Ballarat Star (Vic. : 1865 – 1924), Saturday 22 April 1882, page 2
A SEEMINGLY HARD CASE.
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From Friday’s Age.
The case of Mrs Ann Jones, of Glenrowan appears to be an exceptionally hard one. Her hotel and its contents were destroyed by the police in June, 1880, on the occasion of the attack upon the Kelly gang. In addition to losing everything she was possessed of, her little son was shot, and died a few days afterwards in the Wangaratta Hospital from the effect of the wound. Her daughter, a girl 15 years of age, received a shot also in the head and had a narrow escape of sharing her brother’s fate at the time. Mrs Jones was then prosecuted by the Crown as a sympathiser with the gang, but she was acquitted by the jury. For fully eighteen months she sought redress from the Government, but to no purpose until November last, when Mr Bent appointed a board to assess the damages she was entitled to claim. The board awarded her £305, but this was subsequently reduced by £40. On Saturday last her daughter, who was wounded in the head at Glenrowan, died in the local hospital, clearly from the effects of the shot upon a naturally delicate constitution. Mrs Jones’ troubles, however, do not end here. The board allowed her £25 for costs, and this amount she offered to pay to her counsel. He declined it as insufficient, but expressed his willingness to compromise the matter for a somewhat larger sum. Mrs Jones protested her inability to pay and soon even the £25 was frittered away, so that her counsel was left without payment of any portion of his fees. A County Court action has accordingly been entered against Mrs Jones for the recovery of a large sum of money which Mrs Jones is alleged to have undertaken to pay for the conduct of her case before the board. Thus the unfortunate woman has lost her property, the lives of two of her children have been sacrificed, the £260 awarded to her has been expended in the payment of debts contracted since the burning of her premises, and she has now to defend an action for costs incurred in her efforts to obtain compensation for her losses.
Glenrowan 