arms, an order would come that such a man was to take the arms of such and such a man, who had left the district, or any arms unused and in reserve; but I am not prepared to say that men were sent up without arms. I am prepared to say that men were not sent up at all; that when casualties occurred to men through sickness or injury of any kind I found great difficulty in obtaining men to supply their places.
721 Was this after your second visit?- On the second occasion. I have been over a dozen short and at that time I could not spare a single man.
722 So you arranged for three or four persons to be engaged in each place?- Yes, I did. I arranged also a system that the police should have full authority to go out upon any occasion, according to their discretion, on any information.
723 You allowed the parties to start at their discretion?- On any good information they received.
724 Even from the commencement of the search?- Yes, even from the commencement of search. I am not aware of anything to the contrary. I directed the police to be very very quiet; to continue search parties; to make no demonstrations at all.
725 When was that?- About the same time.
726 About July 1879?- Yes.
727 About what time in July did you tell them to discontinue?- At the very first.
728 Immediately after taking the papers over?- Yes; and I gave other directions by speak to the men and otherwise to endeavor, by discretion and by not talking much, and being careful no mention names or use peoples names at all, and in every way they could to regain the confidence of people about the country. I sought to reduce the expenditure. I found police using hired horses, some even in the habit of hiring buggies and horses; that I put a stop to, and called in the accounts them. I had no carte blanche for expenditure-I had no money placed to my credit at all. I paid those accounts out of my own pocket and all other expenses.
729 Was that afterwards refunded to you?- Yes. I was going to add that I subsequently represented the matter, and recovered the money in the usual way from the Government. I found bills for hire of some of the horses greater than their value. In one case the bill was about £19, and Mr. Sadleir bought the horse for £15. He got the man to cry quits for £15, and got the horse. The stable was a large one, and it was full of police horses on full rations. There was beautiful grass at this season. I had the stable cleared out, and the horses turned out into the paddock, with an allowance varying from 18 to 20 lbs. of good dry hay per day, in addition to the grass they were getting. I inspected those horses regularly with Mr. Sadleir.
730 How many?- Well, there would be all those horses that were told off for duty. There would be in the paddock there altogether (horses for all parts of the district, and working horses) about twenty to thirty horses. Many of them were spare horses, in case of accident, kept in condition. We inspected them thoroughly, and they kept condition exceedingly well-they were as muscular as possible. Whenever we observed a horse getting apparently sickly, which may happen with any horse, he was taken into the stable, and coddled up a little with oats and bran mash, and in a few days turned out with the rest. We kept the horses in such condition, because it was not advisable that horses that had to go out in pursuit of this gang should have heavy stable feeding, as they could not last above three days, whereas horses fed in this way, just as the outlaws fed theirs, all that had to be done was to turn them out to feed wherever they then were at night. I brought the horses up to that pitch, just as the outlaws were doing. ...
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