The Argus at KellyGang 16/8/1879 (2)
Lancefield robbery
Brief telegrams were received by Mr Turner, the general manager of the Commercial Bank, who went to Lancefield by the afternoon train. Along with the police were sent two operators with Morse instruments from the central telegraph office. The apparatus ordinarily used at Lancefield is one of Wheatstone's alphabetical instruments, and the slowness with which the Wheatstone can be worked compared with the Morse will no doubt account for the apparently tardy arrival of the early messages in town. If the men are as ignorant of the Lancefield district as their inquiries after leaving the township would indicate, the police ought not to find it very difficult to run them down. They were on foot when last seen. The police showed photographs of the members of the Kelly party to the persons who saw or met the men, and were told distinctly that they were not like any of the photographs.
Lancefield is about 45 miles from Melbourne by rail and road. It lies to the south of a semi circular bend in the Dividing Range, and is about midway between Kilmore and Kyneton, as the crow flies but on opposite sides of the Divide from both places. It is pretty close to the range and in the midst of hilly country. From Kilmore the distance would appear to be about 10 miles in a straight line, but much more by road.
PARTICULARS OF THE ROBBERY (FROM OUR SPECIAL REP0RTER) LANCEFIELD, FRIDAY EVENING
The township of Lancefield has suddenly become a scene of special interest through the occurrence of a daring outrage committed after the Kelly fashion. Being situated some 15 miles from the railway and on the skirting of the Mount William portion of the Dividing Ranges, it has been all along regarded as a place that could be easily attacked by the bushrangers-in fact the police were so cognisant of this fact that they several times cautioned the local manager of the Commercial Bank to be in readiness for a visit from the outlaws, and 12 special troopers were stationed for a time at the neighbouring township of Romsey, whilst Lancefield itself possessed two constables, one mounted and the other on foot. Notwithstanding all this care the bank was stuck up this morning and robbed Lancefield is a much more populous place than Euroa or Jerilderie yet the offenders managed to perform their work as easily as did the Kelly gang at each of those places and then effected their escape without any hindrance. The principal streets in the town are the Romsey road and High street, which cross each other near the centre of the place.
On one comer stands the Commercial Bank, a well finished two story building, consisting of the offices and a dwelling house, and at the opposite corner is Mac's Hotel. Next door to the bank, and only about 30 yards away, is the police camp, the two buildings being merely divided by a fence. The men stationed there were Mounted constable Mays and Constable Manny, but as it so happened Mays went down to Melbourne on Thursday afternoon with a prisoner named Coffey, who had been sentenced by the local magistrates to a months imprisonment for larceny, and had to be conveyed to the Melbourne Gaol. Manny was consequently left in charge alone. On Thursday evening, two men who are suposed to have been the offenders, were seen approaching the town from the north.
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