Victoria in the Early Fifties.

Hastings Standard, Issue 339, 4 June 1897, Page 4

Victoria in the Early Fifties.

[By James M. Campbell, L.S., F.B.C.S.] [Specially Written For. the Hastings Standard.! (All Riyhts Reserved./ The diggers after being unarmed—that was an easy operation were rounded up much the same as a mob of sheep and driven up to the police camp. All diggers that were met with on the line of march up to the camp were run into the mob, and by the time their destination was reached there were a goodly number all told. A great number of them had never seen the stockade, much less taken part in the conflict. The number of men that had been conquered so gallantly that morning had to be accounted for officially. That was one way of swelling the number to make them look formidable. The holding capacity of the Ballarat prison was that Sunday tried to its utmost capacity; there must have been betweeu four and five hundred men of a'l descriptions under arrest. A mo'k-y crew they looked from a speclalot's point of view—men of every creed and co'or and of all nationalities under the free of the sun. So : ne were to be met with only partially clothed, having risen out of their beds to see what was the trouble. There conspicuous to be seen was Garaboni» moaning over the loss of the cause, with his snuffbox, and a bullet wound in his leg. It was hard to tell which he grieved most for. I am inclined to think it was not for his wounded leg. Strict injunctions as to their behavior were issued to the prisoners by those in authority. Any appearance of a revolt on theii part, or any action tha.t could be constructed as such would at once hold them liable to be fired upon by the guards placed over them. The prisoners were not allowed to converse one with the other, and no one from i'l3 oatside world was allowed to hold any communication with them. It was a free country for some of the prisoners; if they bad no clothes they could go without them. Espionage was still largely carried on by the Government, as spies had been placed in the ranks of the diggers on their way to prison on the Sunday morning. The old Waterloo veteran was scill to the fore and deeply in the confidence of the imprisoned diggers. The prisoners were visited doily by those in authority and by their friends, and the work of identification was now beginning to take place. By identification, I mean picking out the prisoners that had been in the engagement. On Tuesday morning the guards were all strengthened and an air of activity seemed to prevail all over. Detachments of armed men were being moved here and there and the big guns were got into position to defend the camp. That morning very stringent orders were issued to both guards and prisoners by the General commanding the forces in Australia, he having then arrived at Ballarat. The cause of all the activity is easily explained. The interment of the poor fellows who fell in the Stockade was to take place that day, and as the funeral corteye had to pass the camp where the diggers were imprisoned the authorities were alarmed in case there might be an attempt made to rescue the imprisoned diggers. Happily no move was made in that direction. It is hard to tell what might have been the consequence if a move had been made for a rescue. It would have gone bad with the prisoners. As the work of identification went on the prisoners were getting discharged in batches. There was no taking them (the prisoners) before any judicial tribunal or authority; they had only to be sworn to by those in the service of the Government, upon whose]oath depended their fate. The prisoners would fall in for inspection and the spies would march through amongst them, picking one out here and there as being conspicuous in the stockade as a leader or as an agitator, and then swearing to the identity of those picked out. The spies would have been just as near the mark as if they had thrown up a coin and called out " head or tail" and chosen their victims in that manner. It would have been fairer for the victims and it would have given them a chance of escape. The old Wateroo veteran swore distictly to seeing one unfortunate that he picked out pointing a revolver at short range at Captain Wise and shooting him dead as he jumped into the stockade on that never-to-be-for-gotten Sunday morning. Now I can distinctly and positively swear that the individual sworn to never in his life up to that time had a revolver-in his hand, much less fired one. I allude to the time and date that the veteran swore to, that being a few days after the engagement took place. There were now only thirteen of the unfortunates left in prison and they were sworn to as being the most sanguinary and evil disposed of the combination that had opposed the Government. With an exception or two I can at this distant period give from memory the names and nationalities of the thirteen that it was intended to make an example of as a warning to all who would try to overthrow the Queen's supremacy. They were— Timothy Hayes, John WLslan, Michael Touhey, John Manning, James Beattie, John Malloy, of Ireland; Black Joseph, American ; John Fenwick, Swede ; Garaboni Kaffello, Italian ; Thomas Dig&s, Australian;

•J nmes i lac fie, West Indian; Jacob I Saunderson, Scotland. The thirteenth | name is lost to memory. 1 The above named. were now more ! strictly guarded and every care was J taken in ease cf an escape. I: would have been something horrible for them to have escaped if all the crimes that were sworn to had been committed by them. The life of no Government official would have been safe in Australia. [To be Continued.]