Ever since the Jerilderie affair many people imagined that the gang had finally left the colony, and were accustomed to shake their heads and look as sagacious as possible when told that the police authorities had positive information that the outlaws were still hiding in the North-Eastern district. Of course the authorities in question could at any time have proved their words if such a course had been judicious. Assistant-commissioner Nicolson, who had charge of the police in that district from May, 1879, up to the beginning of June, 1880, has stated that never a month passed without his receiving authentic information of movements of the outlaws. Such was the terrorism, however, that the latter caused, and such their cunning, that in most instances the information received by the police came too late to be of any use. It will be remembered that very soon after Mr. Nicolson took charge of affairs the permanent garrison men were withdrawn from the district, and the police force there was considerably reduced, the number of constables left being 60. With this reduced force Mr. Nicolson improvised a new system of operations, which new system was continued in force after his removal to another district, and until the destruction of the gang. Previously to the introduction of the new plan the course adopted was to send large bodies of police—numbering perhaps, a dozen, with 15 horses—out into the district to look for the Kellys. These troops would have no idea when they started where or in what direction the Kellys were, and would have no such idea when they returned to the point of departure. They attracted much attention, cost a lot of money, were sufficiently numerous to feel tolerably secure, and in fine weather enjoyed themselves immensely. The leading feature of the new system was the dispersal of the force in small parties of four men, or fewer, stationed in places likely to be attacked or haunted by the gang. These men were not in uniform, and it is, by the bye, a singular fact that policemen in uniform were often able to pick up more information than those in plain clothes. In what is known as the Kelly country, a stranger is, because he is a stranger, and no matter how he is dressed, an object of suspicion to such persons as the Kellys and their friends, and they have been so much on the alert that no one would have been thought to have dreamt of sending a constable in uniform to obtain particulars regarding them. Knowing this, men in uniform, when ostensibly engaged in performing ordinary routine duties, have often been able, simply because they were not suspected of having any other designs, to obtain genuine information as to the proceedings of the gang. The small parties of police scattered through the country received instructions to act on their own responsibility, and sometimes had to conceal themselves for weeks, when watching a place. Prior to the withdrawal of the black trackers, Mr. Nicolson found them so useful that he reported, about three weeks ago, that if they were taken away the gang would be most likely to commit another outbreak. The black trackers not only frightened the Kellys, but caused them much inconvenience and hard work. For instance, it is well known that bushmen of the Kelly type object to walking much, and always ride on horseback if they get a chance. The presence of the Queensland aborigines in the district often compelled the gang to walk, in order to avoid giving the aborigines a chance of following horses’ tracks, when they would otherwise have ridden. Some time ago people used to wonder how the bushrangers when mounted, could cross the railway line or bridges without being seen. It was ultimately ascertained that the plan they adopted was to ride up to the railway fence, say, and then dismount, hand over their horses to sympathisers, and cross the line on foot. The sympathisers would ride the horses boldly through the nearest level crossing, and no one would suspect that the animals were those of the gang, the members of which would receive back their horses at some spot agreed upon. During the past few months traces of the gang were often discovered by the black trackers. Sometimes the trace would be the marks where bridles had been hung round a tree, and sometimes a gunyah. If a track was new, and had not been crossed and recrossed, the blacks could follow it with unerring certainty; and their astuteness in that direction astounded and terrified Ned Kelly, than whom there are few better white bushmen. Although the bushrangers were in the district, they were seen by comparatively few of their friends. There were various signals by which the gang communicated with their friends. Sometimes a couple of stones placed in a peculiar position would be the signal, and sometimes an eccentric horse-track. Thus, one of the gang would ride in a circle near a sympathiser’s hut, and then jump a fence, and again ride circuitously, and finally strike off in the direction where the outlaws were hid. The sympathiser, on seeing this track, would carry provisions in the direction indicated. When carrying provisions for the gang, the sympathisers would adopt all sorts of devices to avoid discovery. Occasionally they would pretend to be drunk, and make night hideous with their cries. Hearing the wild fellows about, honest residents of the district would retire into their homes; but the gang would also hear them and answer with a peculiar signal. All of a sudden, when time and place suited, a member of the gang would appear, take the provisions, and hurry off out of sight in a moment. The precautions devised by Ned Kelly were so elaborate that some very experienced police officers doubt whether one of the gang could have betrayed the others into the hands of the police. When they extinguished their fires, they would remove the ashes and scatter them far and wide, and cover over the black spot with earth. But their fires were always small, like those made by wild aborigines. As an indication of the caution with which the gang worked it may be mentioned that they used to draw up and reduce into writing elaborate details of their proposed plan of operations prior to making a raid. It is known that the arrangements to be followed, both in the Jerilderie and Euroa affairs, were fully made beforehand and committed to paper, the object in doing so being to assist the memory. The deceased Joe Byrne, who was the best scholar in the gang, and who, when a boy, distinguished himself at school for this ability, was the secretary. For some months past the police have been gradually closing up sources through which food was conveyed to the bushrangers, and the latter were suffering from an insufficiency of food. Dan Kelly and Byrne, in particular, presented of late a very emaciated appearance.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH)

(FROM OUR SPECIAL REPORTER)

Benalla, Thursday.

The bodies of Dan Kelly and Hart were interred by their friends on Wednesday in the Greta Cemetery. About a hundred friends and sympathisers were present, but there was no disturbance. Etty Hart, sister of Steve, was, however, very excited, and fell into hysterics. It has transpired that the unfortunate line repairer Martin Cherry was not shot by the police, but by Ned Kelly, and that intentionally. The fact was at first suppressed by those who knew it out of fear that they might be marked men if they made the disclosure. Three of the prisoners have, however, ventured to tell the police, on the condition that their names should not be published. They were interviewed separately, and their statements all correspond. This is the fifth deliberate murder committed by the gang, and it was perpetrated under the following circumstances:—When the gang fired their first volley from the verandah of the hotel, they retired inside. Ned Kelly, as is already known, was wounded on the foot and arm. He went to the window of the front parlour to fire again on the police, but the blind was down, and having one arm wounded he could not hold it aside and fire at the same time. He therefore ordered the old man Cherry to hold the blind up whilst he fired. Cherry refused, and Kelly at once shot him with his rifle in the groin, and he fell. Kelly may have intended to fire at the poor man’s legs, or being disabled, he may simply have been unable to raise his rifle higher. The fact, however, remains that it was he who did the deed, and that he thus added one more fiendish murder to the black list against his name. It seems that immediately after this he made his escape by the back door, and got into the bush before the police got the house surrounded. The coat which Ned Kelly wore was a long grey mackintosh. It covered his armour, and is full of bullet and slug holes. Senior-constable Kelly and his men returned from Glenrowan this morning, and reported that during the night perfect quietness prevailed there.

Constable Jas. McArthur is the man Ned Kelly referred to as being an excellent shot. He gives the following interesting narrative of his experiences:—