The Chronicles of Early Melbourne/Volume 1/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI.
INTRODUCTION OF CIVIL GOVERNEMNT: FORMATION AND GROWTH OF THE PUBLIC DEPARTMENTS.— (Continued.)
SYNOPSIS:—Henry Batman's Death.—First Chief-Constable.—" The Tulip."—" Dick" and" Charlie."—Royal Mail Hotel: Its First Boniface.—First Fire Brigade.—Sergeant O'Connor as a Thief Catcher.—Dr. Martin and his Medical Certificates.—Mr. Sturt, Superintendent of Police. — The Mounted Police—Native Police; Captain Dana, Commandant. —Postal Department. — The First Post-office Building.—Postal Revenue in /Sj8.—First Mail direct to England.—First Overland Mail.—Bourke's Mail Reminiscences.—First Overland Mail to Geelong.—First Postmaster.—Mr. Ketsh's Perplexity.—Self-acting Letter Delivery.—Royal Mail Cart. — Cost of Department for 1841.—Sir George Gipps' Visit to Melbourne.—First Overland Mail to Portland.—Semi-weekly Mail to Sydney.—Loss of Mail at Yass.—New Post-office Act.—" Franking" Abolished.—First Issue of Postage Stamps.—First Public Clock. —Greening's Clock Vagaries.— Daily Mail be/ween Melbourne and Geelong.—Overland Mail Robberies.—A Lady's Predicament.—Stripped in the Bush.
The Police Force.
THE beginning of our now extensive, complicated, and highly officered police system, is interesting. The first police official was a queerish sort of original, named Joseph William Hooson, selected in Sydney, and arrived in Melbourne on the 5th October, 1836. Hooson was, for some time, a general without an army, as the only police force he had in charge was himself, often a great deal too much for him. He soon passed from having nothing to do, to out-running the constable" in more senses than one, and at length, after a four months' spell, he got to be so outrageously bumptious that the Police Magistrate "disbanded" him, and on the 7th February, 1837, gave his billet to Mr. Henry Batman (John Batman's brother). Two sub-constables were appointed, and this triad of rank and file was increased at the rate of about one per annum, for in 1839 there were only four policemen, whose special duty it was to keep guard over the lives and property of the Melbournians—though a few mounted troopers were distributed between Melbourne, Geelong, the Goulburn, Broken River, the Ovens, and the Murray. Henry Batman, who was too big for his berth (and died suddenly whilst enjoying a lie down in his bunk early in 1839), was replaced by Mr. William Wright on the 5th August, 1838. Wright was thefirstperson gazetted as a chief-constable in the province. Unless officially, he was never known as William Wright, for he universally went under the alias of "The Tulip." Why he was so complimented, I could never make out, unless that he almost invariably wore a green cloth coat, wrought in some rough way after the fashion of the modern paget, and that he had a big bulbous purply face, somewhat carbuncularly inclined. He had a neck nearly as thick as a bullock's, firmly set in a massive frame, which tended towards what is known as a "corporation." Crowned with a cabbage-tree hat, and screwed into a pair of cords or moleskins, and a set of stout riding boots, you had
"the Tulip""ready for action at a moment's notice. Wright had brought over from Van Diemen's Land, a familiar acquaintance with convict trickery in all its moods and tenses, and this was of good service to him in dealing with the rascaldom of the time, and the expiree and ticket-of-leave class, from which was generated three-fourths of the crime of forty years ago. If ten years younger and of slighter figure, he would have been an invaluable police officer, and as it was, he was never equalled by any other chief-constable of Melbourne. He was "fly" to every dodge of a reputed or actual rogue, and could scent like a sleuth-hound the trail of the horse or cattle thief, the sly grog seller or the escaped convict. In January, 1840, there were only the chief and eight constables to maintain the public peace, and in January, 1841, the police establishment of the whole province thus appears on the estimates:— Melbourne.
Police Magistrate, Mr. James Simpson, £300 per annum; Clerk to the Bench, Mr. R. Ocock, £150 per annum; Assistant Clerk (vacant), £100 per annum; Chief-Constable, Mr. W. Wright, £100 per annum; District Constable, Thomas Clews, 3s. per diem, £54 15s. per annum; Watch-house-keepers at Melbourne and Williamstown at 3s. each per diem, £109 10s. per annum; Twelve Constables at Melbourne, and one at Williamstown at 2S. 9d. each per diem, £652 8s. 9d. per annum; Scourger, 2s. 6d. per diem, £45 12s. 6d. per annum; allowance for clothing to constables, £65 17s. 6d. per annum; stationery, printing, and furniture, £100 per annum; freight from Sydney and incidental expenses, £80 per annum.
Police Magistrates and stations were also established at Geelong and Portland as early as December 1839, with Mr. N. A. Fenwick as P.M. at the one, and Captain Fyans (soon succeeded by Mr. James Blair) at the other, each receiving £300 a year. Clerks of the Bench at these places had /jioo a year salary, the remuneration of the other subordinates was the same, and each locality had its "two-and-sixpenny scourger."
Geelong had to be content with one district and five constables, and Portland with a district and three. The minister of the law's vengeance (known as "the scourger") received a daily wage of threepence less than the ordinary policeman. The office was more of a sinecure than it is now, for the "cattings" were restricted by law to operating on insubordinate convicts, and when called into requisition, certainly never provided anything like sufficient work for so many pairs of arms. As "the scourger" in after years dropped off the estimates, an "executioner" dropped on, but this officer has, for a long time, ceased to be thus officially recognised, the "capital" and flogging services performed being paid out of the incidental expenses of the Sheriff's department. The ordinary policemen of thefirstfew years were mostly a miserable set of broken-down cripples, with an "oddman" never in trouble, occasionally amongst them; but, as a rule, they were mostly convicts free by servitude, with now and then a ticket-of-leave holder. An able-bodied civilian could, and sometimes did, in a very uncivil style, catch one of them in each hand by the collar and pitch him, "neck and crop" into one of the dangerous pools of mud and water, to be found at every street intersection, and the soaked "bobby" would scramble ashore, shake himself, and sneak away showing his teeth, but without either bark or howl. There was one very remarkable mannikin, a sergeant, Charles Swindle (not inappropriately named) a full-blown butty of a personage. He married a smart, stout stump of an immigrant girl, about his own height and make, whose lively proclivities on the voyage out procured for her the sobriquet of "Dick." "Charlie," when on his nocturnal rounds, was invariably stealthily followed by "Dick;" and as he was fond of imbibing, when unfit for duty, "Dick" would drag him home, don his clothes', borrow his lantern, and go his rounds. The half a-dozen constables she would have to visit, were generally absent from their posts, or as drunk as "Charlie," and so "Dick" continued for some time to act as her husband's proxy with impunity. One night, however, she met "the Tulip" in her wanderings, when, his sharp eye penetrating her disguise, he marched her off to the lock-up, and charged her with personating, not her husband, but a police officer in the discharge of his duty. The bonâ-fides of her motive in trying to conceal the shortcomings of her spouse, was so apparent that the matter was compromised by both "Dick" and "Charlie" being sent about their business. The ex-sergeant did not long survive his downfall, and so he died, and was hardly cold in his grave ere "Dick," now a buxom widow, soon supplied herself with another partner, who, having a little money put by, took her into the country, opened a bush public house, and, after they lived together prosperously for many a year, he left her again a widow, with half a-dozen youngsters, tolerably well provided for. "Dick," I am told, is still alive, and that her life may be a long and merry one is all the ill I wish her. At first there was no set uniform for the constabulary, and, except handcuffs dangling from a leathern belt buckled round the waist, and a staff, half waddy and half bludgeon, no other insignia of their calling was visible about them; but in 1840 an ukase was issued that the mEn were henceforth to be distinguished by wearing blue jackets, with a red stripe round the left wrist, and yellow vests, head gear ad libitum. After remaining in office for three years, Wright resigned in 1841, and was succeeded by a Mr. F. A. Falkiner, a smartish, conceited sort of young man, who had served in the police of a neighbouring colony. The change was not for the public advantage, at least so the police magistrate thought, for, though nothing was ever publicly alleged against Falkiner, Mr. Simpson took such a liking to "the Tulip" that he procured Falkiner's dispensation and Wright's restoration. This occurred in the beginning of 1842; but "the Tulip" had hardly taken root in its recovered bed when, for some unexplained reason, probably a desire to provide for a hungry place-hunter, it was eradicated by peremptory instructions from Sydney, and a Mr. Charles Brodie made his appearance with the appointment of chief-constable in his pocket. This Brodie was a shrewd, active officer, but too self-opinionated, and often so persistently crotchety that it was trying to the magistrates to bear with him. Simpson had given up the police magistracy by this time, and Major St. John ruled in his place. Brodie so managed to ingratiate himself into the Major's favour as to become his right-hand man, and though no one was more conversant with the black-mailing and present-taking which precipitated St. John's ruin, he was always adroit enough to keep himself uncompromised, notwithstanding the suspicions and rumours of his complicity which were often so rife. After the incorporation of Melbourne, in 1843, there was a disagreement between the Town Council and the Executive about the levying of a police rate, which resulted in the abolition of the police magistracy, the duties of which office were thenceforth, for several years, performed by the Mayor for the time being. The withdrawal of St. John removed Brodie's mainstay, and in 1844 he so embroiled himself with the town magistracy that the Government was asked to remove him. This was done, but in consideration of his standing well at head-quarters, an office becoming every day a necessity was created for his behoof, and he was nominated Chief-Constable of the County of Bourke, then constituted a separate police district. Here he remained for many years, and in time obtained the appointment of keeper of the gaol at Geelong, where he continued, and was superannuated only a few years ago; but he soon made his exit from the world in comparative affluence, having acquired a handsome property in Fitzroy and other places. Mr. William Johnson Sugden came after Brodie as Town Chief-Constable, and held the office for several years, when he retired to commence business as a Boniface in the Royal Mail Hotel (corner of Bourke and Swanston Streets) of which he was the first landlord. He afterwards kept the Bull and Mouth, in Bourke Street, and an hostelry at St. Kilda, but he, too, has gone the way of his predecessor. He was a tall, straight, good-looking man, w h o strutted like a retired dragoon through the streets. He once served in a cavalry regiment, which accounted for the half-cavalier manner in which he did other things besides walking. He was sheriff's officer when he got the police preferment, and, whilst Chief-Constable, led an active, bustling life of it. He was at times rather impulsive in his duty, and too confident and pretentious in his conduct; was partial to "blowing" about himself, but, on the whole, served the public reasonably well, and gave pretty general satisfaction. He was also thefirstsuperintendent of thefirstfirebrigade founded in Melbourne, but in this capacity he never endangered life or limb, nor did anything specially remarkable as a public "extinguisher." In his treatment of the police he was deficient in that sameness of manner so necessary for the maintenance of proper discipline, for one week he would bounce, and the next do the other thing. Sometimes he was over exacting, and at others too indulgent, and many anecdotes used to be told of how he managed his men. As an instance of his occasional consideration for the comfort of his subordinates, the following occurrence may be cited:— One terrible hot-wind day occurred in February, 1847, when the Melbourne police force, consisting of twenty men, rank and file, though not insolvent were personally in absolute "liquidation" from the broiling heat. They would have melted to the wick like a tallow candle, but for the timely interposition of the Chief-Constable (Sugden), who, on the difficulty being represented to him, generously permitted them to keep their dress jackets unbuttoned, and to wear cabbage tree hats; but they were to be sure and have their numbers exposed, so that the public might be able to recognise their trusted guardians. For this act of grace the expressions of gratitude were loud and long, and Sugden's praises were sung, at all events until a change of weather came. The Corporation was incessantly crying out for more police protection, and the force was slowly and reluctantly increased, both in town and a few places in the country, so that, on the 1st January, 1847, Melbourne had for itself a chief, four sergeants, two watch-house keepers, twenty petty constables, and a messenger. A clothing allowance was also made, but not on a scale sufficient to encourage much extravagance, for it was only sixpence per day for the sergeants, and fourpence for the privates. The County of Bourke had also its chief-constable, two sergeants, twenty two petty constables, and two watch-house keepers; and though the rural sergeants were allowed the same clothing rate as the town officers, the privates were docked to threepence a day, as it is supposed, on the plea that it was not necessary for them to make such a "stylish turn out" as the town constables. No clothing perquisite was granted to the chief constables and watch-house keepers, as they were not supposed to go in livery—though certainly the chiefs always appeared in neat uniform coats at their own expense.
As to the peace preservers at Geelong, Portland, Belfast, and Alberton, they were in no way taken into account in the sumptuary regulations. Time and circumstances brought with them a great change for the better, in the size, age and physique of the force, and by the end of 1847 they were a fairly presentable body of men. It was about this time that Chief-Constable Sugden initiated the detective system in Melbourne. There was in the force a Sergeant Maurice O'Connor, a smart, good-looking, long-headed fellow, and Sugden transformed him into a detective corps. This O'Connor has never been excelled in the metropolis as a thief-catcher, and single-handed be did an amount of work which would astonish some of our senior detective officers of the present day. The experiment worked so well that in a few months O'Connor got an assistant. He fell into bad health in a couple of years, and was succeeded by a Mr. Ashleigh, a recent arrival, and was made sergeant of the detectives, increased to five in 1849, but reduced to three in as many months after. Ashleigh remained in this capacity until after the gold discoveries, and no officer of police ever showed better results for what he cost. Sugden, on his retirement to join the Licensed Victuallers, was presented by that brotherhood with a purse of sovereigns as an indication of the sterling esteem in which they held him, though it may be not unfairly rated as a questionable compliment, considering the powers then vested in the Chief-Constable by the Licensed Victuallers' Act. He was succeeded by Mr. Joseph Bloomfield, as it was believed, through the influence of Major St. John, to whom, as Commissioner of Crown Lands, Bloomfield had acted for some time as a clerk and man-of-all-work. Bloomfield was a dashing officer, with less of craft than any who had preceded him. He was too precipitate in his actions, and as Fire Brigade Inspector was a much better leader than Sugden, for when the firemen were in action, Bloomfield would be up a ladder in quick sticks, where Sugden would cautiously keep out of fire. Bloomfield held his police position until 1852, when everything was topsy-turvey in Melbourne, and any person who opened any sort of a grog shanty was sure to make a fortune. Bloomfield got bitten by the mania for money-making, resigned his appointment, and obtained a license for a place known as the Merrijig Hotel, in the northern part of Elizabeth Street; and an evil day was it for him when he did so. For though he made money, he had not acquired the knack of keeping it. He went into excesses and came to grief, was soon far below low-water mark and remained there. Whether he be dead or alive I know not; but he was, in his day, a generous, free-handed man, and there were many who regretted the troubles by which he was overwhelmed.
In 1849 an amusing episode occurred in police economics which should not be overlooked. Some difficulty arose in connection with the medical attendance upon the force, in consequence of the Colonial Surgeon (Dr. Cussen) not deeming its members as included in that category of Government men, for whom he was bound to prescribe, and the difficulty was surmounted by the police agreeing to contribute a certain monthly sum to remunerate a medical officer for supervising their bodily health. There was then in the profession a James Martin, M.D., an easy-going, smooth-faced, smooth-tongued sort of biped, and the police unanimously elected him to be their "medicine man" subject to the recommendation of the Chief Constable, and the approval of the Mayor, both of which were without difficulty obtained. The new system worked tolerably well for a while, and the constables were much pleased with the affability and skill of their special practitioner, but it was soon found that things went on too smoothly for the patients, and prejudicially for the public. In fact the doctor grew over accommodating, and whenever a sick certificate was asked, he was either too weak-minded, or too good-natured to say no, and, as a consequence, there used to be too many on the sick list, that the Chief-Constable found himself very much embarrassed by the numerical weakness of his staff. It could not be said to be malingering—for no feigned indisposition was necessary to obtain a certificate of "off duty;" it was only to ask the doctor, and get it. So it came to pass that whether a constable was for, or on, or after, a drunken spree, Dr. Martin stood by him, regardful of nothing except the punctual payment of the head-money on the first of the month. The Chief-Constable at length began to be dissatisfied, then grumbled, and next remonstrated ineffectually with both men and medico, but, at last, one night, when twelve men were to form the town night watch, Bloomfield on calling the muster-roll, found ten of them represented by as many Martin certificates of incapacity through illness: so he put down his foot, and declared that he should thenceforth refuse to "honor the doctors' paper." Great discontent followed, the men grumbled, and Martin blustered, and protested, but when the subject came to be ventilated by Mr. W. M. Bell (the then Mayor) he abated the nuisance by declaring that if this thing were repeated, he would assume that the police as a body were so unhealthy, that they ought to be replaced by healthier men, and he should therefore have a thorough clearing out, and a new force appointed. After this the convalescence of the police improved so rapidly that the Chief-Constable had no further reason to complain. Martin's spell was broken, and the police soon arrived at the conviction that, as they now received no value for their medical money, they might as well save it, and the M.D.'s services were soon dispensed with. 'There was no police doctor for years after, and then in times, and under conditions such as rendered a repetition of the scheming trick impracticable.
Towards the end of this year, it was decided that the police of the town and district should be placed under the control of an officer of higher rank than Chief-Constable, and after due consideration and care in the selection of a suitable person, the Superintendent of the Colony conferred the office of Superintendent of Police of Melbourne and the County of Bourke, upon Mr. E. P. S. Sturt, hitherto only known as the occupier of a squatting station in the far Wrest, near South Australia. Mr. Sturt assumed office on the ist January, 1850, was enrolled on the Commission of the Peace for both town and territory, and assigned as visiting magistrate to the gaol, and subsequently to the Penal Stockade, the erection of which was commenced before the year was over. His salary was £400 a year; he was an officer of promptitude and courage, liked by his men, and trusted by the public. In the early days of Pentridge, his firmness and determination did much to suppress more than one incipient prison outbreak, and during the early days of the goldfields he rendered the State good service. As to his after career as Police Magistrate of Melbourne, and the questionable manner in which he was unceremoniously got rid of, it is for others, not me, to write. Towards the close of 1851 it was evident a total reconstruction of the police system of the colony was inevitable, and it was not long deferred.
The Mounted Police.
This force originated in 1836, by the stationing of half-a-dozen mounted troopers at as many points of thoroughfare throughout the province. The paucity of the number operated more in appearance than reality, and did little or nothing in deterring black or white marauders from their evil courses. The number was slightly and slowly increased during the next and subsequent years. In August, 1839, a batch was sent from Sydney, and in 1840 the force was put into something like established shape, and a Lieut. F. B. Russell, of the 28th Regiment, placed in command. His remuneration as such was 6s. per day, and the rank and file consisted of 1 officer, 7 sergeants, 28 troopers, 1 farrier, 1 servant, and a trooper's wife, as cook and laundress, I presume. They were all rationed at the daily rate of is. 6d., and hutted, whilst the sergeants and troopers were clothed at the rate of £5 each per annum. Except the commander and the lady, the rest were mostly ticket-of-leave prisoners, and the sergeants were allowed 2s. 4d. each per day. The privates were divided into 21 mounted and 7 dismounted troopers, the equestrians receiving 1s., and the infantry 6d. per diem, whilst the solitary member of the fair sex was supposed to work without wage, in consideration of a miserable daily dole of 6d., as "grub money." No doubt she managed to make some pickings and to pocket some unconsidered trifles about the encampment. The annual feeding of the men and woman cost £1049 7s. 6d., whilst 29 horses absorbed each 4s. per day, or £2111, in supplies of hay and oats; and though the clothing of the bipeds was done for £175, the saddling and shoeing of the quadrupeds swallowed £272 15s. per annum. The arms and ammunition were rated at £50, stationery at £10, and fuel and light at £40 yearly. This force had barracks and stabling in the Richmond paddock, and was chiefly employed in country duty, as a whole, not giving any extraordinary return for the money spent in its maintenance. Its presence, however, acted to a certain extent as a deterrent of crime in the interior. Seven years after it appears shorn of some of its fair proportions, for Lieutenant Russell and the laundress have disappeared, whilst Lieutenant Mair figures as the commandant the sergeants have lost one of their number, and the troopers are cut down from 28 to seven. Lieutenant Mair, a Sergeant Rose, and five troopers are established at Melbourne, whilst such important places as the Goulburn, Broken River and the Murray must be content with a sergeant and trooper; Geelong and Portland with a trooper and a corporal; Port Fairy with only a trooper; and the wild extensive country of Gippsland with—nothing. The gold developments soon rendered a re-organization and considerable increase of that corps necessary, and there was plenty of work for it for several years to come.
Native Police.
So far as actual experiment proved, the Australian Aborigine had not been a successful repressor of black or white outrages, or capturer of criminals. As a police subsidiary the modern black-tracker may be useful, though his powers in the search of white criminals have been much exaggerated. An experiment of this sort was tried in the early days, and, after being tested for years, was given up in despair as an abominable, costly toy, which did more injury than otherwise. In 1840, a notion prevailed that the inauguration of a mounted corps of blackfellows to be used as a supplementary bush police, would be a capital thing and work wonders, especially in the detection of aboriginal evil doers; and accordingly the Legislature of New South Wales voted in the Estimates for 1841, £1000 to start the experiment. This was to be appropriated to the payment of a salary of £100 to a Superintendent, and the balance for rationing, clothing, and equipping thirty-five Aborigines as policemen. The organisation was soon after effected, and the expenditure as usual in all such projects, swelled considerably. Instead of one officer the corps had a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in command. A depot or barracks was formed at Narree-Narree-Woran, near the Coran-Warabil Range, some twenty-three miles from Melbourne, in the trans-Dandenong country, and hence it operated for years, making a great noise occasionally, its chiefs quarrelling, and in one instance, as related elsewhere, with nearly fatal results. Periodical excursions used to be taken, "cooked" reports furnished to the Superintendent, any quantity of row and bustle, with little or nothing of utility to show. Instead of the native police "force," this piece of useless extravagance should be called the "farce," for it was actually one, relieved by a touch of tragedy which sent its second officer for years to Pentridge. It went on for some time, and, to add, if possible, to the absurdity, every year lopped off some branches from the main body, whilst increasing the ornamental part until 1847, when the corps actually numbered five white officers to hector four booted and belted blackfellows, the rate of pay graduating from top to bottom at from £5 to 1s. 9d. per week!
The rank and file were thus:— Commandant, Captain H. E. P. Dana, £250 per annum; Second Officer, Mr. W. H. Walsh, £100 per annum; Third Officer, Mr. W. A. P. Dana (the Captain's brother), £60 per annum; Sergeant Henry McGregor, £40 per annum; Corporal, £20 per annum; four Privates (natives) at 3d. each per day.
Of course there were, besides, such incidentals as rations, horses, equipments, uniforms, forage, and other etceteras. The nuisance was persisted in until it became simply intolerable, when it was abated, to the regret of no one except the few individuals, black and white, pecuniarily, and even pennily interested. This miserable abortion would soon have died out, but its life was prolonged by the unexpected breaking out of the yellow fever, which so changed everything that the coloured contingent shared the same fate as other branches of the public service in a considerable augmentation.
The Post Office: Mails and Mail Robberies.
Henry, for a short time in charge of a police force, which could hardly be said to have an existence, then took to looking after the letters until the end of 1836, when this little more than nominal duty was transferred to a person named Foster. At that time a row of small huts extended, at intervals of a few yards, along the ridge in front of the n o w Scott's Hotel, in West Collins Street, eastward in direction of Queen Street, and one of these—bark-formed, bark-covered, and with a m u d chimney, was occupied as the Post Office, and so matters remained for about a year. In December, 1837, an arrangement was entered into between the authorities in Sydney, and Mr. Benjamin Baxter, to undertake the duties of Postmaster, and the office was forthwith transferred to a brick-nogged, shingle-roofed, two-roomed cottage, rented from M r . J. P. Fawkner, and situated off the line of Flinders Street, eastward of the n o w Royal Highlander Lane. Baxter received ,£150 a year for so doing, out of which he had to pay the landlord's rent; and there he not only kept the Post Office, but resided also with his wife. W h e n it is taken into account that the whole postage income for the following year (1838) averaged only ,£8 per month for thefirsthalf, and ,£17 per month during the remainder, or in all .£150—just the s u m paid to Baxter—it will be admitted that the Post Office began to be a non-self-supporting establishment at an early period. T h e brick-nogged cabin was embedded in a dense ti-tree scrub, with a narrow approach, half cleared in front, and this thoroughfare was in a chronic state of m u d or water. In wet weather it was unapproachable, unless over a rough causeway of stumps, on which one had to tread warily as if crossing a stream by uneven stepping-stones, and if you looked either to the right or the left, you risked a possible dislocation or a dipping. T h e Postmaster was an ex-Captain of the 50th Regiment, a smart, gay, good-looking fellow, more at h o m e in the club-room, on the race-course, or running private theatricals, than in the Post Office hole, and the sorting and delivery business consequently, in the main, devolved upon his wife, w h o was m u c h more complaisant and civil-tongued to her window visitors than some of our young lady hands are said to be now-a-days. T h e hours of attendance were four per diem, viz., from 10 to 12 and 3 to 5, and Mrs. Baxter (who is still alive) got through the work pleasantly enough. It was she w h o despatched thefirstmail direct from Port Phillip to England in the " T h o m a s Laurie," the first wool-laden ship which sailed from the port for London, in January, 1839. A person m a y form some notion of the postal inconvenience of the period when it is stated that, in 1838, the settlers located in and about the Geelong country, used to be sometimes two months, and longer, before receiving a letter or newspaper from Melbourne, in consequence of " the uncertain and dilatory passage by water" ; and to provide, in a partial degree, against such an inconvenience, the proprietors of the Port Phillip Gazette offered, if they gotfiftysubscribers from the complaining district, to forward their journal, by express, once a month, or fortnightly if the stipulated number increased to one hundred. T h e offer was not accepted, and no facilities for inter-communication were presented until the following year ; for though I have read that a Government conveyance was put upon the overland route in 1838, there is such a confusion of dates as places m e in considerable doubt about it. In the March of 1839 the Baxters resigned, and the Government prevailed upon Mr. Skene Craig, a merchant, to undertake the Post Office business, and he did so, though it is said he had no relish for the post. It was thereupon moved to Skene's premises, in Collins Street west, at the corner of King Street. At this period the postage of a letter to Sydney was is. 3d., and as it was three weeks going, and the answer as many returning, the course of post between Melbourne and Sydney was between six and seven weeks, as compared with our two days now. T h e first overland mail contractor was Mr. Joseph H a w d o n , w h o (1st January, 1838) commenced to convey it fortnightly between Melbourne and Yass. It was carried on horseback to and from Melbourne and Howlong by his stockman, John Bourke, w h o for some time acted as mailman, and anxious and miserable times he must have had in his solitary canterings up and down the north-eastern route, in a day when " iron horses," travelling post offices, and itinerant letter-sorters were undreamed of. Bourke's mail reminiscences could recount m a n y a hair-breadth escape by flood and field while riding on H e r Majesty's service. H e had to camp out at night, swim flooded rivers and creeks, wade saddle-deep through marshes, and, travelling through a hostile country, literally carried his life in his hand. Once he had a horse drowned under him in the Murray; many a time was he chased by blacks, and on one occasion he fell into an ambush, was surrounded by a mob of yelling savages, who endeavoured to spear him; but, and as if by a miracle, got off "by the skin of his teeth." This John Bourke was afterwards a wealthy publican in Melbourne; but, meeting with reverses, found a refuge in advanced life in the General Post Office, which he recently left on account of his advanced age—an event that was followed by the presentation of an eulogistic address from his late fellow employés. The fortnightly mail was replaced by a weekly one on April 1st, 1839, and the first overland mail between Melbourne and Geelong was started on the 6th June, 1839; Mr. William Wright obtained the contract. The conveyance left Nodin's Store, Market Square, each Wednesday at 7 a.m., arriving at Timm's Store, Geelong, the same evening. Passengers' fare was £2, and luggage per small parcel 2s. 6d. It was not until the 9th September, 1839, that the first regularly appointed Postmaster arrived from Sydney, and another was appointed to Geelong. The former was a Mr. David Kelsh, sour and uncivil, unless to a few recognised magnates of the time. Kelsh's civility was an unknown commodity, and it may be stated that he and his Geelongese colleague, were permitted to whack between them the munificent allowance of £200 per annum, payable as a commission upon the proportion of work done by each. Each of them was allowed the sum of 30s. a year "for light, for sealing, and night duty," but very little could be "cabbaged" out of this liberal extra. The Melbourne "establishment" was removed to a small brick cottage in Chancery Lane, above (now) Temple Court, and the hours devoted to the public requirements were as before, though the postal business was now rapidly increasing. Kelsh was Postmaster, sorter, and window-clerk. The English mails occasionally arriving via Sydney and direct, were considerable, as compared with the population, and then the delay in delivery was almost unendurable. The newspapers were usually distributed upon a self-acting principle, for they were suffered to deliver themselves, not to the persons to whom they were addressed, but to the friends and favourites of the Postmaster, who had leave to help themselves. The consequence was that by this Liberty-hall way of doing business the few were surfeited, and the general public thoroughly dissatisfied. Heaps of newspapers used to be for days and weeks knocking about unsorted in the Postmaster's room, and when this place was filled they were barrelled in old casks in the yard. If you were unacquainted with him, and unless you found him in a good humour, you might as well expect to knock a newspaper out of a neighbouring gum-tree; but if you belonged to his "set" you had the private entrée and could rummage the penetralia, and help yourself to newspapers ad libitum, without the slightest appreciation of the obligations of meum et tuum. The delivery of letters was extremely unsatisfactory, and many were the bickerings, heart-burnings and disappointments caused by letter miscarriages. But what could poor Kelsh do? He was left to make a one-man fight amidst all his paper troubles. In March, 1840, a private carrier was appointed without responsibility, his remuneration being a penny on each letter or paper, payable by the recipient, who, if he objected to pay, had to go or send to the Post Office for his correspondence; no provision being made for the conveyance of ship mails from the bay to Melbourne, it depended upon the captain's pleasure when he would deliver it, and if the Captain was not sufficiently obliging it did not come for perhaps two or three days; and then as a matter of chance. The inconvenience was first remedied by the public spirit of a person now forgotton—Liardet, the pioneer of Sandridge, who, in April, 1840, offered to bring the ship mails to town; and this he did until the 20th August, when a "Royal Mail" cart commenced to make three trips per diem between Melbourne and Sandridge, carrying mails and passengers—fare for the latter, 2s. 6d. each way.
The overland mails to and from Sydney were subject to frequent delay from floods. Indeed, in those times, many mails would have never reached their destination were it not for the Aborigines about Albury, on both sides of the Murray; for, though in the beginning they would readily murder a mailman if they had the chance, in after years, when the river was flooded, they often lent their canoes and risked their lives in helping the mails to be ferried over.
Kelsh, and his Little Collins Street régime, continued to toil and growl together until the following year, when he was allowed a regular letter-carrier at the not very liberal salary of £30 per annum, with a £7 red coat livery; and, though the smart little Hibernian who slipped into the lucrative billet didn't fatten on his screw, changing times saw him comfortably anchored in a public-house, where he dwelt, and amassed a handsome fortune. The bar practice, as often happens, did not suit his constitution as well as his postal perambulations, and, like m a n y another colonial Boniface, when he m a d e the money he didn't know how to enjoy it, so he withdrew before his time to a quiet corner in the old cemetery, and left to others the enjoyment of the harvest which he worked so hard to secure. T h e sum appropriated for the whole Mail Department of Port Phillip for 1841, was only ,£2105 1 os., and was thus apportioned :— Postmaster at Melbourne, M r . David Kelsh, and Deputy-Postmaster at Geelong, M r . P. M'Keever, commission to be shared between in proportion to the business transacted at their respective offices, ^ 2 0 0 ; Letter-Carrier at Melbourne—per annum, £T,O ; Conveyance of Inland Mails, ^ 1 8 0 0 ; Conveyance of Coast Mails, ^ 2 5 ; Allowance to Masters of Vessels for Conveyance of Letters to and from Foreign Ports, ^ 2 5 ; Allowance to two Postmasters for Light, for Sealing and Night D u t y — 30s. each, £•$ ; Uniform for the Letter-Carrier at Melbourne, £7 ; Stationery, £8 ; Mail Bags and Boxes, and Incidental Expenses, £y 10s.
It m a y not be uninteresting to append the rates of postage then chargeable in the province :— Letters or Packets put into any Post Office for Delivery at such Office, id ; For every Letter or Packet under half-an-ounce put into the Post Office to go under 15 miles, 4d. ; under 20 miles, 3d. ; under ^0 miles, 6d. ; under 40 miles, 7d. ; under 80 miles, 8d. ; under 120 miles, 9d. ; under 170 miles, iod. ; under 270 miles, 1 id. ; under 300 miles, is. ; Each additional 100 miles or part thereof, id. ; For Conveyance by Sea to any Colonial Port, 4d. ; and in the same proportion for letters or packets of greater weight, each Ship Letter, in addition to the inland postage, if single, 3d. ; if double, 6d. ; if treble, 9d. ; if quadruple, is. ; for every additional quarter ol oz., 2d. Colonial newspapers, if put in within seven days of the dale, unwritten on and marked " newspaper only," free ; otherwise to be charged as letters. Foreign newspapers, re-posted in the colony, to be charged as letters.
O n the 12th August, 1841, Kelsh moved his Post Office from Chancery Lane to a small brick building, specially built for the purpose on the present Post Office site, and he was allowed one clerical assistant. But fresh troubles were in store for him. Sir George Gipps visited Melbourne in 1842, and didn't like h o w things were going on. So, on his return to Sydney, he sent down Mr. H . D. K e m p to " inspect," and the result was that Mr. Kelsh was suspended, and Mr. K e m p (on a regular salary) succeeded him on the 1st July. T h e new broom was a vast improvement on the old one. Punctilious, polite, and efficient, M r . K e m p proved himself worthy of the position, and the public confidence in the department was enlarged. The district of M o u n t Macedon was without mail communication until August, 1843, when a post office was established there—fifty-five miles from town—with Mr. C. W e d g e in charge. A mail used to leave Melbourne at 10 o'clock every second Saturday morning, and arrive at the Mount at 4 p.m. on Sunday. T h e return mail started at 6 a m . on the Wednesday, reaching Melbourne at 4 p.m. on Thursday. T h efirstweekly overland mail to Portland commenced on the 25th May, 1844. T h e salaries for the Melbourne Post Office in 1845 were:—Postmaster, ,£380 per a n n u m ; two clerks, one at £^, and one at ,£109 10s. ; with two letter-carriers at 4s. each per diem. There were nowfifteenpost offices in the district. In the beginning of this year the overland mail to and from Sydney was m a d e semi-weekly. M u c h inconvenience and expense was caused to the colonists by a H o m e postal contract m a d e by the Government, in consequence of which, all correspondence, unless addressed otherwise, was forwarded from Great Britain to Sydney, and the Port Phillip portion thence re-forwarded overland to Melbourne. This entailed sometimes a fortnight's delay, and saddled the recipients with the payment of inland and ship postage. T h e T o w n Council had unavailingly remonstrated against the grievance; and on the 2nd September, 1846, a numerously attended meeting, presided over by the Mayor (Mr. H . Moor), was held when a strongly-worded petition was adopted, praying for the discontinuance of the conveyance of the English mails in the Sydney contract packets. After further remonstrances from the public and the Press the iniquitous practice was abandoned. T h e n o w populous two-citied district of Fitzroy-<s«»2-Collingwood—a dreary, swampy area of hill and morass—had not only no post office up to the end of 1846, but the ambition of the then few politicians of what the people's agitator of after years—C. J. Don—designated the " purloins," went no further than to secure the services of a letter-carrier for themselves, and for which they stru<™led loudly and lustily. T h e so eagerly desired boon was at length granted, and in March, 1847, diefirstletter-carrier for the then Newtown put in an appearance in the person of a Peter O'Flaherty, a half-wild Irishman a compositor by trade, and a well-known identity in the old newspaper offices. Peter was to make two rounds daily from the Melbourne Post Office, and a receiving-box was fitted up at the shop window of a Mr. William Sterry, in Brunswick Street, which the postman was to empty, and thus secure a return cargo for Melbourne. There were no postage stamps then, nor any uniform rate, the letter postage being payable on a graduating scale of from 1d. to 1s. 3d., according to distance, and as only unpaid letters were receivable by the box, Peter's back freight was neither very onerous, nor the advantages of the branch office much of a convenience.
A very valuable mail, which left Sydney for Melbourne on the 23rd May, 1847, was lost in the river near Yass, when both man and horse were drowned. Throughout the whole of this winter much difficulty and danger was experienced in passing the mails between Wodonga and Albury. It never could have been done but for the employment of bark canoes, steered by the blacks, and under the direction of a very active officer of police, known as Sergeant O'Neil.
On the 1st January, 1849, Mr. E. B. Greene, a most efficient mail contractor, started a four-horse coach on the route between Melbourne and Sydney, but smashes and mishaps of some kind or other were the order of every second or third day.
A new Post Office Act came into operation on the 1st January, 1850, when the often abused privilege of "franking" was abolished. Uniform rates of postage were established by which half-an-ounce prepaid letters were to be passed at the following rates:—For delivery not in the town where posted, 2d.; for delivery in the town, 1d. Ship letters, in addition to inland postage, 3d. If not prepaid, double charge—the scale to be increased according to weight. Newspapers, if sent out of the colony, 1d. prepayment, or, in default, to be charged by weight; and no hackney coaches were allowed to ply, or hawkers, news-vendors or strollers to loiter on the pavement near the Post Office under a penalty of £5. There was also a scale for the carriage of packets. Postage stamps were now for the first time issued in the colony, and through an amusing bungle, either designed or accidental, the supplies were non-adhesive, so that a person could not stamp a letter without sealing-wax, gum, glue, paste, or some other equivalent. Some of the newspapers attributed the blunder to the parsimony of the New South Wales Government, through a desire to do the thing as cheaply as possible. The stamps, however, though inferior to the English aritcle of the time, were pronounced superior to those used in Sydney. They were supplied by Mr. Thomas Ham, one of the earliest of our engravers, a brother of the present firm of that name in Swanston Street.
In September, 1850, the Post Office was surmounted with a tower, and Melbourne had the satisfaction of, for the first time, getting the time o' day from a decent town clock, specially imported from England. And here I may dovetail a historiette of the first public clock in Melbourne. This horological machine was purchased in 1840, under difficulties described elsewhere, and in 1841 was made a fixture in the top of the building. It was placed under the superintendence of Mr. Joseph Greening, a watchmaker who kept a small shop in the western part of the now Chancery Lane. He used to divide his time between his mechanical calling and "clerking" at St. James' Church, and the probability is that his skill in chronometry was about equalled by his knowledge of psalmody. However, he had much trouble with his charge, and used to be sadly put about by its vagaries. The principal trait in its bad behaviour was the bad hours it kept, sometimes jumping forward half-an-hour at a time, and the next day limping as if on crutches. It was the worry of Greening's old age, and to make confusion worse confounded, the Post Office authorities used to humour the eccentricities of the versatile time-keeper by regulating the mail hours according to its crotchets. Often it would be a quarter of an hour slow in the morning and three-quarters fast in the evening, and vice versa a day or two after, and the window was opened and closed, and the mails delivered or despatched accordingly. One day in February, 1847, the guardian of the clock was in a terrible state of consternation, for both he and his ward lost their heads altogether. Greening ran about everywhere, declaring that he had no artificial horizon wherewith to ascertain the real time, and as the clock was equally confused, it could not help him. At length the so much needed horizon was found, and the town clock had to be put back eighteen minutes seven seconds.
In the course of this year Mr. Kemp was superannuated on the ground of ill-health, and was succeeded by Captain M'Crae, transferred from the Chief Clerkship of the Treasury, to which Mr. W. H. Hull was promoted. A daily mail between Melbourne and Geelong was commenced on the 1st January, 1851; and on the 29th March a public meeting of merchants and others was held to petition the Queen and the Imperial Parliament for a reduction in the rate of sea-borne letters to the colony. It was then 11d. per single letter, i.e., 8d. to pay in England and 3d. in Port Phillip.
The robberies of inland mails were of such frequent occurrence as to alarm the Banks, and the Superintendent sanctioned a special ship mail between Melbourne and Geelong per the "Aphrasia" steamer, which started from Melbourne at 10.30 a.m. on Thursdays, and returned the day after, more particularly for the transit of bank parcels. As an indication of the postal business in the Melbourne Post Office, the following return shows the number of letters and newspapers despatched to England and foreign parts:—In 1849—38,616 letters, 51,310 newspapers; in 1850-58,723 letters, 41,808 newspapers.
At the end of 1851 the Melbourne staff had been enlarged to:—A Chief Postmaster, £450; Accountant, £215; Clerk, £175; one do. at £125; and eight at £115 each per annum, £920; Extra Clerk, 5s. per diem, £91 10s.; five Letter-carriers, at 4s. each per day, £366; Messenger, 2s. 6d. per day, £45 15s. Amongst the Acts passed by the first Session of the first Legislature of Victoria (1851-2), was one to amend the postal law, and the following rates of postage were legalized:—Town letters, per half ounce, 1d.; ship letters, 3d.; inland letters, 2d. Newspapers within the colony, free, if posted within seven days of publication; but for delivery within the town where posted, 1d.
Overland Mail Robberies.
That this species of outrage should be of frequent occurrence in the early days is not to be wondered at, especially when the unprotected condition of the interior is taken into consideration. The only matter for surprise is that there were not more depredations of the kind.
1. On the 2nd December, 1840, the first robbery of a Port Phillip mail was perpetrated at the Murrumbidgee. It was the Overland en route from Sydney to Melbourne, and was conveyed on horseback by one James Spittal. Two armed bushrangers sprang from under cover of a tree, faced the mailman, and swore they would shoot him down unless he stopped and gave up the bags. Spittal saw nothing for it but a speedy compliance, and when the robbers were in possession of their booty they cut the leathers, examined the letters, which they flung aside as refuse, and pocketed their contents. The proceeds seemed to put them in good humour, for they wouldn't let the mailman go until they lighted a fire, made some tea, and told him he could have as many billies of the fluid as he felt disposed to imbibe. No trace was ever after found of the scoundrels.
2. A similar outrage occurred in November, 1845, when the mail from Melbourne to Sydney was stuck up and plundered between Yass and Gunning. Two bushrangers were again the perpetrators. The mailman was not treated to a cup of tea this time, but was threatened with gunpowder of a less agreeable taste, if he didn't make quick tracks at once, and tracks he made accordingly, without as much as bidding his assailants a good-bye.
3. The mail which started from Melbourne to Sydney on the 20th July, 1847, was robbed on the 22nd under the following circumstances:—At 4 p.m., Isaac Barrow, the carrier, started on horseback, with his bags strapped on a led horse, from the Albury Post Office, and rode on to Foote's Creek, some fifteen miles. Here he was pounced upon by two men whom he recognised as Edward Clark and Henry Turner. After a word or two of conversation, one of the fellows seized the bridle of the ridden horse, whilst the other pulled the mailman off. Conducting him and his horses a mile and a half into the bush, they tied Barrow to a tree. Turning their attention to the mail, they cut open several bags (except four packets afterwards found unbroken), and took whatever of the contents they cared for. When they had completed their work, they rode away on the post-horses, without untying the unfortunate man. Barrow struggled hard for his liberty, and an hour's effort set him free, whereupon he doubled back for Albury, and communicated the outrage to the police. Sergeant O'Neil and a trooper went off in pursuit, but some of the Wagga police got the start, by meeting the robbers, and arresting them on suspicion near the station of a Mr. M'Leay, on the Murrumbidgee. O'Neil was within a couple of hours' ride of the scoundrels when they were apprehended. The prisoners were tried at Berrima, and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation. 4. The Overland Mail from Melbourne to Portland was waylaid and robbed near Bacchus Marsh, by two armed bushrangers on the night of the 9th October, 1848. The mailman when he had reached Pyke's Station, was suddenly confronted by two men, who levelled each a pistol at him, vociferating "surrender, surrender!" The mailman paused for a moment to consider what was best to be done, and the robbers, as if enraged at the hesitation, grasped the rein of the ridden horse, and the other discharged a pistol in the mailman's face. The firearm, was believed to have been primed with powder only, as the bodily injuries sustained were limited to a blackened face and scorched eyes. The mailman succeeded in making his escape, and gave information to the police. But this was of little use, as constable Tucker had no horse for pursuit. Warrants were issued, and £30 reward offered. District Chief-constable Brodie, with a couple of mounted police, went tearing away everywhere, but to no purpose. The mail had been robbed of several cheques, acceptances, letters of credit, and bills of exchange. Still no one was arrested on suspicion. Some time after, two persons named White and Sommerset were taken up for other offences. The one was sentenced to penal servitude for burglary, and the other to six months' imprisonment for vagrancy. The police had a firm belief that this pair were the mail robbers, but no evidence was forthcoming to sheet home the charge to them.
5. The mails from Belfast to Warrnambool, due on 22nd February, 1849, were not delivered until next day. When examined by the Post-master he found that the bags had been opened and robbed, and the mail-carrier was non est. By some he was put down as a rogue, and by others a fool. Two men were arrested, committed for trial, and convicted. Further particulars of this, and a Portland mail plunder, will be found in a chapter devoted to "Remarkable Trials."
6. An attempted mail robbery was frustrated in a singular manner in 1849. Three of the most daring of the Melbourne thieving fraternity entered into a conspiracy to plunder the Overland Mail from Sydney, when it should arrive on the top of the Big Hill, near Kilmore. Their names were Thomas Mullins, Thomas O'Brien, and Arthur Day, and they set forth on their mission early on the 12th June. They raised supplies by obtaining cash and goods under false pretences from one Leary, a tailor, whose suspicions were aroused, and he took out a warrant for the apprehension of the supposed swindlers. Some of the District police started after the fellows, overtook and made prisoners of them at Donnybrook, and by the time they calculated they would be overhauling the mail-coach on the Big Hill, they were returning in handcuffs to Melbourne. When searched they were well armed. They were convicted and punished for "goosing the tailor," and, while taking it out in durance, the facts connected with the projected mail robbery leaked out.
7. The Melbourne and Sydney Overland Mail was robbed on the 14th March, 1850, a mile and a haif from Goulburn in New South Wales. The coach was stuck up by three armed men, who ordered the passengers to alight. These were a constable, a lady, and a Mr. Thompson from the Murrumbidgee, who were spoiled without exception of the contents of their pockets. Clothing was deemed more valuable than cash to bushrangers, but the policeman's uniform would be more an injury than a service, and the mail driver they did not care about stripping. The lady's apparel was useless to them, as stays and petticoats would embarrass more than facilitate predatory operations, but the squatter was comfortably garbed and wrapped up for his trip, and he was commanded to strip accordingly. He was speedily ungarmented as if about to be triced up to the triangle, notwithstanding the vehement Caledonian patois in which he inveighed against such an invasion of all rights of personal property. He was repeatedly ordered to doff the trousers, but here he drew rein, and declared that they might go as far as the waistbelt, but no further. Here he would draw the line certainly (though a leather one), but "he'd be shot," if he parted with his nether remnant of civilization. Shot he was going to be, but for the presence of mind of the lady, who, with a winning smile and silver tongue, pleaded hard on his behalf, though she put the case not so much for him as for herself. She appealed not only to the humanity, but to the gallantry of the robbers, not to strip the man mother-naked, for if so she should herself go mad! To be left in the wild bush with a nude black fellow, even that she should not so much mind, but to have in her company a Scotchman, without even a shred of breeks or philabeg, as bare as Adam before he took to the tailoring of fig-leaves, would drive her to distraction—why, they might as well think of stripping herself. The picture of the situation, so drawn by the impassioned artist, who wound up with a peroration of hysterics, was so blended with the ludicrous and pathetic, that the thieves burst into a fit of boisterous laughter, and with a few unpolite oaths, declared they couldn't have the heart to hold out against such persuasiveness, and it was consequently decreed that Mr. Thompson should be permitted to retain his pantaloons. The highwaymen then rode off, across the country, as they thought with all the carriable plunder, but in the hurry and excitement they left the Melbourne mail-bag behind. The coach resumed its journey, with the constable, the lady, and Thompson, the latter coiled up in a cloak belonging to his companion, and reached the next stage without further hindrance, but nothing was ever heard of the robbers.
8. Just a fortnight after, another mishap occurred to the same mail. It reached a place called Tarcutta, when two men, armed to the teeth, leaping out of some brushwood, asked the mail-driver for a light. This was refused, and a couple of pistols were instantly levelled at the driver's head, which caused him to pull up. There was only one passenger, a Mr. Townsend, a surveyor, in the coach, and, whilst one of the robbers kept him and the driver under aim, the other fellow, mounting the box-seat, drove the vehicle for some distance into the bush, when a halt was made, and the work of plundering commenced. The horses were unharnessed and secured, the driver and the surveyor were next pillaged; and Townsend, having no female eloquence as an intercessor, was stripped of every stitch of clothing from hat to boot, and he and the driver lashed with strips of green hide to a coach wheel. The robbers secured the mail bags, and, mounting the coach horses, disappeared after cautioning the tied-up not to attempt to free themselves for a couple of hours at least. After an hour's tugging and striving, the driver loosened his bonds and emancipated the half-perished, shivering Townsend. They made for the next station, several miles off, where they arrived after much knocking about in the darkness, and Townsend hardly able to stand in consequence of his enforced puris naturalibus.
9. The Belfast mail for Melbourne starting at its usual hour on the 29th June, 1850, was challenged by an armed bushranger, at Spring Creek, and robbed without resistance. The post was pulled from his horse, and after giving him a kick or two the thief rode away with horse and bags. The outrage was reported to the police, whereupon a Dr. Foster volunteered to accompany Chief-Constable Frizzell in pursuit of the robber, and next day overhauled the fellow near Warrnambool. He had "melted" some of the stolen cheques on the road, and was in merry mood when the Philistines pounced upon him. In his possession was found a considerable share of the contents of the abducted letters but nothing more, and he refused point blank to say how he had disposed of the mail bags. His name was Codrington Revingston, and he was committed for trial, and ordered to be forwarded to Melbourne in the schooner "Cecilia," to sail next morning. He was put on board handcuffed, and in charge of a constable, but during the night the custodian fell asleep, and Revingston watched a favourable opportunity to slip overboard into a boat made fast to the vessel. Though manacled, he managed to get clear of the schooner, and was wafted to land without the aid of either oar or paddle. The noise of the getting away woke the constable, who rubbed his eyes, saw the flying bird, and fired at it without disarranging a feather. The ex-prisoner escaped to the bush, knocked off his irons, lay in wait for the mail of 30th July, and plundered it also. He was never retaken.
10. On the evening of the 8th August, 1850, an attempt was made to stick up the Portland to Melbourne mail, some three miles over the Saltwater River. Two armed men commanded the mailman to surrender; but he broke away, and got off unharmed, though he was pursued for a couple of miles and several shots fired at him, one of which perforated his hat.
11. Codrington Revingston remained at large, unheard of, until November 18th, when he had another shy at the Portland and Melbourne mail. Accordingly at half-past 5 p.m. he intercepted it at Mount Sturgeon, half choked the mailman, secured the bags, and after helping himself, returned the bags to the man, whom he ordered to clear away at once about his business, a mandate that required no repetition to enforce compliance.
12. The mail from Melbourne to Geelong was waylaid about 10 p.m., on the 15th May, 1851, midway between Duckponds and Cowies' Creek. The mail cart carried only the driver and a lady passenger, and it was suddenly challenged by two masked men, shouting loudly to stop. Pistols were levelled, and the driver was ordered to turn off the roadway and proceed towards the beach, the robbers following with presented arms. Drawing in, according to order, under the shadow of a large tree, the driver and the lady were told to jump out, after which the harness was cut and the horses taken out. The robbers had some rope with them, and out of this and the driver's necktie and handkerchief, and the lady's shawl, scarf and wrapping, sufficient ligatures were fashioned, by means of which the driver was securely bound spread eagle like to one of the wheels, and the fair one harnessed to one of the shafts. Neither man nor woman suffered any further indignity—except that the former was lightened of his watch and a trifling sum of money. The robbers next struck a light, and by the aid of a flickering tallow-fed torch, leisurely cut open the bags and inspected the letters. They annexed what they wanted, left the rest in a heap of debris, warned the captives to make no noise, and rode away on the unsaddled cart horses. The mailman, by dint of teeth and fingers and muscular power, succeeded in extricating himself after a couple of hours' hard labour. He then released his companion, and both trudged along on "Shanks's mare" towards Geelong, which was reached about 2 o'clock in the morning. The police were at once made aware of the outrage, and a search party forthwith organised of horse and foot, with maximum of noise, and a minimum of effect. 13. A few days after, the Western mails from Melbourne were bailed up and robbed near the River Leigh, by, as was supposed, the same men. The mail cart was stopped and the driver and two male passengers, not only despoiled of the contents of purses and pockets, and loose wearables, but pinioned with pieces of cordage and handkerchiefs, and pitched into a dry gully a little off the roadside. Two men named Owen Suffolk and Christopher Farrel were arrested on suspicion some days after, and circumstantial evidence, especially the uttering of stolen cheques, adduced, which led to their committal for trial before the Circuit Court at Geelong, where they were convicted and severally sentenced to ten years hard labour on the roads, the first three years in irons. 14. On the 29th June the mail from Colac to Belfast was stopped six miles from the former place by two armed men, who, under threat of blowing out the mailman's brains, forced him to surrender both mails and horses. The mailman was then tied to a tree, and watched by one of the fellows, whilst the other made a leisurely and business-like examination of the contents of the bags. There were cheques and orders representing over £2000 in the letters, but these were not touched, and nothing except bank notes taken. When the inspection was completed the robbers considerately untied the mailman, and taking off the horses, left him lamenting over the violated mail bags with a heap of torn letters and newspapers to give him but cold comfort. It was believed that this robbery had been perpetrated by a gang of desperadoes who had broke prison at Geelong, and the gaol-birds who occasionally got away from the Pentridge Stockade, when it consisted of only a few slab and wooden huts, surrounded by a timber enclosure or palisade.