Royal Commission report day 48 page 17
The Royal Commission evidence for 1/9/1881
(see also introduction to day 48)
'Sup Francis Augustus Hare giving evidence'
16575 In the face of having received all this information so recently from “Diseased Stock” you allowed the trackers to leave the North-Eastern district?— Yes, undoubtedly. I had two others there. I had Moses and Spider at Benalla in place of the five that were there before.
16576 When you met Aaron Sherritt after you left, and told him you were sorry that he had not lately given satisfaction, whom did you allude to?— To you; that he had not given satisfaction to you.
16577 Did Ward tell you that he had not worked satisfactorily with me?— Yes, over and over again; and I said to Aaron that I was sorry to hear it. Ward told me so, and he admitted it.
16578 Was not the impression made on your mind, at the interview I had in handing over the district, that Aaron was still one of my best agents?— Yes, I had no doubt of it; and that is what made me so surprised to hear that you had withdrawn his pay from him.
16579 In placing the party of four men in Sherritt's hut, so near the road, did you not think they would run a, great risk?— I thought they would run a great risk of being discovered, but I was going to leave them till they were discovered.
16580 If they had an encounter with the outlaw, they would have to fight hand to hand?— Undoubtedly they would.
16581 Ought there not to have been a watch?— How could you have a watch on the main road, and with houses round? You have seen the place—what would have been the result an hour afterwards? They would have been discovered immediately after.
16582 Another place might have been chosen?— I selected that place because they were there before, and you did too.
16583 That was only temporarily?— I was going to leave them there till they were discovered, but I do not believe they were discovered up to the time Aaron was shot.
16584 You say a telegraph message was sent out of the gaol at Beechworth?— Yes; that was when I was up there.
16585 Did you make no arrangement with the gaol authorities to keep you posted about messages from those people?— No.
16586 In your evidence you are always speaking about people saying this and that, and “they” say so-and-so?— I said this morning that one of the articles in the press, and the public had often said to me that I had been favored by Captain Standish. Not you; you never said so.
16587 You said you felt a great delicacy in taking command over your senior officer. If you were so delicate in that, how was it you were not when you organized the party that captured Power?— I did; I took you with me.
16588 Do you pretend that you did not know that the outlaws had no difficulty about ammunition?— I do not pretend anything
16589 Are you not aware that the outlaws had no difficulty in obtaining ammunition?— I do not think they had much difficulty in obtaining ammunition. Where was the difficulty?
16590 You have been comparing small things with great, talking about generalship and so on in police matters;—do you think it was good generalship being discovered by Mrs. Skillian night after night?— I did not say I was a general. I said I was nothing to do with the military at all.
16591 Do you think it was good to have had men discovered watching Mrs. Byrne's, many and many a night?— Captain Standish arranged to send them there, and they did their utmost, and those men used to be found out at night by Kate Kelly or Mrs. Skillian.
16592 Do you think it was a good plan to catch the Kelly's?— Yes, I do, to watch the house.
16593 Where the police were observed?— No; when they were observed they went away.
16594 They came back?— They came back two months afterwards
16595 You stated that you cut off the places from which the Kellys received their food and so on, after I left?— I tried to.
16596 You spoke of Hart's and Mrs. Byrne's and Mrs. Skillian's?— Yes.
16596a. Now when you came up that time, did you not find a party watching Hart's house, near Wangaratta, before you arrived?— I do not think it. Sergeant Steele told me that the men had been watching previously, but there was no watch on either of those places when I went up.....
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