South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Saturday 10 July 1880, page 1


NED KELLY IN GAOL.

Edward Kelly still remains in the Gaol Hospital, and is being carefully watched night and day. Having regard to his critical con-dition, and the possibility of his injuring him-

self intentionally or by any mishap, he is never left alone, a wardsman being told off to attend to him at night. Dr. Shieds, the medical officer of the gaol, continues to attend the prisoner, and reports a slight improvement in his condition. Kelly had a good night's sleep on Tuesday, and was suffering less pain yester-day than on the previous day. As he appears to be stronger, the prisoner was permitted by the medical officer to see his mother, whom he had urgently requested to see. Mr. Castieau, the Governor of the gaol, was present during the interview, which lasted for a con-siderable time. Mr. Castieau cautioned Kelly to keep calm, and he replied that he would, requesting Mr. Castieau to give the same advice to Mrs. Kelly. The mother seemed to feel acutely pained by the intelligence of the affray at Glenrowan, and at seeing the condition of her son. Kelly was in a tolerably communica-tive mood and conversed freely with his mother.

She was very anxious to obtain information re-garding the surviving relatives as well as about those who perished in the affray. She earnestly enjoined him to pay respect and attention to the priest who was attending him. Kelly still maintains as firmly as ever that he had been the victim of something approaching to persecution on the part of the police authorities, saying that their action had forced him into his career of lawlessness. He denied having ever had the least intention of taking his life, pointing out that he had numbers of opportunities of carrying out such an intention if he had felt any desire to do so. He spoke in eulogistic terms of his comrades, attributing to them rather an excess of dashing bravery than the want of courage which was said to have been shown by them in his absence. In his references to his exploits Kelly spoke of his grey mare as of a valued servant, stating that he could have relied upon her to carry him away with all his weight of armour in the event of his being pressed by the police. He had, however, no desire to escape from the scene of the last affay. Mrs. Kelly remained with her son for nearly half an hour, and was very reluctant to leave him until she was promised that another oppor-tunity of seeing him would shortly be afforded her after he should have been restored to a better state of health. At a late hour Kelly was pro-gressing favourably and appeared to be out of danger, although still in a very weak and help-less state.