The Argus at KellyGang 12/2/1879 (2)
A community of Englishmen will not long suffer it to be known that a handful of armed men, however desperate and daring, can murder at will, plunder at pleasure, and escape from townships with impunity, without a hand being raised or a shot fired against them. Steps, we should imagine, will be taken to organise a force of armed special constables in each hamlet that may be in danger, and when once it is known that help is near, that the, sound of a shot will bring assistance, the native bravery of the race will assert itself. No man cares about risking his life uselessly, and the KELLYS have been able to exercise terrorism because their victims were personally unarmed, and because if the captives made an effort to escape there was no body to whom an alarm could be given. But colonists must recognise the danger of this immunity continuing. If they are appealed to by the Government we believe that they will organise, and if there is any further delay in the capture or shooting down of the outlaws, Ministers will have to give their serious consideration to the proposition of making an appeal to the population of the threatened towns.
To allow the gang to make other raids and to plunder other banks is to invite fresh bands of marauders to take the field, and is to permit the growth of a DICK TURPIN feeling which prevails too much already. Much good would be done in many ways by awakening colonists to a sense of their personal responsibilities, and bringing home to men's minds the fact that the warfare against crime, more especially in a new country, cannot always be delegated entirely to the police, and that times arise when it is necessary that every man's hand should be actively against the common enemy. While the population is required to act on the defensive, the aggressive belongs to the police. We do not know whether the force can increase its efforts, but if any stimulus to exertion is necessary, it should be supplied by the fact of the cordon having been broken, and of a neighbouring colony having been subjected to injury by Victorian criminals. At any rate, the opportunity offers for the officers of the force to frankly and carefully reconsider, with a view of improving, the tactics which have been far from successful in the past. Up to the present date their private information has been either altogether wrong, or has been of the character of the information MARLBOROUGH is said to have supplied to the Stuart Court, namely, intended to be always a day after the fair.
They should by this time have taken the measure of their agents. The mechanical assistance of the black trackers has been of no avail, and here we certainly think an improvement is possible. The men employed in the ranges are said not to be the best of the experts; and, moreover, a black tracker requires to be properly handled. He is a tool which a workman can make good use of, and with which an amateur is apt to bungle. The police officers of Victoria have scant experience in this direction, while in Queensland black-tracking has been brought to whatever perfection it is capable of, and the officers have the men well under control, and know how to utilise them. If the Queensland Government were asked for the services of the best trackers and the best officers of its force it would no doubt willingly place them at our disposal, and we suggest that no time should be lost in making the request. Once the gang is discovered in its retreat, and the conflict is over. The expeditionary police, we believe, on the word of their leaders, are more than anxious to do their duty, and all that is required is to bring about that face to face meeting which the criminals are careful to avoid, preferring, of course, to swoop on the unarmed or surprised constabulary and the helpless bank clerks of the back townships. To effect this meeting not an effort should be spared. The private information at the disposal of the force will probably continue to be delusive, but a substantial improvement seems possible with regard to the trackers.
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