The Complete Inner History of the KellyGang and their Pursuers (58)

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CHAPTER XV

continued

3         If the person so charged shall not surrender himself for trial pursuant to such summons or shall not be apprehended or being apprehended or having surrendered shall escape so that he shall not be in custody on the day specified in such summons he shall upon proof thereof by affidavit to the satisfaction of any judge of the Supreme Court and of the due publication of the summons be deemed outlawed and shall and may thereupon be adjudged and declared to be an outlaw accordingly by such judge by a declaration to that effect under his hand filed in the said Court of Record.  And if after proclamation by the Governor with the advice of Executive Council of the fact as such adjudication shall have been published in the “Government Gazette” and in one or more Melbourne and one or more country newspapers such outlaw shall afterwards be found at large armed or there being reasonable ground to believe that he is armed it shall be lawful for any of Her Majesty’s subjects whether a constable or not without being accountable for the using of any deadly weapon in aid of such apprehension whether its use be preceded by a demand of surrender or not to apprehend or take such outlaw alive or dead.

4     The proclamation as published in the “Government Gazette” shall be evidence of the person named or described therein being and having been duly adjudged an outlaw for the purposes of this Act and the judge’s summons as so published shall in like manner be evidence of the truth of the several matters stated therein.

5     If after such proclamation any person shall voluntarily and knowingly harbour conceal or receive or give any aid shelter or sustenance to such outlaw or provide him with firearms or any other weapon or with ammunition or any horse equipment or other assistance directly or indirectly give or cause to be given to him or any of his accomplices information tending or with intent to facilitate the commission by him of further crime or to enable him to escape from justice or shall withhold information or give false information concerning such outlaw from or to any officer of the police or constable in quest of such outlaw the person such offending shall be guilty of felony and being thereof convicted shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour for such period not exceeding fifteen years as the court shall determine and no allegation or proof by the party so offending that he was at the time under compulsion shall be deemed a defence unless he shall as soon as possible afterwards have gone before a justice of the peace or some officer of the police force and then to the best of his ability given full information respecting such outlaw and made a declaration on oath voluntarily and fully of the facts connected with such compulsion.

6      In any presentment under the last preceding section it shall be sufficient to describe the offence in the words of the said section and to allege that the person in respect of whom or whose accomplice such offence was committed was an outlaw within the meaning of this Act without alleging by what means or in what particular manner the person on trial harboured or aided or gave arms sustenance or information to the outlaw or what in particular was the aid sustenance shelter equipment information or other manner in question.

7        Any justice of the peace or officer of the police force having reasonable cause to suspect that an outlaw or accused person summoned under the provisions of this Act is concealed or harboured in or on any dwelling-house or premises may alone or accompanied by any persons acting in his aid and either by day or by night demand admission into and refused admission may break and enter such dwelling-house or premises and therein apprehend every person whom he shall have reasonable ground for believing to be such outlaw or accused person and may thereupon seize all arms found in or on such house or premises and also apprehend all persons found in or about the same whom such justice or officer shall have reasonable ground for believing to have concealed harboured or otherwise succoured or assisted such outlaw or accused person.  And all persons and arms so apprehended and seized shall be forthwith taken before some convenient justice of the peace to be further dealt with and disposed of according to law.

8          It shall be lawful after any such proclamation as aforesaid for any police officer or constable in the pursuit of any such outlaw in the name of Her Majesty to demand and take and use any horses not being in actual employment on the roads arms saddles forage sustenance equipments or ammunition required for the purposes of such pursuit. And if the owner of such property shall not agree as to the amount of compensation to be made for the use of such property then the amount of such compensation shall be determined in the Supreme Court according to the amount claimed in an action to be brought by the claimant against Her Majesty under the provisions of “The Crown Remedies And Liabilities Statutes 1865.”

9      No conveyance or transfer of land or goods by any such outlaw or accused person after the issue of such warrant for his apprehension and before his conviction if he shall be convicted shall be any effect whatever.

10    This act shall continue in force until the end of the next session of Parliament.

By Authority: John Ferres, Government Printer, Melbourne.

The Berry Government passed the above Act on November 1, 1878, and the end of the next session of Parliament 9/2/1880, when Parliament was dissolved.  Therefore there was no Outlawry Act after February 9, 1880.

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This document gives you the text of this book about the KellyGang. The text has been retyped from a copy of the original. We have taken care to reproduce this document but areas of the original text may been damaged. We also apologise for any typographical errors. JJ Kenneally was one of the first authors to tell this story from the KellyGang's point of view

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