Page:In bad company and other stories.djvu/521



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.

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.