FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Shannon News, 15 January 1929, Page 3

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

FROM THE "LYT.TELTON TXMEft':/-! JANUARY 3, 1879. The Kelly Gang —The names of the '-■ two hitherto unknown members of th&f. Kelly gang have now been beyond doubt to be Stephen Hart and-£ Joseph. Byrne. Stephen Hart is des- ; cribed as 'being twenty or years of age, 5 feet 6 inches in height, j having fresh complexion, brown -hair;' and hazel eyes. He was convicted atC' Wangaratta in July, 1877, on thirteen.;, charges of illegally using horses, for-v which lie received the hopelessly in*''.:.'. adequate sentence of twelve months*;-' imprisonment with hard labour. He'..' got off lightly in consequence of never, \. having besn previously convicted. 1 i I Joseph Byrne is described as being „,' \ twenty-one or twenty-two years of age,!.., about 5 feet 10 inches in height, hav-.f. ing fresh complexion, light brown;/ hair and blue eyes. .He was convicted < at Beechworth in May, 1878, for hav- '' ing meat unlawfully in his possession, * and was sentenced to six months' im-;«; prisonment. This was also his fire* - •wvietion. Byrne's mother lives i* . « * fciW-in the ranges, not far from th* ,-. Rats' Castle. This was one of the >■, huts searched by the police a few days after the murders were committed. The ,», gang are armed with two double barrelled guns, two single barrelled guns,; on Spencer rifle and eight revolvers, -' Telegram: Auckland, Januaiy 2.—-A 1 ' telegram has been received from 1 Melbourne stating that Messrs iM'Lea* , and Co's entire horse, Musketji hkd\ arrived in good condition by the Kent at Melbourne. He is to be sent "to; Auckland by the steamer Hero. The Sparrows.—ln the early part of .. the season a Sparrow Club was form,ed iii the Harewood Road district.-f' Funds were collected by means of -'• small contributions, with which poison-. ed wheat was purchased and distributed among the members of ,the Club.' '; In addition to this, it was decided to offer three halfpence a dozen for eggs' and threepence a dozen for heads. The contributions were made at no regular times nor did thjey amount to any large sum. The offer to pay for eggs and heads set the toys j>f the district to work with a will, and in the courst of about ten days they had brought in no fewer than 6516 , eggs. The' , •amount paid for these was £3 2s 4sd, some apparently having hee.n given in. That so large a number of eggs .should have been taken within an area of about a mile and a half says much for the fecundity of the birds. But even this does not tell the full tale of the destruction brought about by thus making use of the destiuctive instinct of the youngsters. Some four or fivethousand eggs were brought in later, ■■ although the Club had withdrawn its offer to purchase. In the North Road, the sparrows have been somewhat sim- i ilarly dealt with, and the result is described by one farmer in the following terms: "1 got eggs in by the basketful, and hundreds of young bird* have been destroyed. I believe I . have found thousands of birds lying dead under the trees." The above facts show what the farmers think of the necessity for checking the increase of the sparrows. They admit that during the winter the sparrows feed on. grubs and caterpillars which would be destructive to "the corn in summer, but" they think that if the birds are to take the Avholc of the crop, or even half of it, the grubs might just as well be left alone.' One farmer who examined the crops of six sparrows . found an average of three grams of •era, and four or five grubs in each of them. , /