OLD CONVICT DAYS

Gisborne Times, Volume LIX, Issue 9573, 26 July 1923, Page 3

OLD CONVICT DAYS

REMOVING DEAD MAGISTRATE. MUDGEE, July 17. In the early days of Mudgeo it was a common sight to see convicts getting 40 or 50 lashes. Old rdcords. at t.he local court show that for being out late at night, getting drunk, and other trivial offences, they received several lashes at the triauble. The severest.man in those days was a magistrate named Furlong, who died suddenly one night at the Grattai Hotel. Two convicts were sent from Mudgeo to bring the body to town m a dray. 1 ’ Overjoyed at tbe death 01 1* urlong, they decided to indulge in a spree, and became very merry. On the return trip they selected the roughest parts of the road as. a moans of .paying off old scores against their late enemy, and cantered tne horse, while they sang, “Rattle his bones, over the stones: he’s only a tyrant whom nobody owns.” They enlivened the ilcighborhood with this ditty until Mudgeo was reached, where the gaol environment sol mi c., them.