Evidence Type: Newspaper Report
1 March 1843
PARRAMATTA
The bushrangers have again been busy in this quarter. On Friday evening last, three armed men stopped the Rev. Mr. M’KENNY, on the Sydney road, a short distance from this place, and robbed him of five one pound notes, and several cheques and orders. The same men, it is supposed, stopped the Penrith mail, on its way here, on Saturday morning, and collected about fifty pounds among the passengers. In neither case, however, did they commit any other violence.
They also met a boy coming from Penrith, on Saturday afternoon, whom they eased of three shillings, but he, having recognized them as persons whom he had seen at a public house on the road, two or three days previously, they returned him his money, with the strictest injunctions not to mention the affair. These, however, he totally disregarded, for, on reaching Parramatta, he gave the police full intimation of the circumstances, and which will, in all probability, lead to the capture of the offenders.
Our worthy police magistrate, Mr. ELLIOTT, with his characteristic promptitude, immediately despatched the police in various directions, and pressed several ticket-of-leave holders, to perform constables’ duty in Parramatta, while the police were absent. This line of conduct was imposed on him by the late reduction of the constabulary. Mr. ELLIOTT, however, in an interview with His Excellency, on Saturday, placed the inconvenience of this system in so strong a light, that he received instructions to increase the police force here, and six additional constables have been sworn in.
The new ballet of action, “The Revolt of the Harem,” is now concluded, the military are withdrawn from the Factory, and the ladies are all quiet; two constables, from the Sydney force, are constantly in attendance, in case of any attempt at outbreak.
See Original: “PARRAMATTA,” The Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 – 1848), Wednesday 1 March 1843, p.2
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