THE CAPTURE OF THE KENNIFS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 147, 26 June 1902, Page 2

THE CAPTURE OF THE KENNIFS.

The capture by the Queensland police of the .two brothers Kennif, who are charged with having murdered a police constable and a station manager, will be received with tho highest satisfaction throughout Australia, for at one time it looked as if the Kennifs were to repeat the experience of the notorious Kellys, who so long defied the law and committed a series of abominable outrages and crimes. The Kennifs are young colonials, expert bushmen ; and had it not been that the district in which they had taken refuge was drought-stricken, and that they had to run the risk of capture by stealing forage from the settlers, they might have eluded the myrmidons of the law for many months, and developed into thorough - going bushrangers. That they are men of great daring was proved by their recent descent upon a township in broad daylight, when they obtained provisions and got away safely into the bush. In the backblocks of Australia there is always, ib is notorious, a certain section of the population which more oe less openly sympathises with horso-stealers and men of the bushranger life. One has only to read Rolfe Boldrewood's fascinating romance, "Robbery under Arms," the main incidents of which were taken from real life, to understand how deepseated and widespread is this feeling to which we refer. The Kennifs, however, have been captured before they had time to drift into the characters of popular heroes ; and it id possible that the hideous details of the murders with which they are charged may have so disgusted even sympathisers with lawbreakers as to prevent assistance from the latter. If the charges made against the two brothers can be substantiated their fate will be a short shrift and a long rope, and no decent person can dare to say that fate has not been well deserved.