An Act to facilitate the taking or apprehending of Persons charged with certain Felonies and the punishment of those by whom they are harboured. [8th April, 1865.]
Preamble
WHEREAS of late divers persons charged on oath with murder robbery with arms accompanied by wounding and other capital felonies availing themselves unduly of the protection afforded by law to accused persons before conviction and being harboured by evil- minded persons have not only remained for a long time at large notwithstanding all available attempts to apprehend them but some of them being mounted armed and associated together have committed further robberies and murders and have resisted and killed officers of justice and other persons whereby the lives and property of Her Majesty's subjects are in jeopardy and need better protection by law Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same as follows :—
After Information filed for any capital crimes a Judge may cause the accused to be summoned.
1. Whenever an information shall be filed in the Supreme Court by Her Majesty's Attorney General after oath made before a Justice of the Peace and a warrant thereupon duly issued charging any person therein named or described with the commission of a felony punishable by law with death any Judge of the said Court upon being satisfied by affidavit of these facts and that the person charged is at large and will probably resist all attempts by the ordinary legal means to apprehend him may forthwith issue a Bench Warrant under the hand and seal of such Judge for the apprehension of the person so charged in order to his answering and taking his trial upon the said information and such Judge may thereupon either immediately or at any time afterwards before the apprehension or surrender or after any escape from custody of the person so charged order a summons to be inserted in the Gazette requiring such person to surrender himself on or before a day and at a place specified to abide his trial for the crime of which he so stands accused Provided that the Judge shall further direct the publication of such summons at such places and in such newspapers and generally in such manner and form as shall appear to him to be best calculated to bring such summons to the knowledge of the accused.
Effect of not surrendering where the accused remains at large.
2. If the person so charged shall not surrender himself for trial pursuant to such summons or shall not be apprehended or being appre hended or having surrendered shall escape so that he shall not be in custody on the day specified in such summons he shall upon proof thereof by affidavit to the satisfaction of any Judge of the Supremo Court and of the due publication of the summons be deemed outlawed and shall and may thereupon be adjudged and declared to be an outlaw accordingly by such Judge by a declaration to that effect under his hand filed in the said Court of Record And if after proclamation by the Governor with the advice of the Executive Council of the fact of such adjudication shall have been published in the Gazette and in one or more Sydney and one or more country newspapers such outlaw shall afterwards be found at large armed or there being reasonable ground to believe that he is armed it shall bo lawful for any of Her Majesty's subjects whether a constable or not and without being accountable for using of any deadly weapon in aid of such appre hension whether its use be preceded by a demand of surrender or not to apprehend or take such outlaw alive or dead.
Proclamation to be evidence of this outlaw.
3. The proclamation as published in the Gazette shall be evidence of the person named or described therein being and having been duly adjudged an outlaw for the purposes of this Act and the Judge's summons as so published shall in like manner be evidence of the truth of the several matters stated therein.
Harbouring or aiding offenders after summons.