THE NEW VICTORIAN BUSH RANGERS.

Kumara Times, Issue 885, 2 August 1879, Page 4

THE NEW VICTORIAN BUSH RANGERS.

Some curiosity will doubtless be expressed at the singular soubriquet of the latest acquisition to the ranks of Victorian bushrangers. “Captain Moonlight,” whose real name is Scott, is, according to a contemporary, one of the most desperate ruffians in the Colonies. He is a man , under 35 years of age, and was at one time connected with the navy. He saw some active service in the Native War here, and then made his way to Victoria, In 1869 he was acting as Church of England lay reader at Egerton, a mining township about .17 miles from Ballarat, and about a year afterwards perpetrated one of the most daring robberies on record. The branch of the London Chartered Bank there was in charge of a lad named Louis Brunn, who was on intimate terms with Scott. One Saturday night, at about 30 o’clock, just as Brunn had put the key into the bank door to let himself in, he felt the cold barrel of a revolver touching his ear, and found himself “stuck up” by a masked man, who compelled him to lead;the .way into the bank and produce the keys of the safe. Scott having possessed himself of a large quantity of gold—- ■ about L2OOO worth, if we remember rightly—blindfolded Brunn. and led him through the township to a schonlhouse situated a short distance in the bush. Arrived there, he compelled his victim to write a letter stating the - circumstances under which the gold had been stolen, and to this letter he appended the signature “ Captain Moonlight. He then tied Brunn—who had not recognised him—to one of the school desks and left. The lad managed to release himself and give information to the police ; but the statement he made seemed so improbable that on the following day he was himself arrested in company with an unfortunate schoolmaster named Simpson. They were both tried for the robbery and acquitted, Scott being one of the principal witnesses against them. Simpson was a broken man after his discharge, and never held his head up again, while Brunn, who was not reinstated by the bank, obtained other employment. Scotc soon afterwards disappeared from Victoria, and more than a year had passed when he was arrested at Sydney for attempting to steal a yacht. It was then discovered thatj he had sold In that city a cake of retorted gold, which exactly corresponded in weight and shape with one stolen from the Egerton Bank. He was arrested, brought back to Victoria, and committed for trial, but before the Ballarat Criminal Sessions commenced, he managed, in a ; most daring manner, to make his escape from the gaol, also liberating three other convicts. They were soon rearrested, and Scott was sent to Pentridge for seven years. There he proved a most troublesome prisoner, but having served his time.he was released less than a year ago. . Since that time he has been lecturing in Ballarat and elsewhere on prison management. He is a cool, determined, and reckless man, and if his knowledge of the country was anything like that possessed by the Kellys, he would like to give the police a great deal of trouble.

The shipbuilding interest at the Fiiis appears to be progressing favorably, the last addition to the locally-built fleet being a ? ...~ team , er of 25 tons > which was built by M Dougall, of Rewa River. The craft is 75ft long, 12ft 3m broad, and 4ft 6in deep, and has been named the Go-Ahead. A new description of rocket, called the buoyant locket,” has been produced by the Royal laboratory Department, at the request of the Board of Trade. A rocket was required as a means of communication between the shore and lighthouses, a few hundred yards from the main land during bad weather, and m circumstances under which the ordinary life saving apparatus, by which a line is conveyed to a wrecked vessel, would be unavailable. The laboratory have answered the demand by adapting the oldfashioned Congreve rocket to meet the required end. A small iron tube, containing the composition, is enclosed in a casing of cork and fitted to a stick in primitive fashion, with a line made fast to the ex- -- tremity, and the simple arrangement has admirably succeeded. Three of the rockets have been tried at Shoeburyness, being fired from a trough at the surface of the sea, and - ploughing a direct course through the water With a strong line attached, by means of which an assistant or a boatload of provisions be conveyed tothe lighthouse-keeper.-Mitchell’s Maritime Register, The value of the quartz reefs at Langdons’ VUI soon receive a practical test, as arrangeqients have been entered into with a Dunedin firm, of which Mr Buchan, the geologist who. was sent over expressly to ascertain the value of the reefs, is the representative to erect crushing machinery on Boase’s claim, the same to be in working order r~ within three months. Mr Buchan was so satisfied with his examination and the prospects of the reefs in this neighborhood that he expressed himself perfectly willing to enter into arrangements with Langdon and party to erect machinery on their claim, Jon similar terms to those entered into with Boaee and party. The new eleetoial roll for the Grey Valley » now printed. It contains 2038 names being 261 more than was on the roll for the previous year. The Hokitika roll contains 4823 names. *The returns from the Keep-it-Dark battery for the last week show a gratifying improvement. 135 tons of stone yielded lOlozs of amalgam. A dividend of 6dper share was i declared on Saturday. ?V Tte Charleston Herald, in speaking of the V impression created by Mr Revell, the newly--9 appointed Resident Magistrate and Warden I in the,Charleston district, says:—“Mr ' Revell’a style of discharging his duties when Court was generally admired by the •y Public, and the impression caused by his deI c i s !°“ s waß l fc , ha * he . Waß » pains -taking and I strictly upright Magistrate.”