Royal Commission report 25/3/1881
Story of the KellyGang - the Royal Commission 25/3/1881
| Summary of the evidence on day 3 of the hearings | ||
| Question number | Date | Witness |
| 676 - 915 | 25/3/1881 | Assistant Commissioner Nicolson |
| 325-675 | 24/3/1881 | Ass Com Nicolson started his evidence |
| 916-1065 | 29/3/1881 | Ass Com Nicolson continued his evidence the next day |
| 11997 | 16/6/1881
7/9/1881 20/9/1881 |
See these dates for other evidence given by Ass Com Nicolson |
| Appendix | Title |
| 20 | Minutes of Proceedings at Meetings Held by the Royal Commission |
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Summary of the evidence on day 3 of the hearings
25/3/1881, Ass Com Nicolson continued his evidence - some brief highlights
The Commission asked for something in writing as to the police arrangements and the formation and. organisation of these search parties. Nicolson found the original document the night before.
On 19/11/1878 Nicolson wrote the following, "I am in good health and spirits, only chafed by the patience necessary in the search. The offenders have 2,000 square miles of mountain, rocky, thickly timbered, and scrubby country to play hide and seek in, and with hard galloping about the policemen will never catch them. Nevertheless, we will catch them, but it will only be by a fluke if we catch them at once."
Nicolson told the Royal Commission that he considered it a matter of duty to search the country thoroughly first. But that was an opinion in advance of his work, and he did not consider the work completed. In fact, he never thought of the matter at all- very little at all, at the time he met Captain Standish after the Euroa robbery.
He even said that he was not aware that the matter ever occurred to him. He said may have explained himself fully to Captain Standish in the matter, or to Mr. Hare but he was not sure.
After about 6 months in Melbourne Ass Com Nicolson returned to Benalla to take charge of the hunt for the KellyGang. Of the time in Melbourne Nicolson was concerned that the Royal Commission should know that there are were no grounds whatever for the statement by Captain Standish that he left the office in a muddle.
When Nicolson arrived at Benalla the force was reduced and he had to set about re-organising the arrangements of the stations and the strength of the stations. The military were also involved. This was explained in some detail.
For instance Nicolson said, '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.'
Nicolson handed up a statement of Police Expenditure in connection with the search for the KellyGang under a number of categories such as the cost of the railways and trackers etc.
Were there any women agents?
Nicolson issued a long defence of his position just before he left the Kelly Country, see text
| ! | The text has been retyped from a microfiche copy of the original. We have taken care to reproduce this document but areas of the original text may been damaged. |
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