Royal Commission report day 15 page 3
The Royal Commission evidence for 4/5/1881
(see also introduction to day 15)
Inspector Montfort giving evidence
3534 What about the second one?— I know nothing about him.
3535 Do you see this same here—[pointing to another]—do you know him, or any of his family?— Yes.
3536 Would you class that man amongst them?— Decidedly. Not as being direct criminals themselves, but aiders and abettors, and sympathizers, on all occasions. His two daughters are married to criminals.
3537 Did I understand you to say, in reply to a question by Mr. Sadleir, that in the interest of the public service it would be desirable to prevent suspected persons, by reports from the police, from becoming selectors of land under the Land Act?— Yes, persons that they have a reasonable ground for believing to be so, which reasonable ground can be substantiated, because the police may have good grounds for believing a man to be a horse stealer and yet not be able to arrest him. If they could prove it, of course he could be arrested, but the police may know it only from circumstantial evidence, which may yet be quite sufficient to establish their belief.
3538 All this applies to the Kelly district in consequence of the outrages?— And it has been so for years.
3539 There is no other district in the colony it applies to?— I do not think so. I may mention that it is the law here in Melbourne , that the occupier of a house which is frequented by disorderly persons and thieves can be brought up under the Vagrant Act. None of those persons I speak of are themselves suspected persons, but they always harbor and allow their places to be frequented by men who have been known to be criminals. On those grounds the law would simply be extended, or the operation of it, to a certain extent. I am only giving my opinion, but I am put on my oath to give my opinion. I would just add that in north-eastern Victoria the persons referred to in Mr. Sadleir's question had, in my time, the invariable tendency always to settle at the back, always on the outside of the settled country, having nothing behind them but the ranges—that was always their disposition.
3540 And anybody that travels will always find it so along the skirts of the Gippsland mountains?— Hence the difficulty of getting at them.
3541 Would you recommend that a list of the persons of the character you allude to should be kept in the Crown Lands office, in order to avoid the evil you speak of, as being the most effectual to prevent its taking place, by the report from the police from all the districts?— I think so, because I do not think the aggregation of those people in any locality ought to be allowed. It has always been productive of the greatest evils in that district as long as I remember.
3542 Are you aware that in the North-Eastern district exactly what the last question proposes has been done, that a very large number of names are in the hands of the Lands department who will be refused land on applying for it in that particular district?— I heard so; indeed I saw the correspondence in connection with one man, but that is all I know. It was not so in my time.
3543 Do you approve of the desirability of preventing the collection of those dangerous characters, who concert together, settle in the district, and so act together; do you consider it desirable that when those men apply for land, pay the survey fees, and the case is heard in open court before the public, for the officer in charge of the Lands Department to say, “I refuse you this land in consequence of the police objecting to your taking it”?— Well, putting it in that way, it is a very hard case, no doubt. I think the police should be called upon to give reasons, but those reasons should be looked upon as confidential.
3544 Can you approximately estimate the number of persons of the class you allude to now in occupation of lands up there?— I am not speaking of the state of affairs there now. I know nothing about it. I have not been there for the last eight years.
3545 You appear to be aware there are a large number of persons of that sort?— I am referring to the names of those persons on that paper that I know were suspected as being a bad lot.
3546 You do not know whether they are in possession of land?— No.
3547 Look at the one marked S and the one marked “crosses,” do they belong to the class that ought not to get land?— There is nothing against them, to my knowledge.
3548 By Mr. Sadleir. —Are you not aware there is a warrant against one, then?— I have already said that man should not be allowed to have land.
3549 You say there are no other districts in the same state?— Not to my knowledge.
3550 Are you aware of the country beyond Omeo?— I look upon that as all North-Eastern Victoria, and the Omeo should be protected as much as the other.....
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