PARKES LETTER

There has been much dispute as to whether or not the 'Parkes Letter' was actually written by Ned Kelly.
I gave a copy of this letter to a graphologist friend who stated that the letter was in fact written by Ned Kelly.
It is with this fact in mind that I have added this letter to my pages of letters said to have been written by Ned.

*14 MAR 1879
PARKES/BATHURST LETTER

To Sir Henry Parkes,
Premier N.S.W.

My dear Sir Henry Parkes,
I find by the news papers that
you have been very liberal
in offering a reward for the
Kelly Gang or any one of them.
Now Sir Henry the man that
takes I, Captain E. Kelly
will have to be a plucky
man for I do not intend to
be taken alive. And as I
would as soon die in NSW
as Victoria I will give you
or any other person who wishes
to take me a fair chance
to try your pluck. I am at
present not very far from
Bathurst (in fact I have been
in the town of Bathurst and
has taken a peep at the
banks). Now I tell you
candidly that I intend
to rob Bathurst and partic-
ularly the bank. So now you
are warned. Of course I will
not say what time I and the
gentleman that follows in my
train will visit the City of
the plains. But one thing you
can count on that I will
pay it a visit. Now Sir Henry
I tell you that highway rob-
bery is only in its infancy
for the white population is
been driven out of the labour
market by an inundation
of Mongolians and when the
white man is driven to des-
peration there will be des-
perate times. I present my
respects to the Sydney Police.
Yours E. Kelly
The Camp
March
14th. 1879

'The 8,000 pound reward was signed 'by command Henry Parkes.' Sir Henry
Parkes. according to a book by Robert Travers, was "the dominant
political figure in Australia over the second half of the nineteenth
century. Sir Henry Parkes came to prominence with the campaign to end
convict transportation and some fifty years later was still in the
public eye playing a central role in the creation of a federated
Australia." A letter (the one above) written to Sir Henry Parkes, the
Premier of NSW at that time, now sits amongst letters and documents that
were sent to Sir Henry. This letter has been dismissed as not being
written by Ned for several reasons, the main one that it does not
'appear' to be of the sort Ned would write.