Story of the KellyGang - the Royal Commission Report
The Royal Commission evidence for 7/9/1881
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(see also introduction to day 50)
[[../../people/peN_P/nicolsonPAC.html|Ass Com Charles Hope Nicolson]] giving evidence
16929 He says he did not know of it?— He says he did not hear it, and I am not surprised.
16930 You do not know whether a sentry was kept during that time?— I asked Ward several time about that, whether they did so, and was informed they did.
16931 Ward was your medium through all this?— No.
16932 Through whom you sent the messages?— Ward, and Mullane, and I were in the habit of seeing the men when they came into Beechworth, and speaking about what was going on.
16933 You did not think it necessary to go personally to see what they were doing at the cave?— No; I thought it very unwise to do so.
16934 Do you remember moving a man named Canny from the cave to Wangaratta during the existence of the cave party?— No.
16935 Do you not remember an enquiry being held because it was supposed he had divulged about the cave party?— I think that was one of the things circulated at that time, perhaps for the purpose of mischief.
16936 He was removed to Wangaratta?— I think not.
16937 Not during the existence of the cave party?— I do not know of it. It may have been so, but I do not recollect it.
16938 Do you think I was perfectly right in telling Captain Standish that I had heard of the existence of your cave party when it came to my knowledge?— I do, most certainly.
16939 You do not blame me for that?— No.
16940 You do not call that any interference on my part?— Not the mere telling Captain Standish what you had heard.
16941 I thought you had complained of that through all the proceedings?— I complain of the fact that, at the depot under your command, you yourself were in the habit of “pumping” men, and talking to men, trying to draw secrets out of the men connected with the business they were engaged on in other districts, about which you had nothing to do at the depot, and in so doing were showing them a bad example.
16942 You say here (question 845), “What was known?— About this secret cave party. I replied, remonstrating against doing so, and assuring him of the perfect safety of the arrangement, and that it was a perfect secret up there. I also added that I was very sorry that the depot was such a place which received information of that kind so rapidly in such a manner where such matters were concerned, the secret movements of the police “?— Yes.
16943 You do complain that I told Captain Standish?— No, I do not complain of your telling Captain Standish, but of the depot being the place where the system practised with the men was a system of demoralization, where men coming down from a district like the North-Eastern district, from specially private duty, should be pumped by the officers about it.
16944 Was the fact of this man telling me “pumping”?— I do not know.
16945 You said in your evidence that you did everything in your power to prevent expense in the district on the second occasion of going up?— Yes.
16946 You said in your evidence in chief, on page 31, that you effected a saving: you found police horses in the stable turned into the paddocks. Have you found out now that you made a mistake in giving that statement?— I turned all the horses out of the stable into the paddocks, with the exception of a few working horses left; such as Bell, the mounted man's horse, who served the summonses, and, perhaps, Mr. Sadleir's horse, and sometimes there was a horse for myself.
16947 Was not that done two months before you came up there?— I am not aware of it. When I came up the second time the stable was full of horses.
16948 Are you sure of that?— That is my distinct impression.
16949 Do you not remember the little paddock in the township where the horses ran by day, and were fed at night with hay?— That might have been; there were no doubt horses in the paddock. I do say most undoubtedly that I wish to correct that; that in my evidence in the first instance as to the economies I effected about the stabling, I rather exaggerated that to a certain extent.
16950 With respect to the horses?— Yes.
16951 And that the men were riding private horses?— That is what I exaggerated in.
16952 You made a mistake that they were riding private horses?— There were private horses. I remember distinctly the correspondence about it, and the hiring of buggies.
16958 You say you made a mistake about that, the second occasion, about private horses being ridden by constables then?— I cannot remember it.
16954 There was a great decrease in the expenditure, and all the men had their travelling allowance knocked off?— Not for some time after.....
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