Tuesday 9th of June 1835.
W.H.Dutton, Esq, J.P, called in and examined:
	I am a member of the bench at Yass Plains. The district 
extends in the direction of Goulburn as far as Gunnong,twenty
two miles; to the southward it embraces Gunderoo, distant eighteen
miles; to the northwest it extends over Burrawa Plains, and to the
westward it reaches as far as the most distant stations.
	The population amounts to between three to four thousand
persons.
	The police force of the whole district at present consists
of one constable and one scourger,who acts occasionally as constable.
	There is no court house,jail,or lock-up house in the district.
The Court is at present held in a blacksmith's shop.
	We secure prisoners by handcuffs and leg-irons, and by
fastening them to a post in a hut, in which the constable is obliged
to keep watch; nothwithstanding all these precautions, they some-
times manage to escape.
	The weekly average of cases brought before the Bench is 
fourteen or fifteen, and they are likely to be more numerous ere
long, as the population of the district is rapidly increasing.
I think that we generally have not as many convict cases to decide
as free ones.
	Suitors or complaintants have to travel to our Bench from
Mr Warby's station on the Murrumbidgee, a distance of eighty miles;
from Mr Rose's station,twenty miles further of; and from Maneroo
Plains, which are no less than one hundred and ten miles from Yass.
	I consider that an addition to the police force of Yass is
very necessary; if it consisted of one district constable,three
ordinary constables,a scourger and two lock-up keepers, I think it
would be quite sufficient, provided a detachment of mounted police
were also stationed at Yass.  One lock-up keeper is required at Yass,
and the other for a lock-up house, which I strongly recommend to be
erected, at Gunnong, where one constable should also be stationed.
Two objects of great importance would be gained from this plan:-
first, a safe place for custody,during the night, of prisoners sent
under escort from Yass to Goulburn, would be provided, - and
secondly, the constable from Yass,being relived by one stationed
here from the charge of the prisoners (for the remainder of the
journey to Goulburn) would be enabled to return quickly to his
station, and the necessity which at present exists for his absence
for four or five days, and for his travelling the great distance
of one hundred and ten miles, will be obviated.
	There are three unpaid magistrates in the district ,two of
these gentlemen are brothers, and this causes inconvenience to them
whenever they are personally interested in any case, particularly
during my absence from the district during five months of the year.
I reside in the district during the remaining seven months of the
year, and attend the bench pretty regularly, one of the other two
magistrates is very regular in his attendance throughout the year.
But as our various pursuits call us away frequently to a great
distance, and for very uncertain periods of time, the Bench is
sometimes without a magistrate at all, and very often with only
one. I have frequently been obliged to remand cases that have been
brought from places forty or fifty miles off, not having,as a single
magistrate,power to decide on them; the parties complaining in these
cases would have to travel fifty five miles farther to Goulburn 
before they could find a full Bench.
	Before the establishment of a Bench at Yass, I have frequently
had to submit to much insolence and misconduct from my assigned
servants rather than take them as far as Goulburn for punishment;
and I am also confident that many masters in the district,who are
far distant from the Bench, still submit to similar treatment from
servants from the same motives.
	We have no clerk, I consider one quite indispensable; my
brother magistrates and myself have  been frequently employed in
taking depositons from nine o'clock in the morning till five in the
afternoon.
	There are no mounted police in the Yass district; but I
understand that six troopers are soon to be stationed there; this
number of men would be quite sufficient, but to enable them to
perform the duty properly and efficiently, they should be provided
with three spare horses; the spare horses are rendered necessary
by want of hard fodder in that part of the country in which they are
likely to be employed,which circumstances would make a rest 14 or
15 days necessary for the horses after any protracted duty in the
bush.
	We find considerable difficulty in obtaining propery men to
serve as constables.Persons of the character we would selected will
not serve for the pay allowed; the duty to be performed is also more
onerous and irksome than is required from them in private service,
where they are better paid and more agreeably situated. I would
prefer ticket-of-leave men as constables to any other class of people.
	I regret to add that there can be but little doubt of the
fact of food and sheleter being readily afforded to bushrangers,in
many instances, in this district by squatters,and the facility with
which men becoming free can,as such,occupy Crownlands in the 
immediate vicinity of their former masters;or, as ticket-of-leave
holdres, hiring themselves as labourers and stock-keepers with
squatters already established, has become a source of great and
increasing evil. These persons are almost invariably the instigators
and promoters of crime -receivers of stolen property, illegal 
vendors of spirits, and harbourers of runaways,bushrangers and
vagrants.  The congeniality of habits between master and man, the
absence of all restraints, and the predatory life they led whilst
collecting stolen cattle,has a charm for them which even considerably
higher wages in the service of respectable employers will not induce
them to quit. They keep up a constant intercourse with our assigned
servants, and knowing the weak points of each establishment, seize
their opportunity and commit depredations, particularly upon cattle,
with impunity.  I am convinced that all the petty pilfering occuring
on our properties might be traced,directly or indirectly to the 
agency of these squatters. I would strongly recommend the necessity
of placing all unauthorised occupants of crown lands under the
surveilance of the various Benches. Let each occupant be imperatively
required to produce certificates as to character, signed by not less
than two magistrates, he should also be obliged to state the intended
nature of his pursuits, and prove to the satisfaction of the Bench,
that he has the means of earning his livelihood honestly in the
avocation he proposes to follow. These certificates might be renewed
annually. At the same time it is necessary that power should be
given to magistrates to eject all persons from Crown lands whose
conduct is proved to be disorderly or suspicious.
	The constant vigilance of police, is,in my opinion,
particularly requisite here, since being on the immediate confines
of the located part of the colony, runaways endeavour to reach it
from the supposed security they enjoy in the outer stations.
Those from Bathurst almost invariably follow the Abercrombie and
the Lachlan to Murrumidgee. The country, however, being open,pursuit
is easy and intelligence would be more rapidly conveyed to a paid
magistrate than an unpaid one. The appoitnment of a stipendary
magistrate would also, with a few exceptions, always enable us to 
form a Bench, at all events the changes of escape from the want of
a second magistrate, would be materially lessened, and the characters
we have to deal with are adept in art of calculating such chances.
I should consider such an appointment as highly beneficial to the
district in general,and I am convinced the number of cases would
be fewer, and the necessity for punishment more rare.	"

note from J.Fawcett: These are newspaper articles,and should only be used as a general reference. Original sources should always be accessed for family history purposes and information authenticated. copyright,2002 J.Fawcett-Genseek .SH080335