In The Herald: 1863
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday December 11, 2008
* The bushrangers Johnny Gilbert and Ben Hall (pictured) had a good day on the road, holding up two horse teams, a bullock team, a station overseer and, about 6pm, the mail coach from Forbes and Young. Gilbert saw a young woman who had been riding with the coach gallop away, but laughed and said: "Let her go!" He then sat down to read a newspaper while Hall rifled through the mail bags, taking any money he found but throwing back the cheques and drafts. The latter were useless to the outlaws, a fact which moved Gilbert to make a complaint.
* NSW, which had 350,000 people, had revenue of #1.5 million a year, which seemed sufficient but due to rising expenditure was no longer enough. The government of the day, blaming the preceding ministry, announced with regret that it was necessary to introduce fresh taxes. It said it could not be avoided because the projected expenditure for the following year was #1,926,457.* At Meroo, on the Central Tablelands, there was not quite the same gloom, at least in Nuggety Creek, where a Sandwich Islander found a nugget weighing 4.5 kilograms. * There were general celebrations in Queensland at the anniversary of its separation from NSW. The Volunteer Artillery fired a salute and an anniversary regatta was held in front of the governor, Lord Bowen, and Lady Bowen. But at Rockhampton, there was not quite the same joy when it was found that someone made repeated attempts to set a Williams steamer alight. Efforts were being made to catch the arsonist.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
