Victoria in the Early Fifties.

Hastings Standard, Issue 340, 5 June 1897, Page 4

Victoria in the Early Fifties.

[By James M. Campbell. L.S., F.R.C.S.] - [Specially Written fo:; the Hastings Standard.] t All Riyhts Heservetl.) It is an authenticated fact that spies cannot speak the truth, and even those who may employ them have to take their assertions with the proverbial grain of salt. The spies that were employed by the Victorian Government at that time were no exception to the general rule. The commander of the forces in Victoria, after an interview with the prisoners, stated publicly that he had his doubts about the assertions of the spies with regard to some of the prisoners. After many appearances and remands before the local bench at Ballarat the thirteen were fully committed to take their trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria, holden in Melbourne, on a charge of " high treason." Great preparations were now being made and precautions taken by the Government for the safe transit of the prisoners] to Melbourne gaol, there to await their trial on that serious charge. Some of the picked men of the 40fch regiment were mounted, and they along with some of the most tried of a gallant and brave body of men—the mounted police of Victoria—were to act in conjunction as an escort down to the Victorian metropolis. The whole escort was in command of Inspectors Smith and Zimines, two officers noted for their coolness and bravery, with senior Inspector Foster, of the Victorian police, in full charge of all details, on him in fact resting all the responsibility. In the early morn of the day they started for Melbourne, the thirteen prisoners were assembled on the camp parade ground and were addressed by Inspector Foster, who gave them to understand that the slightest action on their part to draw the attention of any one that they might see would be visited on them with fatal results. They were to lie down in the bottom of the two expresses that had been provided for their transit, and if they as much as lifted their heads whilst going through Ballarat they would be instantly shot down. The two Inspectors of police in charge of the escort were also given to understand that if on the way to Melbourne they saw any signs that would give them to believe that a rescue was intended they were to at once to fire into the waggons containing the prisoners. They were to take every precaution whilst on the road in case of falling into an ambuscade; but dead au alive the bodies of the thirteen prisoners had to be delivered to the authorities at Melbourne gaol. The prisoners were then handcuffed together in pairs and placed in the waggons —six in one and seven in the other. The end of a chain was fastened to the front part of the waggon and then through between the manacles of the diggers and again fastened to the back part of the conveyance. Then down they had to lie in the most easy position they could find—a most comfortable way I should imagine to ride over one hundred miles in one day under a hot Victorian sun. The grand sights to be met with on the l'oad or the lovely scenery they would pass through could not be much enjoyed by the inmates of the expresses in their cramped position. In due course Melbourne was reached without anything startling occurring on the road, unless it was maledictions uttered by Raffello against all expresses in general and the one he was riding in in particular. Try as they might the commanders of the escort could not make the Italian remain in silence for any length of time. On arriving at that gloomy-looking structure, the jail, made more drearylooking as the mantle of darkness had now enshrowded all objects, the 13 cramped and weary occupants of the expresses were with all care and due form landed over to Mr Wintel, the goveror of the establishment, and his Lieutenant, Mr Rowley, to be taken care of until wanted. It must have been an anxious aud weary time then passed by the men who had always had a free and roving life to have to submit to the rules and constraint of prison life knowing fullwell in their own minds that they had committed no crime and were unjustly placed there through the false swearing of one or two members of the lowest dregs of society. The prisoners were treated with every consideration and kindness by the gaol authorities, who tried, as far as the rules of the gaol and discipline would allow, to make their incarceration as bearable as circumstances would permit. Old friends that had previously been parted at Ballarat again met in that strong place of abode. M'lntyre (who, if now alive, is farming on the Waikato, New Zealand) and his two mates, who were imprisoned for the burning of Bently's Hotel on the Eureka, were there in livery. Seacamp, the editor of the Ballarat Star, the first newspaper published there, was also in retirement, having published something in his journal obnoxious or seditious to the ruling powers. It was the same editor to whom that once famous" but now almost forgotten Madame Lola Montes gave such an unmerciful horse-whip-ping in the theatre for publishing something that hurt her not-too-much refined feelings. One had to be careful what he was about in Ballarat in the Fifties. And last, though not least, if change of personnel was desired in that roomy abode one could at that time

have met the notorious bushranger " Garrett," who was incarcerated for robbing the bank at Ballarat. The same Garrett is*how in prison in New Zealand for deeds of robbery or violence committed. "What a life of crime he must have led. As the time of trial was fast approaching the Government was now doing all that lay in their power to obtain a conviction against the prisoners. [To be Continued.]