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'Mail and Escort Robbery

'£1000 Reward, and Pardon to an Accomplice

'Whereas it has been represented to the Government that on the afternoon of the 15th inst. the gold escort from the Lachlan was attacked on the road between Forbes and Orange by a band of armed men, said to be ten in number, and described as dressed in red shirts and caps, with their faces blackened, who fired on and wounded the police forming the guard, opened the mail-bags and letters, and carried off a large amount of gold dust and money: Notice is hereby given that a reward of one thousand pounds will be given by Government for such information as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction, within six months from this date, of each of the guilty parties; and a pardon will also be granted to any accomplice in the above outrage who shall first give such information.

Charles Cowper.

'Colonial Secretary's Office, Sydney, June 17, 1862.'

The great gold robbery having been accomplished, the actors in which were for a time uncaptured and unpunished, other enterprises of the same nature disturbed the land.

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More than one gang had apparently been formed, whose doings were heard of, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another.

Well armed and admirably mounted, they were not easily overtaken or overpowered by the police force of the day, then recently organised on the centralising system, which has since proved so efficacious. Before the advent of Captain Mayne, Captain M'Lerie, and Inspector-General Fosbery, the police in New South Wales were under the control of the magistrates of the district, much as obtained formerly in the rural parts of England. The system did not work well: one police magistrate might be alert and courageous, likely to keep his men in good order; another might be easy-going, slack of discipline —mentally even in near resemblance to Justice Shallow. It was evident that there would be little esprit de corps, each division working for its own hand.