23 March 1914
Registered Firms
Vol 11. No. 12 (23 March 1914) p. 283.
BYLONG CHEESE FACTORY, Bylong, Business commenced 1.1.14, Partners: Allen Saxelby of Bylong, and Henry Walker Mitchell, of Burwood. Registered 16.3.14. No. 274151
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27 August 1917
Alleged Cattle Stealing
AT BYLONG.
TWO MEN CHARGED AND REMANDED.
At the Mudgee Police Court, on Friday, John Thomas Hogan and John Joseph Kerney, of Bylong, were charged, before Mr. M. J. McMahon, P. M., with larceny between September 1 and December 31, of seven head of cattle, the property of Allan Saxelby and Henry Walker Mitchell, proprietors of the cheese factory at Bylong, by whom the accused were employed.
Mr. Davidson appeared for both accused.
Police Constable Kemp, stationed at Wollar, said that on January 11, 1917, he received a report of the theft of the cattle with the stealing of which the accused were charged. From July 31 to August 5 of this year he, with others, made a search of the rough, wild cattle country beyond Upper Bylong. On the latter date he returned to Bylong with a number of cattle which Mr. Saxelby inspected on August 6, and claimed one of them as his property. On the following day he saw the accused, Hogan, who was working at the Bylong cheese factory. He asked whether Hogan at any time released eight head of cattle from Hugh Francis Cobrey's, of Bylong. He said he had not. Witness then asked him whether at any time he, in company with John Kerney, released any cattle of any description from Cobrey's place. He said he had not. Replying to a question, Hogan said that the last time he and Kerney passed Archie Chitty's place was on a Sunday, six weeks before. He said he had gone there to see if In gram's cattle were there. On that day he had left the factory after breakfast and returned just before sundown. He came back past the tennis court, on which were some people playing tennis. Witness asked Hogan whether at any time he paid Cobrey damages for eight head of cattle, and he said no and that he had had at no time a conversation with Cobrey as to cattle or sheep of any description, except as to two horses he had lent him to work. Witness asked Hogan what horses he and Kerney were riding on the Sunday. Hogan said he was riding a brown horse and Kerney a black mare. The black mare had two front shoes on and his own horse was fully shod. Witness then arrested Hogan and charged him with that, between 1st September and 31st December, 1916, he did, at Tryallion, Bylong, steal eight head of cattle, to the value of £35, and the property of Allan Saxelby and Henry Walker Mitchell, trading as the Bylong cheese factory. Witness cautioned Hogan, whom he took to Wollar and lodged him in the watch house there. On the morning of August 18 witness again interviewed Hogan and said: "The last time you went up to Chitty's place did you go through any of his paddocks?" He said, "Yes, we got under the wire netting fence. There was only a log there in the creek. We then went up the creek about two miles." He explained that they went up by a fence of appletrees and wattles. They put no cattle the other side of the fence. Witness asked what, if it took him and Kerney from breakfast time till nearly sunset to go 10 or 12 miles, were they doing for the rest of the time. Hogan answered, "Just fooling about." Hogan said that he knew a blind gully, about 300 yards long, running along the fence, also tracks through the myrtle scrub and up the mountains from the gully. He had been up the tracks, which had been cut by Archie Chitty, who, with him and Hogan had put up the bush fence. Hogan questioned, said he had been in a gully on the left side of Chitty's, which, at the invitation of the witness, he described, Asked how he accounted for the tracks of his horses coming along this track on a stoney spur and into the gorge Hogan said he could not account for it, as he had not been up in that part of the country for 12 months. In searching the rough country about the localities indicated witness found several tracks which he compared with the accused's horses feet, with which they corresponded. On August 15, at the Bylong Cheese Factory, Tracker McDonald gave witness a measurement which he had taken from tracks found in the bush, which also corresponded with accused's horses' feet. When making the search for the stolen cattle witness found, in a cave, in the gorge in the locality, in which the horses' tracks were discovered, and in which the alleged stolen cattle were subsequently found, a pair of boots, that he believed to belong to accused Hogan. On August 8, at 8.30 p.m., witness saw accused Kerney at the Bylong Cheese Factory. He asked when he had last seen Hogan Kerney replied about 7.30 or 8 on the previous Monday morning. Asked when Hogan and he last went to Chitty's place, Kerney said about three weeks before, on a Sunday morning after breakfast. He added that they returned before sun down. He denied that he and Hogan had ever gone to Cobrey's place, or that Hogan and himself had at any time released cattle from Cobrey's. He said that about October 28 last (referendum day), or possibly before or just after, Hogan and he went to Cobrey's place to get a foal that was running there. He did not know whether or not Cobrey was home then. Kerney said that when at last at Cobrey's place Hogan and himself did not get under the wire netting fence and go up the creek. They spent the day, he said, just fooling about the house. He had not, he said, at any time assisted Hogan to pay cattle damages to Cobrey. Witness then arrested Kerney, and charged him with the theft of the cattle the subject of the prosecution. He made no reply to the charge. Witness described, at some length, the search for the missing cattle (which occupied several days and involved three or four nights camping out) and the ultimate finding of the cattle. The cattle found were clipped, and Mr. Saxelby, having examined them, claimed one of them as his property. Subsequently 20 head more of cattle were found in the same locality as that in which the first lot were found. Mr. Saxelby claimed two bull calves as his property. Amongst the cattle were also two poddy calves that answered to the description of part of the stolen cattle. In one cave in the gorge in which the cattle were found, there was found a pick, an axe, some eight pounds of flour, some nails, and a bottle of turpentine oil. From witness knowledge of the country he would say that it would be impossible for cattle to stray themselves from Cobrey's farm to the gorge in which the cattle were found.
Cross-examined by Mr Davidson: He found 34 head of cattle altogether in the gorge country, 14 in one lot and 20 in the other. The two lots were found at about a mile and a half apart. The country in which the cattle were found was grazing land - Crown lands. The boots were found in a cave in the gorge, about 300 or 400 yards from the cave in which the flour and pick and axe were found. The nearest occupied house to the cave in which the boots were found was 10 miles distant. Hogan's home was some 13 miles distant from the cave. The boots had apparently not been long in the cave as they were not mildewed. In January of the present year he had occasion to examine the boots Hogan was then wearing, and he believed the boots found in the cave to be those boots. He believed that years ago the track down the mountain was used by cattle stealers, and it was significant that the track had recently been repaired. Mr Saxelby definitely identified two of the cattle as his property. He believed a third to be his. All but four of the 34 head of cattle recovered had been identified as stolen cattle. The cattle lost by Saxelby were missed out of a netted paddock.
Allan Saxelby, farmer and cheese manufacturer of Bylong said that he put certain young stock in paddock at Tryallion. The accused Hogan was then witness stockman and assisted in the pad docking of the stock, of which he afterwards had the supervision. About the end of last year witness counted the stock in the Tryallion paddock and found them eight poddies short. He reported this to Hogan on his return from his holidays, and a second count was made by Hogan, who said that there were eight of the calves short, one of which was a bull calf that witness had sold him. Hogan said that of the missing stock eight were bull calves and one heifer. A search was made for the missing stock by witness and Hogan. This resulted in nothing and witness reported the loss to the police. He had suggested to Hogan that he should take a few days and make an exhaustive search for the missing stock, but he did not act on the suggestion, nor seem inclined to do so. Later on witness saw on Mr. Ingram's property two bull calves, a red and a roan, which he identified as his property by natural ear marks, transmitted from the bull by which they had been sired. These calves he positively identified as his. Other six cattle that he saw bull and calf heifers, he believed to be his, but could not swear to them. They were running with his calves, and would not leave them, and they strongly resembled the stock he had lost. The missing stock were not firebranded. They should have punched brands in the ears, but he could not say whether they had or not. When Hogan was accused of having stolen the cattle, witness said, 'This is a bad business. I have no son of my own, and I have placed the same confidence in you that I would have placed in a son of my own. Hogan replied, "I know you have." That was all that was said. The paddock in which he had placed the stock was newly fenced with netting and barbed fence, and locked gates. It was an absolutely secure pad dock, with the exception that on one gate there was a defective chain. Hogan, on one occasion, when the loss of the stock was being discussed, suggested to witness that, as a trap, they might next year put some unbranded stock in the paddock, and watch them. Witness valued the missing stock at about £35 or £40.
Cross-examined by Mr. Davidson, witness said he had put about 20 young cattle in the paddock from which the alleged stolen stock were missed. The cattle were about two or three months old. He first missed the calves between Christmas and New Year's Day. When looking for the calves with Hogan he found one calf dead. This was allowed for in the count. There were several of his calves unbranded in the netted paddock. That they were unbranded was the result of the accused Hogan's neglect, though it was true that other of his employees, besides Hogan did the work of branding.
Hugh Thomas Cobrey, farmer, of Bylong, said that about the end of October last year, a mob of eight poddy calves, mixed sexes, and various colors, strayed on to his property. A week after witness noticed the cattle on his land. He yarded them to look for brands and could find none. Shortly after accuseds Hogan and Kerney came to his pace inquiring about some horses, and seeing the poddies on the place asked who they belonged to. Witness said he did not know, and Hogan said he thought they belonged to a man named Evans, living near Rylstone. Hogan said that if witness liked he would take the calves away, and witness said they could not go until the damage they had done his crop had been paid for. Asked what damages he claimed, witness said, as he thought, either £2 or £1/10/. Hogan said that was too much, and witness replied that he could not take less than £1. Hogan said all he had on him was 10/, and witness said he would take that if Hogan would give him an order on Mr. Saxelby, by whom he knew him to be employed, for the balance. Hogan refused to do that, and borrowed the balance of the £1 from Kerney, and paid it to witness. Witness asked Hogan for a receipt for the cattle as the man for whom the cattle were being taken might not be the rightful owner who when he turned up might claim them and give trouble.
Hogan said there was no need for a receipt as witness would not be troubled about the stock again. Witness agreed, and Hogan and Kerney drove the cattle away. Cattle that he had seen a few days before in Ingram's paddock, in charge of Constable Kemp included two that resembled the poddies that had trespassed on his property. He had on five or six occasions noticed the two accused passing his place, usually on a Sunday. That would be before and after the time the poddy calves were taken from witness' property. The accused were usually on horse back when they passed his place.
Cross-examined by Mr Davidson. He could swear that the cattle he had seen a few days before on Ingram's paddock, in charge of the police, were the stock that had strayed on his place. He had not, when the stock were on his place, taken any particular notice of them, or of their age, size, or sexes. He could not say whether or not they were earmarked.
Percy Wilson King, grazier, of Bylong, knew the paddock on Mr. Saxelby's property from which the missing stock had gone, and had seen in the paddock a calf which he recognised as one of the calves since recovered by the police.
Frank Haywood Ingram, living with his father, Francis Ingram, a grazier at Bylong, said that late last year witness' father had cattle grazing on Cobrey's property, and of these witness had charge. Visiting Cobrey's place to look after his father's stock he saw some poddy calves on the farm. He looked through these to see if they were branded and found they were not. They were mixed exes and colors. In August of this year witness joined Constable Kemp and others in search for stolen cattle in the gullies in the wild Upper Bylong country. He could not identify the cattle then recovered with the poddies he saw on Cobrey's farm. He had seen the two accused riding up the gorge early in the present year.
William Spradbrow, laborer, of Bylong, had assisted Constable Kemp in the search for stolen cattle through the gorge in the wild cattle country, and it was there that the cattle were found, and was present when Mr. Saxelby claimed two of the recovered stock as his poddies. It was possible that cattle might stray into rough country, in which the cattle were found, but it was very unlikely. In October of last year he had seen seven or eight poddies on Mr. Cobrey's farm, and he identified one of the recovered cattle as one of the poddies - a bull calf. As to the others he could not swear, though he thought the recovered cattle resembled the poddies he had seen at Cobrey's. He had recently seen the defendants, on Sun days, riding in the direction of the gorge country. He noticed them going up in that direction and past Cobrey's every few weeks. He had noticed them going up in that direction seven or eight weeks ago. Very few people went up that way, as the country was rough and the track bad. The way was one hardly ever used, as it led practically to nowhere, except over to the Big Mountain.
To Mr. Davidson: Since he had assisted in the search for the missing cattle, Mr. Saxelby had given him two heifers worth £6 each. This was the recompense for the work he had done in looking for the cattle, and had had no influence at all on his evidence.
To Sergeant Guest: He was about ten days assisting in the search for the stolen cattle, and expected to be paid for his work. Constable Kemp had assured him that he would be.
Mr. Saxelby, who at his request was allowed to go into the box at this stage, said that when he heard the men were out after the stolen cattle, he said that whoever recovered the cattle should have half the stock. The two heifers which were amongst the recovered cattle, were given in satisfaction of that undertaking.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
ACCUSED COMMITTED
The accused, who reserved their defence, were then committed for trial at the Court of Quarter Sessions at Mudgee, on October 9.
Bail was allowed, for each defendant, in the surety of £40, and himself in a recognisance of the same amount2
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28 August 1917
CATTLE STEALING CHARGE.
MUDGEE, Tuesday.
At the local police court John Thomas Hogan and John Joseph Kerney, of Bylong, were charged, before Mr. M. J. McMahon, P.M., with larceny between September 1 and December 31, of seven head of cattle, the property of Allan Saxelby and Henry Walker Mitchell, proprietors of the cheese factory at Bylong, by whom the accused was employed. The accused, who reserved their defence were then committed for trial at the Court of Quarter Sessions at Mudgee, on October 9. Bail was allowed to each defendant in one surety of £40, and self in a (article ended abruptly)3
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1 December 1919
Registered Firms
Vol 22 No. 22 p. 376. 1 December 1919
Bylong Cheese Factory (The) (Allan Saxelby and Henry Walker Mitchell), Bylong, dairy farmers and cheese manufrs. - On 18.11.19 the firm name was changed to The Bylong Estate. Regd. 26.11.19. No. 410724
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