THE VICTORIAN BUSH RANGERS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 30, 25 December 1878, Page 2

THE VICTORIAN BUSH RANGERS.

By the arrival o£ the Albion at the Bluff, we are placed in possession of Melbourne news up to the 13th inst. The correspondent of the Press Agency writes : The doing-s of Kelly’s gang have been the great topic of conversation. The history of the sticking up at Euroa reads like a romance. It seemed quite incredible that four men outlawed and hunted by dozens of the police could in the light of day make such a raid upon a township on a railway line, and be able to depart with a bank manager, his wife, his clerk, servants, and others a distance of nearly four, miles without being observed. From thr accounts received the whole business was cleverly planned and well carried out. The telegraph wires were cut, the line repairer who came to see the repairs was captured, and at one time the gang had not less than 37 persons imprisoned at Younghusband’s station. Tho gang had previously stuck up a hawker’s cart, rigged themselves out in new clothes from head to foot, and burnt their old ones. They left one man to guard the prisoners at the station, while the other three took the hawker’s cart and drove into Euroa. They entered the National Bank by the front and back simultaneously, and having made prisoners of all the inmates, robbed the bank of over £IOOO in notes, and between £3OO and £4OO in specie. They kept all their victims at the station until late in the evening, and exacted from them & promise not to depart until a certain hour, under penalty of death. This extraordinary raid was made in the full light of day, with the township full of people. On leaving the bank Kelly made the manager drive his own buggy, while he (Kelly) sat beside him. The'reward for Ned Kelly has been raised to LIOOO, and additional police have been sent off in all directions, while garrison corps have been drafted to several townships, in order to protect the banks. Humors have been plentiful, but still there are no tidings of the gang since they disappeared after the Euroa affair. The police seem to be completely off the scent. Tho whole available force, with the Chief Commissioner at their head, is now out in search among the ranges. A letter has been received from Ned Kelly by a member of Parliament, but the contents have not yet been made ktiown. The papers are every day filled with columns of bush ranging news, and every littlo scrap of information ia eagerly sought for.