THE "KELLY" GANG

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21354, 22 December 1934, Page 11

THE "KELLY" GANG

TO TUB EDITOR Of THE PRBBS. Sir, —It was a real pleasure to me to read the letter of 'with reference to the "Kelly gang of bushrangers," but it was in the latter portion of his letter that I took the greatest interest. Your correspondent mentions that the public still confuse the West Coast Kelly gang with the Kelly gang of Victoria, : Australia. To think that there are people who honestly believe that the Kelly gang of Victoria was the same that operated on the West Coast 15 years before makes me feel quite merry; I have a great sense of humour. To be serious, I can discredit that at once. I mentioned before that the latter portion of the letter of "H.A.M." interested me, and in return, I will pass on some information that will no doubt be of interest to him. More than 30 years ago I lived for some time in the Benalla, Winton, Euroa, Violet Town, and Glenrowan districts, where Ned Kelly had lived as a law-abiding and respected member of society before he "took to the road." For six weeks I lived in the same house near Violet Town, where Ned Kelly had lived nearly 30 years before; and I mixed continually with older residents who had known him intimately, and some of them described to me how they had helped him in various ways after he "took to the road." Some of the published accounts of the doings of the Kelly gang are just rubbish; mere twaddle, so to speak; but living in the district, I was made acquainted with the real history of the Kelly gang, and of Ned himself, and also gained information about members of the Kelly family, but that information will have no place here. I quote a passage from your correspondent's letter, in which he says, "The Kelly gang was a different type from the Burgess-Sullivan gang; the latter murdered for a few pounds. The Kellys did not murder for money. They made war on policemen, on whom they laid the blame for making them take to the bush, and a spy was cold-bloodedly shot. But they had a great circle of sympathisers in tne country over which they operated, and it was this fact that enabled them to evade capture for so long cost of many thousands of pounds. I do not know where ' H.A.M. got that information, but every word of it is true. In the districts before-men-tioned Ned Kelly had many sympathisers, and as far as I know was universally respected; I often heard him spoken of as the "gentleman bushranger"; a gentleman, in the tirense that he was just and merciful; his enmity being directed solely towards those persecutors who had driven him on to the road, and against that particular body of police he was very bitter. He had many sympathisers among the womenfolk, owing to the fact that he always treated women with the respect that was due to them; I can give one instance. On one occasion one of the members of his gang robbed a women'of a few pounds but as soon as Ned Kelly heard of it he took this member along to the woman concerned and made him return the money with an apology, and in the presence of the same woman he said to the member of his gang, The money we require will be got from 'higher up' and not at the expense of poor, defenceless women: remember that in future." . When I went to live in the Ned Kelly districts" I was warned to be very careful how I spoke of him, .but after learning the true history right "on the soot." well, there was no need to warn me, for he had my sympathy also.—Vnurs etc. AUSTRALIAN SUNDOWNER. December 21, 1934.