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INQUEST ON BYRNE.
It was at first announced that the inquest
on Byrne would not be held until to-morrow.
Quite unexpectedly, during the afternoon,
Mr. Robert M'Bean and Captain Standish
held a magisterial inquiry. The proceed-
ings were conducted very quietly, so quietly
in fact that no one knew of the affair
until it was over, and there were only
two or three persons present in the court-
house, where the inquiry was held. Senior-
constable Kelly, who was at Benalla,
and was desirous of being present, knew
nothing of it until it was all over. The
inquiry was of a purely formal nature.
The first witness called was Robert M'Intyre,
police-constable, stationed at Melbourne. He
identified the body in the possession of the
police as that of Joseph Byrne, one of the out-
laws who had shot the police-constables Ken-
nedy, Scanlan and Lonigan, at Mansfield, on
the 26th October, 1878. Witness was one of
a search party sent out to arrest the four out-
laws, but principally the two Kellys, who had
been concerned in the shooting of Constable
Fitzpatrick at Greta. Louis Piatza, a con-
tractor living at Glenrowan, who was one
of those detained in Mrs. Jones's Hotel
at Glenrowan, also identified the body as being
that of Joseph Byrne, the outlaw, who, in con-
junction with the Kellys and Hart, resisted the
police at Glenrowan on Monday last. Edward
Canny, police constable, stationed at Benalla,
deposed that he knew Joseph Byrne, the out-
law, a member of the Kelly gang, for over
eight years at the Woolshed, at Beechworth and
other places. The body before the court was
that of Joseph Byrne. Superintendent Sadleir
produced the proclamation issued in the Go-
vernment Gazette, published in October and De-
cember last, which offered £4000 reward for
the apprehension of Edward and Daniel
Kelly and two others, known as King and
Brown, who were afterwards found to be
identical with Hart and Byrne. He also pro-
duced copies of the New South Wales Govern-
ment Gazette offering a similar amount for the
apprehension of the outlaws. The reward was
to be withdrawn at the end of the present
month, but as the gang had been captured be-
fore that date the reward was still in force.
Mr. M'Bean entered a decision of justifiable
homicide, and stated that Byrne had come
by his death at the hands of the
police whilst they were in the execution of
their duty. The body was afterwards handed
over to some of the friends of deceased, who
were anxiously waiting for the police to give
it up. It was taken to Greta, to be buried in
the Wangaratta Cemetery with the remains of
Hart and Dan Kelly. To-morrow the inquest
on the body of Sherry will be held here.
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