The Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express at KellyGang 22/2/1879
This Kelly, says the Australasian has a sense of humour, too, combined with his dare-devil qualities. The enterprise of sticking up the town of Jerilderie was quite equal to the raid on Euroa in its generalisation and in ad? on, it exhibited a great sense of audacity which is not wanting in the Judiciary. The incident of the bushrangers taking out one of the constables about town with them to quiet suspicion is one of the most comic that ever occurred in the history of bushranging in Australia. Then there is the other one of the bushrangers getting a policeman to introduce them as "the Kelly's" to the landlord of the hotel, whose apartments they wished to engage to accommodate the prisoners. What sense of superiority these scoundrels must posses; how profound must be their contempt for the police and the people over whom they terrorise with such case. And yet a shot fired, or the bold rush of a few men, and the spell would be broken, and the bushrangers would be overpowered in a minute by a ? of these who, a few minutes before, were passive as sheep in their hands. This easy going contempt these desperadoes show for the police and the public is, perhaps, the most irritating thing about their misdeeds. It is, Indeed, adding Insult to injury.
These men should remember that ever the worm, when trodden on, may turn, and the wrath of the most pacific animal is said to be the most dangerous. There may be a limit even to the endurance of the police. Referring to what we said just before of the most comic incidents in the affair, we are not sure if this character may not be disputed by another. We allude, of course, to the statement attributed by one of the journals to the Chief Commissioner of Police, “that the police are again on the alert [i.e., after the event], and are determined not to be beaten this time." What a delightfully sanguine. resolve, to be sure. Many of us remember how in days of the bushrangers period in New South Wales nearly every telegram of robbery and outrage used to end with the words, "'Sir Frederick Pottinger and the police are in "in pursuit."
We are afraid that after three or four months waiting for the capture of the Kellys any attempt to impose on our faith by any similar little devices will find us too despondently hope, and much too distrustful for expectation. But that the whole affair is deeply discreditable to the to the good name of Victoria, and that it is the most absolute and severe determination of the management of our police force, is a matter about which, we presume there are not, at this time, two opinions in the length and breadth of the colony.
The Government New South Wales says the Age have now taken such active and definite steps in regard to the Kellys' gang as cannot fail to be highly gratifying to the people of this colony. At the meeting of the Cabinet held on Monday, afternoon, a 1etter was read from. Sir Henry Parkes, stating that the New South Wales Government had decided upon taking extreme measures with the hope of arresting the course of the Kelly outlaws. After proposing that the police of the two colony should act in thorough concert, Sir Henry Parkes, intimate that he is prepared to contribute £4000 to the reward fund for the capture of the gang, viz, £3000 awarded by the Government of the colony and £1000 secured by the Sydney banks, on condition that the Victorian Government increased the reward to a like amount, so that the joint reward would be £8000, or £2000 for each outlaw. The Cabinet agreed to the proposition, and Sir Bryan O'Loghlen yesterday evening telegraph to Sir Henry Parkes notifying the fact, and expressing the desire of the Victorian Government to act in concert with the New South Wales Government in every way. In the letter which was under the consideration of the Cabinet yesterday afternoon, Sir Henry Parkes intimated that the Government of New South Wales intends to seek from Parliament special powers for dealing with the Kellys' gang and any similar classes of ruffians, with the object of securing them either dead or alive.
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