THE KELLY GANG.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 5338, 24 March 1879, Page 2

THE KELLY GANG.

(fbom the "otago daily times.") The history of the Kelly gang exceeds 1 in, thrilling incidents anything we have heard or read of in Colonial marauding, and we must go back to the storiesof old border reeving and raising, with their attendant crimes and violence, to, realise the state of things which has existed in the Greta district within the last 20. years, ever since, in fact, the Quinns, Lloyds, and Kelly s have been in possession of the range. Linked together as one family, they have acquired property under selectors' rights over a breadth of country how almost their own, and, following their old patriarchal calling of cattlestealers, seem to have adopted the old I motto of Let them take who have the power. Let those keep who can. Before attempting to recount the later deeds of the men whose names are in every mouth, I will endeavour to throw some little light upon the history of the Kelly family. " Red Kelly," as .he was called, is the founder of the clan. In the olden days they lived at Craigieburn and Kilmore, where they had , about as bad a reputation as even cattlestealers can acquire, and it was a source of thanksgiving to the locality when they lef tit to settle in the neighborhood of Seymour, upon a morsel of land which could never have afforded their required support unless supplimented by the family pursuit. Eed Kelly for a long time evaded the , law, but was at last overtaken, and convicted at Beech worth of horse-stealingi, and died about 13 or 14 years ago, leaving children — Edward Kelly, Dan Kelly, Kate, and James. " The Quinns" (wrote a Melbourne biographer) "came from Ireland in the early days of the colony, and after living a sort of gipsy life knocking about all over the country, commenced a miserable existence \^. in the Greta Ranges. There are two ' \ families of Quinns— one of which Jim Quinn is the father, and a second of which Patrick Quinn is chief. Though of the same name Patrick and James Quinn were not related .by consanguinity, but only through Patrick having married; Mrs Kelly's sister. The whole, of the Quinns, m well w the KeUys, J^d. tiio re*

• Wati'on' of beiftg 'cattle 'stetfeM&r $&v*erai' f: -y fetation^., TM 'flUrij 1 b^nch jff M; 4" / fioforioite gang is the Lloyd's, w v rio &£# -: b'rother'-m-law lo Mrs Kelly, having r *' married into the Quihn family." Thrift it • will bo seen that they are all mixed yip Ijy blood and marriage, and thai accounts for the way in which they assist one qnpther when in trouble; A strong feelifag of fraternity has been engendered fcmqngst them ,' and that .finds substantial SiprWioti in .times of danger. -Bed jXelly,' then; iq. to. ( be r regarded as the founder and paterfamilias ,6f this clam, •which has grown in nunib'erd with some^ what alarming rapidity. It has been, calculated that there are no' less than 125 persons in the ranges and flats who are more or less closely related to the Kelly's. •These relatives are scattered all over the country, from Greta to the Buffalo Mountains,, and they can easily render assistance to their friends and convey them intelligence. . Amongst the worst of the clan were the $uirins, who had the reputation of holding HMdn life very cheap indeed. In. ■ ihe words of an' old Tippferary doggrell : : Shillelagh was his writfa' peri. And all his joy was fightm' men; Among other acts of violence Jim Quinii was imprisoned for beating a neighbor with a bullock yoke. He threatened to murder another man by the horrible proy cess of boring an augur into his head ; and for a trampling assault, in which he •* fe'ruelly .beat a man with a heavy paling, , he got three . months. The antipathy of the clan to the police was inveterate, and we find Quinn one day assaulting- . Senior Constable Hall, and splitting his head open with a stick. ' • The village of Greta is within 40 miles of Mansfield and seven of the Glenrowan railway station, and the hut in which the Kellys now reside is a few miles from Greta. It is in the immediate neighbour-; hood of the ranges which may be called their own that the gang have taken shelter, and from which, in defiance of the police, they make their predatory raids. In the old times of Morgan, Ben Hall, Thunderbolt, arid Power, the Greta ranges were the Alsatia to which they rushed in extremity, and were welcomed. The/Kelly stronghold , was in the ElevenmileLgreek, and along the Fifteen-mile creek/Sip to Glenmore,. near the WornW Hills, where the Quinns resided. From that point there is one road running over the tableland to Mansfield, and another towards the King River. The King River Range is crossed through a gap -i tunning back' from the stream, leaving the lower flat intersected by lagoons. The gap can be seen from the heights, and the point is so commanding that no one can approach without being subject to view. It is here that the Kellys have taken shelter, and being surrounded by their friends, it is impossible to approach them unawares ; and unless they are taken in the open, I am of opinion that it will be a long time before their capture is effected. As I have said, their principal pursuit was cattle-stealing ; this ■Was neccessarily varied by agriculture, but it occupied all their spare time. It was not uncommon for some member of the clan to cross to New South Wales, drive a heard over the border, run them in to BOine place inaccessible to the police, erase old brands, re-brand them, and aend them into market for sale. This was the school in which the Kelly's were trained, with what result we now see. When Ned Kelly— then described as a young fellow of good manners and appearance—was about 14, he fell in with Power, the bushranger, whose favorite place of refnge was in the neighborhood, and became his associate. Power, after bushranging overmuch in Beechworth, which became too hot for him, went to Geelong —Kelly, it is said, being with him, and returning after two days' stay by the Little River, touched the Wamba encampment, and thence to Malrasbury Common. Superintendent (now Assistant-Commis-sioner) Nicholson, on receiving the news, despatched a trooper in pursuit, who came up to a grog shanty, where he saw two horses at the door. He was quite certain he had his man, but on entering found only young Ned, who at once went away -with him in custody. ; Power, it is supposed, had escaped. When the charge was heard, the herdsmen could not swear to Kelly, and the lad was released. The ~ superintendent, feeling an interest in the boy, induced him to go into the interior on a cattle station, which he did, but was soon afterwards brought back by one of the Lloyds, his relative, and recommended his evil courses. Shortly „ afterwards Power was betrayed and captured at Power's Look-Out, a rocky steep on the side of a mountain, commanding a view over the country for many miles round. At the time yonng Kelly had the odium of this treachery, but it was afterwards traced to Lloyd, who expiated his faithlessness by breaking his neck through a fall from his horse on his way to Greta. Shortly after Power went unwillingly to Pentridge, Kelly aujgjßndered himself to the police on a cbfrWe of horse stealing, but the case fell thtoSgh, and he was again at large. His time vras, however, by no means lost. He was still engaged in the old pursuit with more or less success, but continued unmolested until 1870, when he again came into the hands of- the police for assaulting the same senior constable Hall, who, as I i have related, received the attentions of James Quinn. Hall had a warrant against Ned f orthe old game, andmeeting his man, placed him under cover of his revolver. Ned rushed him and tried to gain the weapon, but Hall was too much for him. Taking the butt end of the pistol he dealt Kelly a terrible blow, the marks of which he still bears, and does not seem to forget. As usual, he was acquitted on tha charge of horse, stealing— the police so far never could catch him there ; but he received three months' imprisonment for the assault, and was bound over to keep the peace. By the time he emerged Hall, the sworn foe of the clan, had woven hi* net securely, and young Kelly, still but a lad, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for his attachment to horseflesh. Three years in Pent- ~ bridge was not the diet to which the scamp . of the hills and ranges was accustomed, and at the time of his release, to all appearance, the wild spirit was partially tamed, and he settled down to station work. Wherever he went he gained the character of a capital servant, both -willing and able— and might haye continued a useful member of society, but for an unlucky saddle and bridle which were missed and traced to Ned. Again throwing off his allegiance to honest toil, he retreated to his old savage life among the hills, where he was joined by his brother Dan, and nothing was seen or heard of him until New Year's Day, 1878, when ho rode into Benalla on the occasion of some public gathering. He was very reserved and quiet, and associated with no one. The police, although no doubt in possession of a warrant, refrained from dis- I tubring or driving him to extremities, • and saw him quietly leave the place. From that time to the shooting of Constable Fitzpatrick, no one except his relatives and cronies knew of the whereabouts of young Ned Kelly. He asserts that he was not within 100 miles of the place ; but his sister's story is widely different, as will be seen in a subsequent part of this narration. Having brought the recital to this point, which was unhappily the culminating one of this unfortunate young fellow's career, and has already cost three human lives, I proH poose to trace his steps in further v notices, along that dark road which, lie ; has chosen to travel, and by ascertaining a#d presenting the truth, leave my readers to judge where are the faults of system which have brought about a more disastrously immoral effect than has ever visited this and the adjoining colony of Victoria. In the raid on Jerilderie, Kelly made it a condition under cover of a levelled revolver, that Gill, the printer, should print " his , life,"