POWER THE BUSHRANGER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 134, 1 September 1870, Page 7

POWER THE BUSHRANGER.

Power, the bushranger, hold quite a levee at the Melbourne jail on the -Ith inst., the day of his reception there. Upon reaching the court yard, where a nurnbor of gentlemen were standing, Power lifted his hat and courteously bade them good morning. Mr Castieitu said, " Well, Power, you have had a long run this time," to which he replied, " I should have had if they had only let me alone." Seeing Mr Brown, the turnkey, Power recognised him, and greeted him with' " How do you do, Mr Brown ? You are not altered one bit. It is sixteen years since we first met, and I should have known you any where. You see I can't help coming to see you occasionally." All the way down from Beechworth he was very communicative, and desirous of showing himself to the ga^e of the people at every place where the coach stopped to change horses. It is hardly possible that he will ever be at liberty again, as in addition to the fifteen years' sentence he has now received, he will have to serve the balance of his sentence which had not expired when he escaped, and in addition will most likely receive a further sentence for escaping from legal custody, so that, counting twenty yeai's as the minimum of his term of imprisonment, he will be seventy years of age, and almost incapable of doing further mischief. He is evidently of that opinion himself, as he jocularly remarked that when he had " clone his time" he would be too old to take to bushranging again, and thought it would be a profitable speculation to start a publichouse in Melbourne, and requested that the money found in his possession might be taken care of in order to start him in business. There is veiy little doubt from Power's talk that he is an arrant boaster, but still thre was a good deal of truth in many of his statements. According to his own account, he was brought up on the Marquis of Waterford's estate in Ireland, and when very young took to poaching, which, he says, was his first step in his downward path. His first experience of bushranging was in Tasmania, where, for nearly five years, he levied black mail on travellers by the banks of the Der Went. He says that he never shed any blood, and never intended to do so ; but he had frequently been greatly amused to see eight or nine carriers allow him to stick them up, without making the slightest effort to defend themselves or their property. Some idea of his boasting power may be imagined, when he alleges that since his escape from Pentridge he has committed 604 robberies ; but, as he has only been away from Pentridge about two years, this would be an average nearly of one robbery per day. He gave a little advice to intending bushrangers, as follows :—": — " Never take to the road armed with a revolver ; it is no use. There is nothing like a good double-barrelled breech-loading gun.

It carries a great <b \1 further, and is nmch more serviceable/ He further stated that be had disarmed two mounted troopers and taken their pistols away from them long before he served Constable Tighe in the same manner. In the other two cases the troopers got them back from him by paying him £8 for each, and he also said that Tighe might have got his pistol back had it not been for the talking of an old woman who heard of the occuarence and repeated it all over the neighbourhood.