Paper no.15, 2 June 1880

TEXT: Sending a telegram to Sr Constable Mullane to discharge all his agents the evening he handed over charge to Mr Hare, without informing him of the fact of his doing so, or informing Mr Sadlier of the matter. / Mr Hare took charge of the Kelly business from Mr Nicholson [sic] at 1 o’clock on the 2d June tha evening Mr Hare telegraphed to Dct Ward to … himself at Benalla next morning by early train; on Mr Hare meeting Dct Ward at Benalla, he told him that Sr Constable Mullane had received a telegram from Mr Nicholson, the previous evening, directing him to discharge all the agents employed there. Mr Hare could find no copy of this telegram in the office, nor did Mr Sadlier or his clerks know anything about it. Sr Constable Mullane had not mixed himself up with the Kelly business, Dct Ward being stationed at Beechworth for the purpose, & all the agents had been paid by him from time to time, & yet he was not communicated with, but the message sent to Mullane. Mr Hare sent Ward back to Beechworth by return train & directed him to tell Mullane not to act on that telegram. /

OTHER TEXT: Concerning sending / a telegram to / Mullane telling / him to discharge / all the agents. /

This is part of the digitized version of the Francis Hare Correspondence held in the University of Melbourne Archives. It consists of 54 letters and documents, of which this is one, from 1859-87 and received by or relating to Superintendent Francis Hare, one of the members of the Victoria police force involved in the pursuit and capture of the Kelly Gang. The collection complements Hare’s published memoir, The Last of the Bushrangers (London, 1892) and includes letters by some of the key figures of the Kelly story including the Police Commissioner Frederick Standish, Superintendents Charles Hope Nicolson and John Sadleir, Detective M Ward and John Sherritt, as well as items by Hare himself.