South

SoutHFar from being easily explained by Constable Whelan being drunk and forgetting the day, as Massie suggested, the case was a muddle of claims and counterclaims, all of which sit side by side in the depositions.This confusion was intensified in the evidence of Whelan, who had 'heard' that Smyth had been robbed by 'two exiles from the Adelaide' and had proceeded in pursuit, searching for the two men, taking their money and showing it to Smyth.'They are innocent men,' said Smyth; it was Thomas who had robbed him.Called back from Bega to execute a search warrant, Whelan found a watch in a desk in Thomas's house.He had heard both parties arguing over a watch and a horse, 'but the watch they were talking about was a different one altogether from the one with which the prisoner is charged'.Constable Whelan was utterly at the service of Smyth, both in returning from Bega and in holding off his pursuit of Thomas at Smyth's request.Smyth was a labourer working with a shoemaker, yet in this case, involving a watch without a glass cover wrapped in a silk handkerchief, he commanded the power of the legal system.The components of this case-the erroneous long letter of explanation, the cross-examination of the defendant by the accused, the constable at the service of the local population, no matter how poor-characterise the majority of the 37 cases from the coastal area stretching from Wollongong to Eden.Law was accessed through threads of local dispute and ill feeling and constables were called for rather than acting independently.Massie's letter is markedly intimate in tone; he wrote to the attorney-general as though they jointly had a problem to solve, and this was also common to the region.The depositions were perfect, with little crossing out, which may suggest copying but they have not been edited by Massie, the language remains that of the people.Asides in this case give some idea of the region's culture.Economic life stretched inland to Queanbeyan and receipts were important to keep as proof of ownership or sale.Constable Whelan travelled up and down the coast, from Pambula to Eden and to Bega.Mrs Thomas could imply that the desk found in her bedroom belonged to the wealthy Mr Imlay.No-one thought it unusual she should be minding it.There was suggestion of a 'Blackfellow' in Hibbard's public house; it was quite believable that he would be there.Everyone in this case is described as drunk at one time or other, apart from Massie himself.At Robertson's public house, Constable Whelan took all of Smyth's money, receipts and a watch and gave them to the wife of Robertson to keep for Smyth.The next morning, Mrs Robertson returned all the money apart from 3 shillings that Smyth had spent on drink, and he then took the money to another public house.The 'exiles