Police Magistrate, Mr. James Simpson, ^300 per annum; Clerk to the Bench, Mr. R. Ocock, £150 per annum; Assistant Clerk (vacant), £100 per annum ; Chief-Constable, Mr. W . Wright, £ 1 0 0 per annum ; District Constable, Thomas Clews, 3s. per diem, ^ 5 4 15s. per annum ; Watch-house-keepers at Melbourne and Williamstown at 3s. each per diem, ^109 10s. per annum; Twelve Constables at Melbourne, and one at Williamstown at 2S. 9d. each per diem, ^652 8s. ad. per annum ; Scourger, 2s. 6d. per diem, £45 12s. 6d. per annum ; allowance for clothing to constables, ^ 6 5 17s. 6d. per annum ; stationery, printing, and furniture, £100 per annum ; freight from Sydney and incidental expenses, £ 8 0 per annum.
Police Magistrates and stations were also established at Geelong and Portland as early as December 1839, with M r . N . A. Fenwick as P.M. at the one, and Captain Fyans (soon succeeded by M r . James Blair) at the other, each receiving ^£300 a year. Clerks of the Bench at these places had /jioo a year salary, the remuneration of the other subordinates was the same, and each locality had its " two-and-sixpenny scourger." Geelong had to be content with one district and five constables, and Portland with a district and three. T h e minister of the law's vengeance (known as "the scourger") received a daily wage of threepence less than the ordinary policeman. T h e office was more of a sinecure than it is now, for the " cattings " were restricted by law to operating on insubordinate convicts, and w h e n called into requisition, certainly never provided anything like sufficient work for so m a n y pairs of arms. A s "the scourger" in after years dropped off the estimates, an " executioner " dropped on, but this officer has, for a long time, ceased to be thus officially recognised, the "capital" and flogging services performed being paid out of the incidental expenses of the Sheriff's department. T h e ordinary policemen of thefirstfew years were mostly a miserable set of broken-down cripples, with an " o d d m a n " never in trouble, occasionally amongst them; but, as a rule, they were mostly convicts free by servitude, with n o w and then a ticket-of-leave holder. An able-bodied civilian could, and sometimes did, in a very uncivil style, catch one of them in each hand by the collar and pitch him, " neck and crop " into one of the dangerous pools of m u d and water, to be found at every street intersection, and the soaked " b o b b y " would scramble ashore, shake himself, and sneak away showing his teeth, but without either bark or howl. There was one very remarkable mannikin, a sergeant, Charles Swindle (not inappropriately n a m e d ) a full-blown butty of a personage. H e married a smart, stout stump of an immigrant girl, about his o w n height and make, whose lively proclivities on the voyage out procured for her the sobriquet of " Dick." " Charlie," w h e n on his nocturnal rounds, was invariably stealthily followed by " Dick ;" and as he was fond of imbibing, when unfit for duty, " Dick " would drag him home, don his clothes', borrow his lantern, and go his rounds. T h e half a-dozen constables she would have to visit, were generally absent from their posts, or as drunk as " Charlie," and so " Dick" continued for some time to act as her husband's proxy with impunity. O n e night, however, she met " the Tulip " in her wanderings, when, his sharp eye penetrating her disguise, he marched her off to the lock-up, and charged her with personating, not her husband, but a police officer in the discharge of his duty. T h e bond-fides of her motive in trying to conceal the shortcomings of her spouse, was so apparent that the matter was compromised by both " D i c k " and "Charlie" being sent about their business. T h e ex-sergeant did not long survive his downfall, and so he died, and was hardly cold in his grave ere " Dick," n o w a buxom widow, soon supplied herself with another partner, who, having a little money put by, took her into the country, opened a bush public house, and, after they lived together prosperously for m a n y a year, he left her again a widow, with half a-dozen youngsters, tolerably well provided for. " Dick," I a m told, is still alive, and that her life m a y be a long and merry one is all the ill I wish her. Atfirstthere was no set uniform for the constabulary, and, except handcuffs dangling from a leathern belt buckled round the waist, and a staff, half waddy and half bludgeon, no other insignia of their calling was visible about them; but in 1840 an ukase was issued that the m e n were henceforth to be distinguished by wearing blue jackets, with a red stripe round the left wrist, and yellow vests, head gear ad libitum. After remaining in office for three years, Wright resigned in 1841, and was succeeded by a Mr. F. A. Falkiner, a smartish, conceited sort of young m a n , w h o had served in the police of a neighbouring colony. T h e change was not for the public advantage, at least so the police magistrate thought, for, though nothing was ever publicly alleged against Falkiner, M r . Simpson took such a liking to
