Tireless Terry, or Loathsome Lionel, or, the perambulations of the prisoner

in which Mr Lionel Terry, esq, is introduced

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Mr. Lionel Terry, a young man of striking personality, who has recently come to live in Wellington, has seen some stirring times during a career that cannot have lasted much over thirty years. He is of large size, and has not yet relinquished the cavalry style of walking hard on his heels to make the box spurs ring. It is unusual to find a young Englishman who has had the advantages of an Eton and Oxford education who leaves the university for the ranks of the Garrison Artillery, but this well-grown young Briton found his way thither. Ultimately, he was drafted to the Royal Horse Guards (Blues), one of the Household Regiments, that look after the sacred person of royalty, and do guards at Whitehall. 

Mr. Terry tells a story of a Whitehall guard. The statuesque figures of two mounted men, either of the Life or Horse Guards, is a feature of the arches at Whitehall. They are no earthly use there, of course, but it is custom. They are the admiration of London crowds. One morning, while Mr. Terry was doing guard, an East End lady, with a pram, wheeled it under his horse's knees, and, looking up at the six-foot-three of blue and silver, remarked, "Lor lumme, don't they make them waxworks lovely!"

Mr. Terry tired of burnishing his cuirass, and doing stables, so, after two and a-half years of Horse Guards, he "purchased," and hit out for pastures new. He has lived as an. artist in London, as a mounted policeman in Bulawayo, and was there or thereabouts during the raid. Also, he happened to be there during the troublous times of the Matabele war. Has met Oom Paul and the late Cecil Rhodes, and has contributed criticisms of Imperial affairs from various corners of the world. Further, this widely-travelled young man has tarried briefly in America and Canada, where he found that opinions of England and Englishmen were very mixed and hardly complimentary. 

He ascended Mount Pelee before that incontinent volcano went into the slaughtering trade, and has travelled extensively on the Continent of Europe. Returning from world wanderings to London, he dabbled in a desultory way with art and literature, and has written some scathing things in verse pointing out the danger that threatens England from the Asiatic alien. He owns to having poured out more or less artistic "pot boilers" in London for a living, and he wants to make his best work his profession in Wellington. Mr. Terry has included Australia in his travels, and so is able to speak with some authority on climates. He gives New Zealand the palm, but, of course he is quite new to Wellington, and did not start his New Zealand life here. He is at present engaged in. the Survey Department.  The Free Lance, 4/7/1903.

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Mr. Lionel Terry, the large young man of many travels, who stayed a while in Wellington, and wrote some burning things to the papers about matters Imperial, is away up in the far North — Mangonui — surveying the trackless forest, or words to that effect. Lionel is deeply Imperial, believing in "the Empire for the British," having seen the yellow agony canning salmon in British Columbia, the insanitary Asiatic doing chores in Africa, and the Mongolian on his way to Johannesburg. Lionel, in a letter, remarks that he has received information indicating that the Rothschilds have been for many years "the private advisers of the British Cabinet." He wants to know what remuneration the Rothschilds get for acting as private directors of Imperial policy, and asserts that the great financiers were prime movers in the Dr. Jim raid, the war, and the Chinese slavery outrage. Likewise, he thinks that Chamberlain's "preferential yell" is a faked yell, and is a bid for the Premiership.  -The Free Lance, 11,6/1904.

in which Mr Terry's magnum opus is reviewed

ALIEN VIEWS.

We do not think there is any danger of our readers suspecting us of sympathy with the importation of cheap alien labour into the Empire. That being so, we can express the more confidently our dissent from some of the views set forth by Mr Lionel Terry, in a poetical pamphlet, "The Shadow," which has been printed by Messrs Wilson and Horton, of Auckland, and which, though marked "Private Edition," has presumably been sent us for review. We do not know Mr Terry, either as a writer or as a man, but we infer from his book that he is young. This is no fault, but enviable good fortune. He has not reached the years of caution when one has to dilute every strong statement with a "seems" or a "but," and when every question has another side. His "bookling," as Mellor Squish would call it, is half hysterical prose and the other half, to avoid splitting hairs, we will call poetry. The verse goes rather lamely on its feet in places, there are lapses in grammar and words misused, and the metre has many irregularities which are not justified by the effect. However, the sincerity and earnestness of the lines give them a value which partly compensates for technical faults. The work is not really important enough to justify such extended notice as we find ourselves giving it, but we have been lured to write of it by the originality of its professed message. It is an exhortation to hatred. Mr Terry would have us abhor everything and everybody not British, and all Asiatics in particular. The sentiment is not new. It is often appealed to, often fomented, but hitherto has not, in our experience, been preached as a gospel. "Tis the law of God and Nature," exclaims Mr Terry, "racial hatred ne'er shall die!" He insists that no son of British matron shall "count as brother foreign slave." These phrases occur in a poem headed "To the King: an Exhortation." Mr Terry apparently thinks, and justly enough from his point of view, that Edward the Peacemaker is not sound on the doctrine of racial hatred. Elsewhere Mr Terry speaks of the "Gospel of the gentle Christ" as though he approved of it, which one would not suppose to be the case after reading the "Exhortation." Besides, that gospel came to us from Asia, and He in whose name it is preached was a Jew. Mr Terry would have kept Him out of the British Empire as an undesirable immigrant. "Jew" is with this writer a term of the bitterest vituperation. "All the pest-holes of the earth did vomit Jews." If any race is more to be hated, in his opinion, than the Jewish, it is the Chinese. They are "defiled beyond salvation." They are "earth's most sunken and degraded" people. Bitter hatred seethes in their every vein, and they suck the blood of Britain while scheming how to "pour their yellow millions" over her land. All of which is, we think, absurd. Putting their great past aside, the Jews of to-day are among the most moral, healthful and intellectual peoples on earth, and the Chinese are industrious, self-restrained, clever and generally honest. Either race has as much reason to hate and despise us as we have to hate and despise them. We would rather try to be patriotic without the aid of Mr Terry's gospel. We do not know whither it might lead us, for it seems we are to hate non-British Europeans only less than Asiatics, and the limits of the hatred urged upon us are not defined. Are we to hate the people of the next town pretty considerably, and our near neighbours not quite so much, and righteously abhor our own families to a certain extent? Is everybody to shoot everybody else at sight. The gospel of hatred seems to require some restrictions, and that fact, if no other, would incline us to doubt it. We turn from Mr Terry's youthful indiscretions to recall that noble dream of England's last great laureate, "the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World," and we think of that still bolder prophecy of one of the greatest of living poets, bearing witness to the coming of the "nations undivided," the "people single and free." Not one of us is yet ready for these things, but let us at least be brave enough to look forward rather than backward. Finally, remembering that, on the one hand, love and courage, and on the other hatred and fear go together, we will not forbear to conclude such serious matters with a pun, and say that we decline to be Terry-fied.  -The Waikato Times, 19/12/1904.

A WHITE EMPIRE

"The Shadow.” By Lionel Terry. Wilson and Horton, printers, Auckland. Private edition.

The author of this impassioned appeal to the British people on the subject of the evil results of coloured alien immigration informs his readers that his work is the outcome of many years of personal research in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Now Zealand, the United States of America and other parts of the world. “In order to obtain facts,’’ he says, “I have visited slums, worked side by side with aliens of various nationalities in stone quarries, coal mines, fruit plantations, sawmills, and many other industrial enterprises; I have studied the methods of living and general characteristics of savage races, and the effects produced upon them by civilisation; in short, I have done everything that I considered necessary to acquaint myself with my subject.” In an “Introduction” of twelve pages, from which the foregoing words are quoted, Mr Terry seeks to establish the theses —That the labouring classes constitute the very life of the British Empire; that it is vitally important that those classes should be kept wholly white; that the British Empire is violating the laws of nature; and unless swift measures he taken to exclude and eradicate the alien element, the British Empire must die. The Chinese and Japanese immigration into Canada and the Chinese labour so largely employed in the Transvaal mines supply him with the most striking examples of the irreparable wrong inflicted on the Empire by crushing out white labour. All this and a good deal more is but the prelude to a poem entitled “The Shadow, A.D. 2000: A Condemnation and a Prophecy,” which is in turn followed by another set of verses —“To the King: An Exhortation.” There is in the verses a good display of poetic fervour and declamatory language, almost in the style of an ancient Hebrew prophet denouncing the sins of his country and sorrowfully predicting the dire consequences of the transgressions. Good as Mr Terry’s verses are, we think his prose is much better, and the facts and considerations urged by him are fitted to exert a powerful influence on public opinion. As a sample of his poetic gift, We quote the following “Prayer,” which appears on the inside title page: —

When the great Gold God, advancing, shall inherit all the earth, 

When our country shall be governed by the slave, 

When love and truth and honour shall be strangled at their birth. 

And the noblest shall have won the felon’s grave;

When our land shall be polluted by the outcast of the earth. 

When corruption rageth rampant at its roots; 

When our leaders shun their duty for the halls of reckless mirth, 

And blended blood shall bear its shameful fruit;

When our land shall seek defenders ’midst an alien kith and kin. 

And shall writhe beneath a scourge of civil strife. 

When a mighty hybrid nation shall have won the wage of sin, — 

Spare us, O God, the bitter curse of life!

The book has on its front cover the picture of a malevolent-looking Asiatic, hovering in dark clouds over London, with a drawn sword in his hand. It is a little peculiar that this work should be issued in New Zealand, where less danger threatens from the coloured alien than in almost any other colony, this is, however, merely a “private edition,” probably printed to secure the copyright; and it may be inferred that the object is to have large editions circulated at Home, as well as in Australia, Canada and South Africa. "The Shadow,” if placed in the hands of the toiling British millions, would open their eyes to the magnitude of the danger which the author sees in coloured alien labour.  NZ Times, 14/1/1905.

Lionel Terry on the road.

LITERARY COLUMN

We have received a little pamphlet of thirty pages, by Lionel Terry, printed in Auckland, entitled "The Shadow." It contains an irregular ode, "a condemnation and a prophecy," with an introduction rather longer than the ode itself. The subject is alien immigration, with special reference to the Transvaal blunder, and the author's intention is better than his execution. Prose and verse are alike paroxysmal. In the discussion of public questions the appeal should be to reason and the sense of justice — not to passion and what Mr. Terry calls "natural hatred."  -The Evening Post, 28/1/1905.

in which Mr Terry takes his literature on tour

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Mr Lionel Terry, who is on a walking tour from Maugonui to Wellington, passed through Hamilton yesterday morning. He left Mangonui on July 19th, arrived in Auckland on August 1st, passing through Kaeo, Kawakawa, Whangarei, Waipu aud Walkworth; total distance 258 miles, average about 20 miles per day. He left Auckland on the 12th. inst, and arrived at Cambridge yesterday, having passed through Drury, Mercer, Huntly and Hamilton; total distance, 102 miles, average 20 miles per day. Grand total to date, 360 miles. The weather throughout has been splendid and the roads perfect. Mr Terry is continuing his tour via Rotorua, Taupo and Napier.  -Waitako Times, 17/8/1905.

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The Hutt road, on the stretch between Wellington and Petone, may be conceded the distinction of being the most execrable roadway in New Zealand. So far as the North Island is concerned, it is pronounced to be far and away the worst by Mr Lionel Terry, who has traversed during the last two months nearly nine hundred miles of our roads on foot. In the course of his travelling, he walked every public way in the so-called "roadless north” which has hitherto enjoyed the reputation of being the worst road in this country; but he avers that the Hutt road is twenty times worse than that “shocking example” in the far north. If Mr Lionel Terry, the indefatigable pedestrian traveller, should ever write a book on New Zealand, he will have some not altogether complimentary things to say about the people of this “jewel of a country,” as he calls it. He is particularly strong in his denunciation of the vandalism that is destroying so much of the natural beauty of the country, for the sake of a very doubtful utilitarianism. Bush is everywhere being ruthlessly burnt or cut down to create grazing-runs. Even at Rotorua he complains that this policy of wanton destruction is being pursued. He thinks that New Zealanders could make much better use than they are doing of the splendid country which they inhabit.  -NZ Times, 15/9/1905.

in which Mr Terry arrives in Wellington

PERSONAL

Mr Lionel Terry, who, though still a young man, has travelled much in Europe, America, Africa and other parts of the world, arrived in Wellington on Friday, having travelled on foot from Mangonui in the far north of the Auckland district. He left Mangonui on 19th July last, and walking by easy stages, passed through Auckland, Waikato, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier, the bush districts, and Wairarapa. Mr Terry calculates that in his forty days' actual walking from Mangonui to Wellington he has covered 878 miles, at the average rate of between twenty and twenty-one miles a day. After a brief stay in Wellington Mr Terry will undertake a walking tour through the South Island.  -Auckland Star, 18/9/1905.

PERSONAL NOTES

There is expected to arrive on the West Coast shortly a Mr Lionel Terry, who is on a walking tour of the colony. Mr Terry has just completed a "walking tour" of the North Island, and is at present resting in Wellington.  -Greymouth Evening Star, 21/9/1905.

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Mr. Lionel Terry is seventy-six and a-half inches long, was born in Kent, has been in the Horse Guards blue, in a South African police corps, is a surveyor by profession, and, a wanderer by inclination. The Lance has told about him before. Lionel's latest is a walk from Mangonui to Wellington. He has trekked eight hundred and eighty miles, and is in strong going order, with a brown skin, a healthy liver, and a bright smile. He has been walking forty days. He walked one thousand one hundred miles in British Columbia once, and he got sea-sick training it from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

Mr. Terry, on this last trip of his, was variously regarded as a wager-walker, an eccentric, and other things, and he has managed, despite rumours to the contrary, to sleep in an hotel every night — bar one. Then, he got benighted, and slept in a saddle room. He is an apostle of fresh air and naturalness of living. He would go about with less clothes if convention didn't say nay. He met many swagmen on the road, and travelled with them. Found them strong, healthy fellows, who swore loudly and were very sensitive. Thinks there is something wrong about the land laws which keep this sort of person on the travel. 

Swagmen use the huts en route to camp in. Lionel entered some of these huts, and found that "travellers" are inclined to be literary. Found, this on the wall of a deserted house over the Rimutakas:

 — Don't blame the wealthy squatter if you luck is nearly out, 

Don't blame the struggling "cockiteal" if there isn't any work, 

Don't blame New Zealand's Government or old Sir Robert Stout, 

But blame the way-side shanty where they hand the poison out. 

Again, in another hut, occurs this notice, with a liberal allowance of capital letters: — 

Tourists Kindly Treat This Welcum Shelter with Respect, For Man's Ingratitude to Man Makes Countless Thousands Mourn. 

One cheerful person engaged in carrying "Matilda" cries out with a firestick on the wall: — "Good luck to every swagman camped here. — Brother Swagger."  -The Free Lance, 23/9/1905.

in which Joe Kum Yung and Lionel Terry make a fateful rendezvous

A White Peril.

By Telegraph. Wellington, September 25. 

A Chinaman was murdered here last night under what appear at present very wanton circumstances. An old fellow, Joe Kum Yung, living in Haining street, had gone to another house for some peanuts, and on his way back some man fired two shots at him. Yung was found with a bullet in the back of his head, and though medical aid was procured, he died in the hospital at 10 o'clock. There were few persons in the street and apparently only two saw the assailant. One was a Chinaman who, from the other side of the street, saw the shots fired and followed the man (described as a tall man wearing a three-quarter drab-colored coat) till he lost him in the main thoroughfare. The other was a European who was in Taranaki street, and saw a man hurrying away. The man is supposed to be a European.  The police know of no cause of animosity against deceased. Yung was nearly 70 years of age, and has been in the colony from 25 to 30 years, but in Wellington only six months. He was a semi-invalid,  having broken his leg and suffered other injuries while mining in Westland. His fellow-countrymen were subscribing to send him back to China, for he was practically penniless, and was not known to have a cause for quarrel with anyone. 

A man, who gave his name as Lionel Terry, gave himself up at the Police Station at 9.30 this morning as the murderer of the Chinaman, Joe Kun Yung. Terry is a stranger to the colony, and is said to hold strong views on the subject of aliens. 

Terry, the murderer of the Chinaman, has been a wide traveller, and during his stay in Wellington impressed all he met with his wide acquaintance with men and things. His opinions on aliens were very strong, and he recently issued a pamphlet of protest on the "Yellow Peril," upon which he is particularly vehement. Nothing unusual was noted about Terry last night or this morning at the Club Hotel, where he was staying. After breakfast this morning he wrote letters and went out and handed himself over to the police, giving them a revolver with two chambers discharged and also a copy of his pamphlet, which he said would explain things. He is a man of superior education, about 35 years of age, and of splendid physique, and was on a walking tour through the colony. Terry was brought before the Court this morning and remanded. 

Terry, the murderer of the Chinaman, was in the Horse Guards, and sold out to join the Buluwayo Police. He afterwards went through the Matabele war, and spent some time in America and Canada. He lived for some time on his literary and artistic work. His pamphlet "The Shadow" is a violent appeal to the Empire to rise and throw off the yellow evil and aliens generally. It also contains an appeal to the King to save the Empire. He first came to the colony about two years ago. He is a splendid specimen of a man physically, and is quite unconcerned at the crime. He is said to have written to Lord Plunket before giving himself up. 

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, September 25. Lionel Terry was a crank on the Chinese question, and in a letter to the Governor, stated that the crime was committed as a protest against the continued influx of Chinese. He refused to eat fruit or vegetables because grown by Chinese, and last year published a book in Auckland entitled "The Shadow," in which the shooting down of Chinese was justified. He was a former member of the Horse Guards of the Blue. -Oamaru Mail, 25/9/1905.

Terry's arrest record: Archives NZ. in which Terry surrenders to the Wellington police

HOW TERRY SURRENDERED.

A MAN, A BOOKLET, AND A REVOLVER. 

ACCUSED REMANDED. 

The appearance of Inspector-Ellison, Sub-Inspector O'Donovan, and Chief Detective McGrath, as they hurried into the watch-house of the Lambton-quay Police Station at 9.30 this morning, indicated that a matter of urgency had arisen. Subsequently Inspector Ellison reported that a man named Lionel Terry had called at the watch-house, handed over a revolver, and surrendered himself as the person who had shot the Chinaman in Haining street last evening. 

Shortly after ten o'clock the prisoner was brought before Dr. A. McArthur, S.M., and charged with having, on the 24th September, 1905, at Wellington, murdered one Joe Kum Yung. Inspector Ellison immediately arose and applied for a remand of the case until the 2nd October. The application was granted, and the accused immediately returned to the prisoners' room. 

Inspector Ellison, when questioned about the man's confession, said: — "Well, it would be unfair of me to say anything about that until I give evidence at the inquest to-morrow afternoon. He is an Englishman, not long in New Zealand, and, from remarks he made, he seems to have been in the Horseguards, and to have a craze about aliens." 

In a subsequent conversation Inspector Ellison stated that when Terry gave himself up at the Police Station, and declared himself the man who shot the Chinaman, his bearing and appearance were in every way that of a gentleman, and he spoke with the utmost politeness. Besides handing over the revolver, he handed over one of his booklets (entitled "The Shadow") on the alien peril, and said: — "If you read that you will understand it better," or "it will make it clearer to you." Inspector Ellison did not question him further, but offered him opportunity, if he needed it, to see any friends or to consult a solicitor. When charged with the murder of Joe Kum Yung, Terry made no special reply. (The Inspector produced the revolver, a five-chambered weapon, loaded in three chambers.) 

The reporter put it as a hypothesis that Terry, on seeing the account of the murder in this morning's paper, might have decided to assume authorship of the crime in order to advertise his anti-alien propaganda. The Inspector did not think the circumstances allowed any room for a sham confession.  -Evening Post, 25/9/1905.

ACCUSED'S LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR.

WELLINGTON, September 25. 

In his letter to the Governor, the self-accused man throws light upon the motive of his crime. The letter is as follows: —

September 24 

To the Governor of New Zealand.

Sir, — Having spent several years in various portions of the British Empire into the subject of the results arising from alien immigration, and being confident of the evil consequences arising therefrom, I have decided to bring the matter before the public eye in a manner which will compel the attention it demands. I will not, under any consideration whatever, allow my brother Britons to be jeopardised by alien invaders, and to make this decision perfectly plain, I have this evening put a Chinaman to death in a Chinese quarter of this city, known as Haining street.

I remain,

               LIONEL TERRY, 

                                                   British subject

-Wanganui Chronicle, 26/9/1905.

Terry — A Sketch.

Vigilante writes: — "Having been well acquainted with the now famous Lionel Terry, I had the opportunity of seeing him in some of his strangest moods for he was indeed a creature of impulse. I remember hearing him recite some of his verses one evening. There was a cruel earnestness in his voice as he recited 'The Shadow'; his demeanour was that of a strong man wrestling impotently with a gigantic problem; his eyes glittered hate and his hands strained in a frenzied clutch. Wonderful as a giant pine defying the grasp of the wind he stood. The poem itself had little to commend it, but there was that in the rendering which would have made iron of the veriest sand, so burdened was it with relentless force. Nor did the passion pass from him when the story was done  ;he retired to a corner of the room to sit with evident uneasiness—not that he doubted that his effort had been well received, for he appeared to be possessed of a vast amount of self assuredness. There in his corner he stayed until the great lava of passion within him had seethed itself to a sullen calm. When at length he ventured out amongst the people he tried to enter into the spirit of their small talk, but even then it seemed that 'The Shadow' lurked behind him.  -Manawatu Times, 26/9/1905.

in which Terry and Joe Kum Yung meet again...

The Coronial Inquiry.

(Press Association.) Wellington. September 26 

An inquiry concerning the death of Joe Kum Yung, the victim of Sunday night's tragedy in Haining street, was conducted by the District Coroner this afternoon. 

Lionel Terry, the self-accused murderer, was present in the custody of two troopers. While the jury was absent from the room viewing the body Terry unconcernedly discussed the weather and North Island scenery with the police. Throughout the subsequent proceedings he was as imperturbable as ever.  When asked if he wished to put any questions to the witnesses examined, his smiling reply, "No thank you," indicated, that he was the least concerned person present. 

Once only did he show annoyance, and that was when a Chinese witness related how one evening last week Terry entered the house in Haining street, and saying that he was an Inspector, took the names, of some persons who were playing cards. 

He objected that the word "Inspector" had been put into the witness's mouth by the counsel for the Crown. 

The Coroner: "There are all sorts of inspectors, in the country." 

Terry: "Oh, yes! I might have been a Sanitary Inspector, I daresay; but seeing that I had made all sorts of inquiries about their gambling, the imputation is that I might have been posing as an Inspector of Police." 

The Coroner: "You will have an opportunity in a higher Court of contradicting witness's statement." 

Terry: ''I am not contradicting it." 

The evidence given added little to what has already been published. Two eye-witnesses of the tragedy told of having seen some tall man use the revolver and then walk off. This man was wearing an overcoat similar to the one produced found at Terry's lodgings. 

The jury, having retired to consider their finding, returned in a quarter of an hour. As they reappeared, Terry remarked, "Here they come!" 

The foreman said that the verdict was that Joe Kum Yung's death was caused by a bullet wound inflicted by Lionel Terry. 

"Wilfully?" asked the Coroner. 

"I can't say," replied the foreman. 

Throughout this final scene Terry remained unruffled, and after the Coroner and jury had left the room he turned with a careless laugh to his custodians and said, "It wasn't very interesting was it?" 

Terry will be brought before the Magistrate on Monday next on the capital charge.

It is reported that Terry says he picked out Kum Yung as his victim because he looked old and decrepit and as if life was a burden to him.  -Bush Advocate, 27/9/1905.

in which Lionel Terry has n idea for the "salvation of the Maori race"

SHALL WE MAROON THE MAORIS?

In pursuance of his doctrine that racial fusion must destroy one or other of the parties, Lionel Terry wrote on July 16th from Mangonui to Dr Pomare, Native Health Officer, as follows: — There has never in the history of the world been a case of two distinct races living together in the same country without the deterioration and ultimate decay of one or the other. The weaker race is always doomed. The Maoris of this country have reached such a condition of moral, mental and physical degeneration that unless prompt and vigorous steps be taken in the proper direction, their decay is inevitable. The salvation of the Maori race can only be effected by absolute separation from the white race. This may be effected by the absolute exchange of all lands now in possession of the Maoris for islands, such as Stewart or Chatham Islands. It is imperative that such separation should be complete and absolute. The Maoris must be subject to their own laws and their own religion; they must be entirely self-contained and self supporting in every conceivable particular. Upon this, and this only, depends the life of the Maori race.  -Fielding Star, 29/9/1905.

in which Terry appears in court

TERRY IN COURT.

CHARGED WITH MURDER.

(By Telegraph. — Press

WELLINGTON, this day. Lionel Terry, the self-accused murderer of a Chinaman in Haining street on the night of the 24th inst. appeared before Dr. McArthur, stipendiary magistrate, to-day. Prisoner was unrepresented by counsel. Medical evidence was given similar to that adduced at the coroner's inquiry. Several other witnesses were also examined, but no new facts of importance have been elicited so far.

When cautioned in the statutory manner, and asked whether he had anything to say, accused replied in the negative. He was then formally committed for trial.  -Auckland Star, 2/10/1905.

THE YELLOW PERIL.

THE CHINESE INVASION OF NEW ZEALAND.

We take the following from the Wairarapa Leader of a recent date: — The extraordinary act of Lionel Terry, self-confessed slayer of Joe Kum Yung, has achieved its object, in that general attention has been directed to the Chinese invasion of New Zealand. It also recalls the fact that the matter of the existence of too much undesired Celestial in the colony was mentioned with vehemence in the House recently. Mr Moss was the agitated member who indicated to the Government that the poll tax was insufficient to discourage the yellow peril from menacing these shores, and as Mr Lionel Terry was the last man in the world people would suspect of killing a Chinaman, so also there is no unusual interest in Mr Moss, who is also the last man in the world, etc. The member for Ohinemuri has brought up the matter of the almond-eyed alien on several occasions, and a week or two back his remarks on the subject disclosed extreme perturbation of spirit. He animadverted upon the "yellow invasion," and deplored the prospect of "painting the colony a dismal khaki," and he pointed out with indignation that he had asked the Commissioner of Customs the following question a week previously: — "Whether the Government had yet decided to increase the poll-tax on Chinamen landing in New Zealand, the advisability of increasing which the Commissioner stated on the 11th August, 1904 would he considered?"

Mr Moss quoted the following reply of the Minister with scorn: — "This matter had not been lost sight of, but it was not considered necessary to increase the poll-tax at present, the total number of departures of Chinese from the colony for the first half of this year having exceeded the total number of arrivals by fifteen. During the last six years there was an excess of departures over arrivals of 87. Mr Moss pointed out, with more scorn, that according to the Year Book, the arrivals of Chinamen during 1903 exceeded the departures by eight, and the arrivals in 1904 exceeded the departures by 107. Furthermore, he had a letter from the Attorney General which, went to show that during the financial year ended March 31, 1905, there were 97 more arrivals than departures. Of Lungs and Yee Kees who arrived luring the latter period 153 were fresh arrivals and 81 had already been in New Zealand and had paid no poll tax. Commercially speaking, said Mr Moss, they were "returned empties." These were the Attorney General's figures, and were contradicted by the Commissioner of Customs, who alleged that only eighteen were "returned empties." 

The temerity of the Commissioner in differing from the Attorney General in this matter was enlarged upon by Mr Moss, who said he had no sympathy whatever with pro-Chinamen or philo-Chinamen, and the person who encouraged John to say "welly ni calloty" was an object of detestation to the member for Ohinemuri. The figures he had quoted showed very clearly what was the cause of the invasion. It was the high falutin' that had been going on in the Government in the form of puffing and booming the country. Six years ago, if the Commissioner of Customs' figures were worth anything, the number of Chinamen in the colony must have been decreasing rapidly, but since it had become the practice to put into our State documents remarks about New Zealand being the paradise of the working man and God's own country, and there being plenty of work and high wages for every one, and all that kind of high falutin' talk, the invasion of Chinamen had set in. The fame of New Zealand, said Mr Moss, had reached China. He hoped the Minister for Customs would give them figures they would understand. Let him explain these discrepancies.

The House became anxious. Already infancy, members saw the Premier and the colony in the toils of the yellow peril, with the member for Ohinemuri jambing its tail with 390 head of Waihi stampers. For the moment the cheese coloured monster was very real to them. Then the Minister for Customs arose; and coldly repeated his previous statement; that during the past six years the number of Chinamen who had paid poll tax was 330; the total number who had returned after an absence from the colony was 232; making a total of 562. The Chinese who left the colony during the same period numbered 849, thus showing an excess of departures over arrivals of 287. Since the agitated Mr Moss' statements were made, the Minister had sent for an additional return from the department, and this return repeated the information given above, and also confirmed the Minister's statement that for the six months ended June 30, 1905, the departures of pig-tailed persons to Flowery Land had exceeded the arrivals by 15. When this explanation was made, the House breathed heavily with relief, and spoke reproachfully to Mr Moss, who was suspected of having the voucher concealed somewhere about his person. Also the peril retired in the distance and did not look so large as formerly.  -Ohinemuri Gazette, 9/10/1905.

The Chinese friends of Joe Kum Yung, whom Lionel Terry states that he shot in Haining Street, Wellington, on the 24th September, have shipped the body of deceased home to China in order that the usual religious rites may be celebrated.  -Fielding Star, 24/10/1905.

ANOTHER LIONEL TERRY.

An Auckland message states that on Saturday afternoon a somewhat sensational incident occured at Arch Hill, where a number of Chinese have gardens. The Chinamen state that a young fellow passing through the gardens with a dog and a gun tired and hit one of the Chinamen, but did not seriously injure him. The man returned in about half an hour, and, it is alleged, fired straight at two of the Chinamen who were working together. One was hit in the face with a couple of pellets, but not badly hurt; the other only being slightly grazed. The police are making investigations. -Evening Star, 6/11/1905.

SENTENCED TO DEATH. 

THE HAINING STREET TRAGEDY.  

LIONEL TERRY BEFORE THE COURT. 

PRISONER CONDUCTS HIS OWN CASE. 

PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 

VERDICT OF GUILTY. 

The Supreme Court was filled with spectators this morning when Lionel Terry appeared in the dock charged with the murder of a Chinaman, Joe Yung, in Haining street, on 24th September last. Crowds of people had assembled outside the Court buildings to see him as he was brought down from the Terrace Gaol, where he has been confined since he was committed for trial, but Mr. Garvey secured his admission by a less public route, and the curious were disappointed. 

His Honour the Chief Justice was on the Bench. 

Mr. H. D. Bell acted as Crown Prosecutor. 

Prisoner was not represented by counsel, and when asked whether he was guilty or not guilty, said "I object to the word guilty." 

What do you say? asked his Honour. 

Terry replied: I have nothing to say except that my action was right and justifiable. 

His Honour: That means not guilty. 

The following jury was empannelled: George Winder (foreman) Robt. Vincent, Fred Whitcombe, Francis Joseph Marshall, Alex. Wm. Ingram, Herbert Ross Dix, Wm. Freeman, Arthur John B Howe Win. Miller, Henry Charles, Lewis Goodger, George Douglas McEwen. The Crown challenged two jurors. 

CROWN PROSECUTOR OPENS. The Crown Prosecutor said the evidence would be brief, because of accused's admissions. The jury would be relieved of any difficulty as to whether accused committed the act. It might be a question might arise as to accused's responsibility for his act. Subject to his Honour's direction, he would tell the jury that according to our law every man is presumed to be sane and to be responsible for his acts. If accused desired to submit evidence that he was not so responsible, the Crown had brought to Wellington and had present in Court all persons that were known to the Crown who could give evidence on that point, and these persons were available for that purpose. But on behalf of the Crown he suggested to the jury that, apart from that question of presumption, accused was, according to the definition of the Criminal Code, responsible to the law for his act. The Crown could not possibly do more than provide for accused the opportunity, if he desired it, of calling evidence. He could not anticipate accused's defence. 

THE EVIDENCE. Chas. Wm. Harris, boardinghouse keeper, living in Taranaki place, stated that on the 24th September he was in Taranaki street about 7.35 p.m. He heard a report from the direction of Haining street, and saw a man in Haining street standing on the footpath. He half turned, and witness saw a flash and heard a second report. He saw no one else in the street at that time. The man walked towards Taranaki street, turned into it and walked on to Ingestre street. The man was rather tall, and wore a long light overcoat. The last witness saw of him was when he got into Ingestre street. Witness subsequently saw a Chinaman lying on the footpath in Haining street, about 20ft to 25ft from where he had seen the man standing. The Chinaman was taken into a house. 

Prisoner had no questions to ask of the witness. 

Constable Fitzgerald, stationed at Mount Cook, said that on the evening in question he saw a number of people in Haining street, and a Chinaman lying on the ground. There was a pool of blood under his head. The man was attended to by Dr. Martin, and then taken to the Hospital. 

Prisoner had again no questions to ask. 

CHINAMAN CROSS-EXAMINED. Joe Duck, a Chinese resident of Haining street, sworn with a match, deposed, through an interpreter, to seeing a man in a light overcoat firing in Haining street, and another man falling. The man who fired walked off. The man who fell was Joe Kum Yung. 

Accused had some questions for the witness. 

He asked: Was Joe Kum Yung taller than you? 

— Witness: Yes. Witness could not exactly say, but Joe was about 6ft. 

Ask him how tell he is himself ?

— Witness never measured his own size. 

Was the dead man taller than witness?

— Yes. 

How many men were there in the street when he heard the shot fired?

— Witness saw nobody except two. 

Were there any women in the street? 

— He could not say. 

Was Joe Kum Yung lying on his back or on his face? 

— He was lying in the gateway on his back. 

How many English feet were there in five Chinese feet? 

— Witness could not say. 

Dr. Ewart gave evidence that death was caused by injury to the brain caused by the bullet wound. 

A CHRISTIAN CHINAMAN. Ngan Ping, a Christian Chinaman, of Molesworth-street, who swore on the Bible, and spoke without the interpreter, repeated his evidence in the lower Court, principally concerning accused having come into No. 5, Haining street, on a Friday night when witness and some other Chinamen were playing for Chinese cash. Accused said they were gambling. Witness said they were not, and they could not spend the Chinese cash. Accused asked for their names. Witness refused to give his name. 

Accused: Are you a Christian? — Yes. 

You believe in the Bible — that the Bible is better for you than your own religion? — Witness's lips moved, but the reply was inaudible. 

Accused: Well, it doesn't matter. Can you read the Bible? — Only a few. 

On the Thursday night when I came into the room were you gambling? 

His Honour: He said Friday night. 

Accused: He made a mistake. (To witness): Were you gambling? — No. 

You were playing for money? — No.

That on the table was Chinese money? — Can't spend it here. 

If you played with English money in Chinese it would not be gambling? — Witness was understood to say "No." 

Accused : Oh ! . . . You are quite sure it was Friday night when I came in? —Yes. 

SURRENDER AND SELF-ACCUSATION. Constable W. B. Young, watchhouse keeper, and Inspector Ellison gave evidence as to accused's surrender and self-accusation. This evidence was exactly as in the lower Court. Accused gave up the revolver said, he had shot the Chinaman, said he had done it in order to call attention to the evil of alien immigration, and signed a written statement to that, effect. He also gave the Inspector in the watch-house two copies of his pamphlet "The Shadow." 

Accused had no questions to ask. 

Horace Clare Waterfield, Private Secretary to His Excellency the Governor, produced the letter (previously published) which His Excellency received through the post on the morning after Joe Kum Yung was shot. This letter, which is signed "Lionel Terry, British subject," purports to show that the writer, to mark his decision that the rights of Britons should be protected against alien immigration, had "deemed it necessary to put a Chinaman to death" that evening in the Chinese quarter known as Haining street. 

Accused asked that the letter be read. 

His Honour said the reason why it had not been read was that it had not been proved the signature was accused's. "You can admit it if you like," said his Honour. "Do you wish it read?" 

Accused: Yes. (Letter read.) Dr. Martin was cross-examined by accused as to the nature of the wound. This closed the case for the prosecution.  -EveningPost, 21/11/1905.

TERRY'S PLEA.

A CAREFULLY PREPARED STATEMENT. 

DENIES HE IS MAD. 

AN ACT OF DESPERATION. 

Accused called no evidence. Asked if he desired to give evidence on oath, he declined, stating that he had "nothing to give except a small statement — a short statement." 

The Crown Prosecutor did not address the jury. 

His Honour (to accused): You may address the jury now. Accused produced voluminous papers, and made a long statement setting forth his views. 

COMMENTARY ON EVIDENCE. "I have to acknowledge receipt of forms" — "with copy of depositions of the various witnesses in the case, entitled Rex v. Lionel Terry. "As I am not very conversant with legal procedure, I expect that the comments I consider it necessary to make in connection with the conduct of this case may be somewhat unusual. I shall, however, try to be as brief and as clear as possible. "Firstly, regarding the title Rex v. Lionel Terry, which, I opine, being interpreted from a dead language, means The King against Lionel Terry. I wish to express my strong objection to His Majesty being placed in the position of a protector of unnaturalised race aliens in British possessions.

"Secondly, I am surprised that such a number of Asiatic witnesses and officials are employed in this case. The vast difference which exists between European and Asiatic veracity has evidently not yet been realised by the people of this country. The evidence given by the Chinese witnesses, especially that of Ngan Ping, the Christian, is distinctly Asiatic in quality. 

"Thirdly, I do suspect the Chinese interpreter, Dong Hong, of being more shrewd than honest. 

"Fourthly — "(Terry here referred in disparaging terms to the Grown Prosecutor in the previous proceedings.) 

"Fifthly, I wish to say that I do not feel highly complimented that these lengthy proceedings should have been deemed necessary in order to test the truthfulness of my statement. However, I am pleased to observe that, in spite of the failure of the yellow element to strengthen the charge, the bulk of the evidence sufficiently indicates my veracity. 

"Sixthly, there are a few rather important particulars which should, under ordinary circumstances, have been elucidated. As the knowledge of them, however, rests with myself, and as they would probably upset the evidence against me, I shall, under the peculiar circumstances of this case, consider the evidence to be complete as it stands. Lastly, although in any other case I should decline to reply to a charge in which so many aliens were concerned — as I have brought this charge against myself for the purpose of protesting against this very evil — I shall conclude this short commentary by confirming my statement made to Police Inspector Ellison on the 25th September, and my letter to His Excellency the Governor dated the 24th September, and trusting that there exists no doubt in the minds of those whose duty it is to weigh the evidence as to the conclusiveness of the same, I will proceed with my statement in reply to the charge." 

THE STATEMENT. In making this statement, I desire first of all to express my regret that the drastic measure I adopted in order to attract attention to the evils consequent upon alien immigration has been regarded by some as the result of mental aberration. It was suggested by the Coroner at the inquest proceedings that I was the victim of an insane delusion, and it has subsequently been rumoured that my intellect has been impaired by sunstroke. Although freely admitting that such rumours are to a certain extent excusable in view of the extraordinary nature of the case, more especially as the danger of Asiatic invasion appears to be little appreciated by the people of New Zealand, and although I believe that such rumours have in some instances emanated from those who were inspired by friendly motives towards myself, it is obvious that should they obtain general belief the reforms which I am endeavouring to establish may be seriously delayed. I wish, therefore, to deny all such rumours or statements and to declare that I have never suffered from sunstroke or any other mental ailment. 

It may perhaps be necessary, in order that my action may not be popularly supposed to be the brutal and callous murder which some newspapers may have described it, to state that I bore no enmity against the deceased, but, on the contrary, I sincerely pity all those poor people whose presence in this country is partly the result of a vicious slave system existing in China and partly due to the criminal carelessness of New Zealand legislators. It is for the equal benefit of both races that this disgraceful traffic should cease, and the sooner the New Zealand Government abandoned the mad policy, which has cursed other parts of the world with the deepest depths of human depravity, and ships its aliens to England, or Sooth Africa, or some other country, where they would be welcomed, the sooner will New Zealand be a fit country for white settlement. 

My action was the result of careful deliberation, and was impelled by merciful considerations for all concerned. 

In choosing as an example an old and crippled man, I realised that my purpose would be accomplished without the sacrifice of one whose existence was other than a painful burden. By thus quenching a flame which was already flickering towards extinction, I have not only conferred a merciful deliverance upon a world-weary man, but have also benefited those amongst whom he was living and the country generally. The dead, in fact, belongs to a higher phase of enlightenment than civilisation has yet attained. 

Several years of careful study in various parts of the world have convinced me that the necessity for the complete and absolute separation of the races is imperative, and that the danger which threatens this colony in common with other British possessions in consequence of the prevailing ignorance of this fact is a very grave danger. My convictions upon the subject are fixed and unalterable, and during the four years I have resided in this country I have endeavoured by every means in my power to arouse the people from the state of callous indifference into which they have fallen. My efforts have included writing to the press, interviewing those holding responsible or influential positions, and publishing pamphlets for free distribution throughout the British possessions. 

Contemporaneously with my work events in various parts of the world have combined to so enhance the importance of the subject that at the present time, unless prompt and vigorous measures be adopted for dealing with it, the position of the Australasian colonies will be hopeless. 

Yet in spite of warnings from every part of the world, and in spite of the fact that upwards of 100,000 people in this country are dependent upon the Asiatic alien for staple food products, not only has no definite action been taken by the Government in the matter, but also many of the newspapers of the colony are calmly informing their readers that the yellow peril is but the offspring of a vivid imagination. Under such circumstances, I decided with a view to forcing the matter to an issue to adopt stronger methods of making my resolution understood. I hold the opinion that when people have sunk to such a state of blind incompetency as not to realise that their country is invaded when the enemy is actually tampering with their food supplies, polluting the source from which the country derives its strength, and weakening the natural conditions of the population by upwards of 2000 people per year, when, in short, the life of the country is at stake, drastic measures are imperatively necessary, and that the time has come when the position of a British subject in a British colony should be clearly defined. 

This, therefore, is the object of my action. I am here to-day for the purpose of declaring that I will never recognise any law which seeks to protect people of alien race in British countries, and in taking the life of this Chinaman I challenge the alleged law of this country to prove its existence. And this I have done in full view of the possible consequences which I am prepared to accept. I am charged with the murder of one Joe Kum Yung, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided. I reply that I did murder one Chinaman, presumably Joe Kum Yung, and that such murder was committed for the purpose of testing the stability of the law relating to the protection of aliens. 

For the purpose of making my contention clear I have embodied it in the three I following rules: 

— (1) That whereas the British law is the law of a nation constituting a portion of the white race, and whereas the laws of all races are moulded according to the different characteristics of their respective nationalities, all of which vary materially one from another, therefore, inasmuch as it is naturally impossible for the people of two distinct races to possess the same characteristics, so therefore it must be equally impossible for the laws of the people of one race to beneficially control and govern those of another. 

(2) And as the laws of a nation representing a portion of one race cannot be applied to people forming a portion of another race, therefore it must necessarily be unlawful for people of two or more distinct races to dwell together in the same country. 

(3) Therefore there can be no law which accords protection to or in any way recognises the presence of or refers to unnaturalised race aliens in British, possessions, and my reply to the charge that I killed this alien contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided is that the Chinaman, being a race-alien, was not a man within the meaning of the form of the statute in such case made and provided. 

NO HALF MEASURES. In concluding my statement I wish to express the hope that the decision of this case may not take the form of a half measure; such methods of dealing with important cases are cowardly, and are usually productive of infinitely more harm than good. If I am held to be right, I claim my freedom; if I am held to be wrong, I shall have failed in my purpose, and I demand the full penalty of the alleged law. Any effort to evade responsibility under the pretence of dealing leniently with me or for any other reason whatever shall be proof that the law is an unjust and iniquitous law, inasmuch as it cannot be put into execution." 

HIS HONOUR'S SUMMING UP. His Honour, in summing up, said the evidence and accused's admissions showed that accused did commit the crime with which he was charged. Accused had said in his statement to the jury that murder, which the law said was one of the greatest crimes known to the law, was not a crime towards a Chinaman. But that was not so. The law applied to every human being in New Zealand, whether a Maori, a Chinaman, or of any other race. The only question that might be raised was whether accused knew the nature and quality of the act with which he was charged. The law provided that if a person knowingly and intentionally killed another, he must be found guilty of that offence. It might have been suggested that accused did not know what he was about, and suffered from some aberration. There was no evidence before them that accused did not know the nature and the quality of the act. No doubt it was painful to the jury, and to all concerned who came here in performance of a public duty. There was no doubt about the facts of the case, and there was no justification and no excuse. Therefore it was not necessary that he should say more. The evidence arid accused's admissions showed that he did kill and murder this Chinaman, and that being so, the jury's duty was in accord with their conscience to find a verdict. If the jury added to their verdict any recommendation His Honour would convey it to the proper authority with whom — and not with His Honour or the jury — rested the responsibility of carrying out the law. 

THE VERDICT. The jury retired at seven minutes to 1 p.m., and returned at 1.25 p.m. with a verdict of: 

"Guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy on the ground that prisoner was not responsible for his actions, as he was suffering, mentally from a craze caused by his intense hatred towards the mixing of British and alien races." 

SENTENCED TO DEATH. His Honour: Lionel Terry, you have been found guilty of the crime of murder. Have you anything to say why sentence of death should not be passed on you? 

Prisoner: No, except to repeat what I said formerly, that my action was a right and a justifiable action. The Court crier then called for silence pending the death sentence. 

His Honour: Lionel Terry, it is not necessary for me to say anything to you in the position in which you are placed. It Is my duty to forward the recommendation of the jury to his Excellency the Governor and his advisers, as the responsibility rests on them with regard to the sentence which the law says I must now pronounce upon you. (Assumes the black cap.) The sentence of the Court is that you be taken from here to His Majestys Prison, Wellington, and from there to the place of execution, and that you be there hanged by the neck until you be dead." Prisoner tightly compressed his lips, but retained his colour, and walked down the steps with erect figure and firm tread.  -Evening Post, 21/11/1905.

in which Lionel Terry gets away with murder

LIONEL TERRY

COMMUTATION OF THE DEATH SENTENCE.

Cabinet has commuted the death sentence passed on Lionel Terry for having murdered Joe Kum Yung, a Chinaman, in Haining street, Wellington. When Terry was found guilty of murder by the Supreme Court jury last week a rider was added to the verdict recommending Terry to mercy on the grounds that he was not responsible for his actions. The view taken by the jury met with general endorsement from the public, and although petitions praying for a reprieve were not circulated until Friday last they already bear many hundreds of signatures. There will be no need to present the petitions, for the Government, having regard to the recommendation of the jury, and further influenced by reports received from England concerning Terry's condition of mind and thought and circumstances tending to give bias to his mental outlook, has resolved to have the necessary steps taken for the sentence to be commuted to imprisonment for life. Edwin Arnold, J.P., visiting justice at the Terrace Prison, visited Terry yesterday, and found him in first-rate spirits and health.  -Evening Post, 27/11/1905.

in which "John Chinaman" finds a voice in his defence

A WORD FOR JOHN CHINAMAN. TO THIS EDITOR.

Sir, — In his appeals to the electors of Wellington North, Mr. Izard chose to make a very strong plank of his opposition to "Asiatic immigration" — virtually his subscription to the creed of Lionel Terry. Now, as this appeal may have been a factor in Mr. Izard's success at the poll, might I be permitted to say a few words on behalf of poor despised "John?" Does Mr. Izard consider that among the whole Chinese nation there may be possibly one intellect which would compare favourably with his own, one who may have feelings as susceptible as his own, which might be grounded by this contempt for the "yellow race?" For whence does this contempt arise? It is hardly to be expected that John's idea of toil would find favour with those to whom we are indebted for our multitudinous and harassing labour laws, the majority of whom are not worthy to tie the lace of the boot of the honest plodder, who, by his unceasing labour (and lack of talk) has done so much to bring vegetables within the reach of all in most of the larger towns of New Zealand. 

Why does the Chinaman almost invariably make a success of his shop? Because, although 'tis not in mortals to command success, he does his best to deserve it. That his ideas of thrift should find acceptance is hardly to be expected in an age which might, as far as New Zealand is concerned, be aptly described as the "triumph of snobbery." Some years ago there was a great outcry in Sydney over the number of white women who were married to Chinamen in that city, whereupon an energetic representative of one of the leading papers set out to investigate, only to elicit from those wives that as Husband John was decidedly more satisfactory and domesticated than his superior — the white working man. 

In his play "The Octoroon," Dion Boucieault makes one of his most pathetic scenes out of the heroine's sensitive reminder to her white lover of the black blood that flows in her veins; and has not Harriet Beecher Stowe immortalised herself by that wonderful appeal — "Uncle Tom's Cabin" — on behalf of the poor down-trodden black of the United States? No Englishman with good old-fashioned ideas of British fair play could read that book without having his innermost feelings stirred, and no doubt it dis a great deal to alleviate the condition of the poor negro; but what is his position in Democratic America to-day? Do you think he would be chosen to represent white blood in Congress? It seems to me that there are as great degrees of good and bad in these black and .yellow races as in the white, and it is extremely problematical whether the despised yellow immigrant, with his heavy poll-tax, is not just about as desirable as a great many of those whites, who arrive in the steerage of every steamer from Australia, who have the great redeeming virtue of helping to swell the number of votes which keep the party to which Mr. Izard has chosen to ally himself in power.

— I am, etc. "FAIR PLAY." Palmerston North, December 7th, 1905.  -Evening Post.

in which Terry's madness or badness is discussed

WHERE IS LIONEL TERRY? 

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — When we take into calm consideration all the surroundings of the extraordinary Terry case, the physical and intellectual parts of somewhat unusual strength and development, added to by the advantages of education and travel, we must one and all come to the conclusion that the offender in this case, against the law for life protection, must be labouring either under some acute or chronic disturbance of his mental functions, probably, as pointed out by the jury in his trial, due to too long continued concentration along one line of thought, the starting point being founded on highly creditable motives, the sequel, though startling, only to be expected from a nature too intense and too persistent. In change of ideas, safety to most people's balance is to be found, and in long continued concentration, no matter how noble the ideal, there is always danger of both will and reason being overbalanced; such danger being all the more imminent in proportion to the intensity and persistency of concentrated powers. 

Now, Sir, the main purpose of my headline is to enable me to draw the attention of the people of this colony to my plea that, in many criminal cases, more particularly in such cases as the one this letter is dealing with, we should not regard the offenders as beasts of prey, to be confined and punished, but, whilst legislating for the protection of society, should remember that reform, and not revenge, is the end that should be kept in view by a Christian and civilised race, that has some right to take pride in its intellectual and moral progress. Doing as I suggest will add to that right, to its humanity, and to its dignity. To hang a man up, in my opinion, is for society to prove that it still hangs on to the animal tendencies that swayed men in the Dark Ages. To bury a man within four walls for twenty years, for either revenge or for checking purposes, is as foolish as to think that the presence of lunatics in an asylum, or chronic invalids in an hospital, will keep all outsiders straight in the paths of temperance and moderation in all things in which excess might endanger society or health. 

The time is ripe for prison reform, and legislation connected therewith. That reform might advisedly take two directions. 1. Shifting all penal establishments into the country. 2. Grading criminals into standards, according to their physical, mental, and moral calibre. That Terry is in prison, under punishment, is in the wrong locality, I am persuaded. That Terry, in a private asylum, in the country, would be in the right place, I am also persuaded. And it is not singular to me to find that Chinamen I have spoken to on the subject significantly tap their heads. — I am, etc, C. De C. WILLIAMS. Wellington, December, 1905.  -Evening Post.

in which Terry's family is appraised of his situation and the people of New Zealand are appraised of his early history

ADVERTISEMENT BY MURDER

CAREER OF LIONEL TERRY. 

 (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. November 17. On Saturday last the following advertisement appeared in the columns of The Times: — Messrs Terry and Co., estate agents and mortgage brokers, of 29 Glasshouse street, W., hereby give notice that they have this day admitted into partnership Mr Cecil Frank Terry, in consequence of the termination of the partnership as regards Mr Edward Lionel Terry by effluxion of time. 

"Few of the many people who saw the above advertisement in Saturday's Times could have guessed," says a London paper, "that the Edward Lionel Terry mentioned in it was the young author who is  now awaiting his trial in New Zealand on a charge of shooting an aged Chinaman in order to advertise a book. Yet it is so. The fine-looking young man who walked into Wellington Police Station a few weeks ago and confessed that he had murdered a Chinaman so that the yellow peril, referred to in his book, 'The Shadow.' might receive greater attention, is the son of a West End house agent. His father, who is descended from a French refugee named Edouard Thiery, who landed on the coast of Kent during the Revolution, declares that he has in his veins the blood of the great Napoleon. 'Sir Hubert Jernyngham was among those who have remarked upon my likeness to Napoleon,' Mr Terry told a Daily Mirror representative on Saturday, 'and now the inflexible will of the conqueror of Europe has been reproduced in my son. I never knew him to turn aside from any course he started upon. Popular as he was no one could bend or break his will. He would have his own way.' 

The following account of his career is given:— "The man who dared to risk his life in calling attention to the yellow peril was born at Sandwich, where his father was engaged in the attempt to introduce into England such farming industries as the growing of the sugar beet and the flax plant. After enlisting on his side such men as Lord Granville, however, Mr Terry relinquished his schemes in disgust, and came to London and took up his residence in Great Portland street. His son Lionel, one of 11 children, was sent to school at Merton College. Wimbledon, where, under M. de Chastelaine, he became a boy who, to use his father's words, 'could do anything.' At 17 he entered the City offices of the West Indian Gold Mining Company, in order that he might learn business methods and join his father, who had opened an estate agency in Pall Mall. But the love of an active life was in him and at 21 he enlisted in a line regiment without his father's knowledge. He was afterwards transferred into the Blues where he increased his great popularity by the use of the considerable artistic powers with which he was endowed. Defying the rules, he covered the walls of the Windsor barrack room with drawings. The chaplain of the regiment, indeed, was so pleased with a caricature of himself that he cut out the plaster on which it was drawn and had it framed. Lionel Terry had done two or three years of soldiering when his father bought him out, took him into partnership, and tried to induce him to settle down to business."

But the blood of the rover in his veins. 'I can't stay in London, father,' he said 'I can't breathe here.' So it was that 10 years ago, he went to South Africa, joined the Mounted Police, and served in the Matabele war. During this time he managed to take part in 15 engagements, get wounded twice and make an intimate friend of Cecil Rhodes, who thought very highly of him. Then he returned to London, and tried once more to settle down to the humdrum life of the City. For two years he wore a tall hat, but then he threw it away, and went roving again. Germany was first visited, but he soon sailed for Dominica, where he spent weeks in exploring the almost unknown interior. He then presented the island with a large map of the unknown region, and was offered a medal as an acknowledgement of official thanks. 'I am not collecting such silly bawbles at present,' he wrote to his father. New York, Honolulu, and British Columbia were then visited. In the latter place he became secretary of the Miners' Protection Union, and first showed his anti Chinaman bias. In a letter to the Namamo Free Press in January, 1901, he declared that the lack of employment was due to the  unscrupulous actions and inordinate greed of the Premier of British Columbia, who would conceal neath his much vaunted anti-Mongolian mask a despicable scheme to force, by means of poverty and starvation, the men on whom future generations of Canada depended, to accept Chinamen's wages. Then he went to Australia and New Zealand, where the rest of his history is already known.  -Otago Witness, 3/1/1906.

Says the "Leeds Mercury": — "Some years ago Lionel Terry mortally offended an aunt of his by one of his pranks, and the good lady vowed never to speak to him again. He was equally determined that she should. Accordingly, he dressed himself up as a poor woman, and walked, pursued by the criticisms of a crowd, which had never seen a woman of such dimensions, before, to his aunt's house, in London. He rang the bell, and asked the servant to say that a woman in very reduced circumstances desired to see the lady of the house. When he was shown in, he burst out laughing, and the aunt, divided between amusement and surprise, was obliged to forgive him after all. -Free Lance, 13/1/1906.

AMERICAN JOURNALISM AND LIONEL TERRY.

A typical instance of the picturesque but unreliable style of American journalism is contained in the latest papers to hand by the San Francisco mail. After drawing a very harrowing picture of the way. in which Miss Edith Allenby, a young Englishwoman, committed suicide, thinking that was the best way to increase the sale of her book, “The Fulfilment,” the San Francisco Examiner gives a very lurid description of the shooting of a Chinaman in Wellington by Lionel Terry. The journal says “And in the moment that the weeping sisters looked down upon the dead body of the woman who had died, for her belief in her work, Lionel Terry, his face transfigured by a demoniacal rage, stood over the body of a prostrate old Chinaman, in the Market Square at Wellington, eighteen thousand miles away. Hard, indeed, would it have been for his old brother officers in the Horse Guards Blue to have recognised in the trembling, shaking, wild-looking creature with bloodshot eyes, the dapper, exquisitely-dressed dandy of Pall Mall and the Parks fifteen years ago. Stranger, indeed, to have seen in him the brave soldier, who, even when ruin, born of the Turf, the Gaiety girl, and the gambling club had fallen on him, yet he had won his D.S.O. in the war against the Matabeles. In his right hand he held the smoking revolver with which he had discharged five bullets into the body of the man dying at his feet. In his left hand he held a copy of his anti-Chinese novel, 'The Shadow.’ Settled in New Zealand, one of the long tribe of English exiles, cast-offs from the army, he had furiously opposed the admission of the Chinese into the colony. His hatred of the Chinese grew into frenzy, which could find vent only in ‘The Shadow,’ ostensibly a work of fiction but in reality a continuation of his street corner arguments. A hundred hands grasped him as the shots cracked in the air. He turned, and with a cynical smile said, ‘You need not take the trouble to hold me. I have had the purpose of being arrested in what I have done. I have killed this Chinaman to save the labouring man of my race. I shall be hanged, of course, but I venture to think that ‘The Shadow’ will have the largest sale on record. This is the real motive of my act.’ Miss Allonby’s act of self-abnegation for a sincere belief and Lionel Terry’s act of self-glorification have met the inevitable response for ‘The Fulfilment' and ‘The Shadow’ are selling in thousands.”  -Waikato Independant, 8/2/1906.

MORE OR LESS PERSONAL

Lionel Terry, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Chinaman, has been transferred to the Lyttelton Gaol. He arrived from Wellington, in charge of a warder, by the S. S. Rotomahana on Wednesday. He was attired in ordinary civilian clothing, and appeared composed, not to say indifferent, in manner.  -Marlborough Express, 24/2/1906.

in which Terry, en route to Lyttelton jail, sends a message to the public

MESSAGE FROM LIONEL TERRY.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington. Monday. A gentleman who travelled from Wellington to Lyttelton by the Rotomahana on Saturday night noticed a small piece of paper carefully folded, which had been placed between the ceiling of his cabin and a water-pipe. Moved by curiosity, he took the paper down, and on opening it found the following message, written in pencil: — "I occupied this cabin on my way to Lyttelton Gaol from Wellington, not in very good health, owing to having been kept in solitary confinement in Wellington for nearly six mouths with very little exercise. I suspect an attempt to impair my mental faculties in order to form an excuse for placing me in a lunatic asylum. — (Signed) Lionel Terry."  -NZ Herald, 27/2/1906.

in which Alexander Don, missionary to the Chinese, voices their opinions

WHAT THE CHINESE SAY.

TO THE EDITOR. 

Sir — During three recent months I was travelling among the Chinese of Otago and Southland. I heard a great many questions put and opinions expressed about the result of three Supreme Court trials last November...

 ...II. Lionel Terry, to accentuate his warning that the presence of an alien race imperils our own, and to compel the Government to act, deliberately, in broad daylight, shot an old Chinaman. He gave himself up, pleaded guilty, averred his sanity, and asked to be either hanged or acquitted. He was condemned to die, a petition prayed for  remission of the death penalty on the ground of insanity. The Executive considered the case, and Terry was sentenced imprisonment for life. 

1. "Supposing a Chinese had deliberately shot a European at Shanghai, would not all the English newspapers throughout China, have demanded vengeance? The notion of insanity would have surely been scouted as ridiculous." 

2. "If Terry is sane he ought to be executed; if insane, he should be put into a madhouse." 

3. "How long does 'for life' mean? We have heard that he may be released in five or 10 years; and then will he be free to murder another of us, to further emphasise his belief?" 

I may mention, in answer to this, that I have a reply from the Minister of Justice thus: I regret, that I am unable to give you a definite reply to your question as to Terry. He is at present, undergoing his sentence of imprisonment for life, and no circumstances have arisen to warrant the supposition that he will have any opportunity of repeating his crime..."

I am, etc, Alex. Don     February 26, 1906.  -Otago Daily Times, 2/3/1906.

in which Terry is adjudged "mad" rather than "bad"

TERRY REMOVED TO AN ASYLUM.

EXAMINED BY MAGISTRATE AND TWO DOCTORS. 

[BY TELEGRAPH. — OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHRISTCHURCH, Saturday. Lionel Terry, the murderer of a Chinaman in Wellington, has been transferred from Lyttelton gaol to Sunnyside Asylum. For some time, it is understood, he has been under the delusion that people, whether Chinamen or not, who were no longer of any use to the world, should be put to death, and has expressed an opinion that there should be lethal chambers in which useless folk could quietly end their mortal existence. It was only a few days ago that Terry arrived at Lyttelton from Wellington, and he then appeared to be very self-contained, but he seems to have soon given evidence of the disposition which induced him to shoot a Chinaman. Mr. H. W. Bishop, S.M., received notice from the gaol surgeon that Terry was insane, and the magistrate, with Dr. Upham and Dr. Newell, examined the prisoner. The result of the investigation was that he issued a warrant for Terry's removal to the Sunnyside Mental Hospital.  -NZ Herald, 5/3/1906.

in which Terry's inspiration is folllowed by divers citizens in differing media

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chinese apparently find business "all li" in New Plymouth, if the increasing attention the race is devoting to the town may be accepted as a criterion. Time was, not so very long ago, when the Chinaman was almost a rarity here; now he is a very considerable quantity, and for the most part in business. Within the past month no less than three separate Chinese signs have appeared over new fruit and grocery shops in town. These have evidently got on the nerves of at least one New Zealand patriot, whose protest yesterday disfigured the windows of two at least of these shops. Traced with a heavy tar brush the inscription ran: — "The Yellow Peril. God bless Lionel Terry."  -Tarankai Daily News, 26/3/1906.

WISE AND OTHERWISE

(by "Old Salt")

A Chinese resident of Melbourne who deported his two children to the Flowery Land indignantly denied that he had sold them into slavery. He said that he had sent them home to be "properly educated," as he did not wish them to grow up "Austlalian lallakins"! Oh, John, why did you not let us know? We have no larrikins here, street fighting is unknown, and poor Lionel Terry is safe under lock and key. In the sublime words of Confucius — "wha for?" The Chinese wish, too, apparently, to act as censors of music as well as of manners and methods. At a concert given in Thursday Island a number of them walked out when was rendered that charming little/pastoral, "Chin, Chin. Chinaman!" considering it to have been intended as a deliberate insult. This maybe the explanation, but I have a better and more probable one, so will proceed to facts. Celestials are notoriously fond of dogs (shoulder for you, or leg?), most of my men readers have been out between the acts to see a man about a dog. Then, while looking upon the ruby wine, have murmured the incantation, "Chin Chin, old man." Well - inconsistent as it seems - it was a band of hope concert, the invitation or incantation was addressed to the audience at large. But there, surely enough said. The trouble really appears to have been that the Chinamen did not come back. That, however, is probably accounted for by their fondness for dogs.  -Auckland Star, 28/3/1906.

A Chinese fruiterer in this town has received a typewritten letter warning him and his compatriots to leave New Plymouth before June 14, under certain pains and penalties. The writer disclaims any intention to follow the example of  Lionel Terry, but advises the Chinese to clear| out. This is an exceedingly stupid joke, which may get its author into trouble. The Chinese in New Plymouth are law-abiding citizens, who are entitled to and no doubt will receive the protection of the police, in whose hands the matter has been placed. New Zealand admits Chinese to the colony, taking their money by way of polltax and as long as long as that is so and the Chinese behave themselves, they have as much right here as the white man. Whether they are desirable colonists is another matter' which does not enter into the question at present.  -Taranaki Herald, 1/6/1906.

in which Terry makes his first bid for freedom

LIONEL TERRY.

ESCAPES FROM SUNNYSIDE

NO TRACE OF HIS WHEREABOUTS. 

By Telegraph—Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, September 23. Lionel Terry, who had been sentenced to death for the murder of a Chinaman in Wellington, in October, 1905, but who was deemed to be insane, and removed to the Sunnyside Asylum, near Christchurch, escaped from that institution between seven and eight o'clock last night. Terry had been working about the Asylum grounds as usual during the day, and was with the other inmates when they were assembled in the building for tea. When the inmates were about to be locked in their cells Terry was missing and has not been discovered since. All the windows were fastened, and all the doors were locked at the time of the escape, and it is supposed he either had a key to one of the doors or that his escape had been arranged for by his friends.  -Wairarapa Age, 24/9/1906.

TERRY RECAPTURED.

SENT BACK TO THE ASYLUM. 

AN EXCITING ENCOUNTER. 

By Telegraph. — Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Lionel Terry, who escaped from the Sunnyside Mental Hospital on Saturday, was captured at Sheffield last night, after a severe struggle with Constable Dillon and two residents who had gone to the constable's assistance. 

A man answering Terry's description had passed through West Melton, about 115 miles from Christchurch, on Tuesday. The escapee, who was evidently making his way to the West Coast, entered Sheffield, 35 miles from Christchurch, yesterday afternoon quite openly, and was immediately recognised by the inhabitants as answering the description of the missing man. Terry remained about the township for some time, talking to several people, and practically disclosed his identity by discussing the racial problem. 

Constable Dillon, who has charge of the district, and whose head-quarters are at Annat, some two or three miles from Sheffield, was advised as to the presence of the suspect in the latter township, and hastened to Sheffield. He recognised the man as Terry, and immediately set about effecting his capture. Terry resisted violently, and with his strength and height, proved more than a match for the constable. Help was afforded by the local innkeeper and station master. They went to the assistance of the constable, and the efforts of the three men overpowered the prisoner. After a desperate struggle Terry was handcuffed and secured. He was then taken to the lock-up at Annat, where he remained for the night. He was sent back to Sunnyside this morning. 

CHRISTCHURCH. this day. Lionel Terry was brought to Christchurch to-day. He says he prefers gaol to a madhouse. He had no money with him when he escaped. He denies that he had any assistance. Hunger drove him to the Springfield Hotel, whore he hoped someone would take pity on him and give him a dinner. -Auckland Star, 26/9/1906.

REX v. LIONEL TERRY. 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GOVERNMENT.

If Lionel Terry's recent flight from Sunnyside was not evidence enough that life at the Mental Hospital has palled on him, sufficient is given by a letter which he wrote to the Premier on 14th August, under the heading "Rex v. Lionel Terry."  "On September last," he writes, I killed a Chinaman in Haining street, Wellington. This action was undertaken by me for the purpose of challenging by practical test the law relating to the presence of race aliens in this country, which law I hold to be inimical to the health, safety, and general welfare of its white inhabitants, and contrary to the British Constitution." He goes on to say that he did not attempt to plead for his life, and announced his refusal to accept a commutation of his death sentence to penal servitude for life. He informed the Minister of Justice that "only a direct issue would adequately meet the case, and he "received, indirectly, an unsatisfactory and evasive reply" Subsequently he laid the matter, in writing, before the late Premier, and was "led to believe by the late Governor of Wellington Gaol that the case was under the consideration of the Government." Then came the transfer to Lyttelton, and ultimately to Sunnyside, a proceeding which Terry describes as "a disgraceful and cowardly subterfuge." Plainly, he wants the Government to recognise that while in full possession of  his mental faculties he killed a Chinaman, and he wants the issue thoroughly threshed out, not with a view to condoning his deed, but traversing the whole principle of yellow immigration. 

"I trust," he states, "you will respect the following statements: — If the laws of a country are designed for the benefit of its people, as they should be, there should be no hesitation on the part of the Government in administering them. The failure to execute a law is certain proof that it is imperfect, or unjust, and it must inevitably be regarded with contempt by the people as a natural consequence. The law admitting race aliens into this colony is either a just and beneficial law, or an unjust and injurious law. If it be held to be just, I hereby exercise my right as a British subject in demanding that it shall be executed in accordance with the sentence passed upon me at my trial. If it be held to be unjust, then by the same right I demand its abolition and my own freedom. If, however, I, as a British subject, am refused my right to justice, then I, on my part, must refuse to remain a British subject, since I cannot even pretend to respect a nation which withholds justice from its people, nor is it reasonable or natural that I should." Terry adds the following note: — "A man should be tried by his intellectual peers. I was not, and, therefore, I did not feel it incumbent upon me to reveal the knowledge I have gathered regarding this subject, most especially as, in the opinion of ignorant men, such a course might have been considered an attempt on my part to palliate my supposed crime. This knowledge, in spite of its vital importance, I intend to retain until approached by those whose bounden duty it is to be acquainted with it, in the respectful manner becoming to those who seek guidance." 

Sir Joseph Ward, in a letter dated 20th August, briefly replied, that the matter was one under the control of the Hon. J. McGowan, Minister for Justice, to whom Mr. Terry's communication had been referred.  -Evening Post, 28/9/1906.

LIONEL TERRY.

DETAILS OF HIS RECAPTURE.

(By Wire — From Our Christchurch Correspondents) It now transpires that Lionel Terry had no friends to keep him in hiding. He tramped away on his own and was evidently making for the West Coast. A man driving a trap gave him a lift for a number of miles, but he was unaware of the identity. of his passenger, who seemed to revel in telling yarns about fighting. The escapee had forded the Waimakariri river up to his armpits and he says that had it not been for some pieces of wood he would have been drowned. Why he didn't swim across Terry doesn't vouchsafe to say. However he took cover in some scrub on the other side, dried his matches, lit a fire and then dried his clothes. He got a feed at a farm house and he wouldn't have entered Sheffield so boldly but for hunger. He arrived there in the afternoon and chatted affably to a number of people, who soon recognised him, owing to the description published in the papers. Terry couldn't 

KEEP HIS CLAPPER QUIET about the race problem and then suspicion as to his identity resolved itself into certainty. He walked into the smoking room of Maher's hotel, but didn't like to enter the dining room, as he had no cash. He thought that somebody might ask him into dinner and that was why he stopped in the smoking room. The stationmaster, Truman, had in the meantime sent a message to Constable Dillon at Annat (there's no policeman at Sheffield) and on the constable arriving at the hotel he entered into conversation with Terry about farming and one thing and another. Then, being sure of his man, he went out to get assistance, for Terry's massive frame looked too strong for him to tackle single-handed. Terry followed him out into the passage, however, and, being fearful lest he should get away, Dillon at once charged him with having escaped from Sunnyside. Terry denied this and protested against being interfered with, but 

THE PEELER TACKLED HIM. Terry was too good for the cop, though, and it was not until Maher and Truman lent a hand that he was handcuffed; then he was quite tractable and gave no further trouble. He is now lodged at Sunnyside again, but will be kept under stricter surveillance. Terry hates the lunatic asylum, preferring to be in gaol. He says the madhouse is no place for him. There is nobody to talk to and patients spit on his food and pick it up and strike him in the face with it. He had not blucher boots on when arrested, but his own shoes, however he managed to get them. He refuses to give any information as to how he escaped, but admits that he received assistance, but none of the warders were implicated.  NZ Truth, 29/9/1906.

LIONEL TERRY.

HE IS AGAIN AT LARGE.

Per Press Association. Christchurch, Sept, 30. Lionel Terry, who escaped from the Sunnyside Mental Hospital on Saturday night last, and was captured on the following Tuesday, and returned to the institution, escaped again last night. He went to bed at 9 o'clock, and was locked up in the ordinary way. At half-past, nine it was discovered he had broken down the shutters of his window, forced open the window, and let himself down to the ground, a distance of twenty feet, by means of a rope made out of his bedclothes. As far. as is known he has no clothes on except his night garments.  

Shortly after mid-day to-day the police were informed from Kaiapoi that a man dressed in white trousers and shirt, and supposed to be a lunatic, had been seen the Waimakariri Riverbed, and it is supposed that this is the missing man. A strong force of constables and detectives was sent out from Christchurch and Kaiapoi with the object of recapturing Terry.  -Taranaki Herald, 1/10/1906.

Re-captured Yesterday.

His Escape a Protest. 

(Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. Lionel Terry was re-captured at Ohoka, up the North line, on Sunday afternoon by two constables. He was brought to town this morning. 

He says he had no thought of making a permanent escape, and realised that re-capture was only a question of a day or two at most. Whilst hoping to be as long free as possible, he was not sanguine of evading his pursuers for any length of time. He persists in characterising escape as a protest against the system of which he disapproves. 

Terry declares it is his intention to make the same protest whenever an opportunity offers. He will, in fact, escape from custody again on the very first chance he gets. He realises thoroughly the hopelessness of attempting to get, any distance away, but he is quite satisfied to get an occasional airing if the fates are fortuitous. 

He regards an escape as the only possible protest for an inmate of a mental hospital and incarceration in such an institution worries him very much. He considers his committal to the asylum is neither an excuse nor justification, and is persistent in asking for an inquiry into his own case and into the legislation which permits such a state of things. 

He made his escape clad only in a shirt, but had planted other clothes in the asylum grounds. He walked all night through a bitter sou'-wester and succeeded in getting additional clothes and food from a farmhouse. 

He states he would not kill another Chinaman if he were set free, killing one being as sufficient a protest as killing fifty would be.  -Manawatu Standard, 1/10/1906.

LIONEL TERRY'S RE-CAPTURE.

(BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Christchurch, Last Night. 

Terry, who escaped a second time from the Sunnyside Asylum on Saturday night last, was re-captured on Sunday afternoon. A howling sou’-wester, accompanied by heavy squalls of rain, was blowing, and this assisted him in his adventure. Though he got away in his shirt only, he had managed to plant a pair of asylum trousers and a pair of boots in the grounds of the institution and, having possessed himself of these, he set forth. It was not until Sunday afternoon that a report reached town that he had been seen, and then it was stated that he had found a refuge in the riverbed of the Waimakariri, and a strong force of police was quickly centred upon this district. 

The credit of his ultimate capture fell to two Kaiapoi constables, who sighted him on a long straight stretch of road, near Ohoka, some four or five miles from Kaiapoi. The constables, who were in plain clothes, were driving a somewhat fresh horse in their gig, and not knowing whether Terry would show fight they very wisely passed him unconcernedly, and drove on a little further until they found a casual pedestrian who took charge of their horse. The constables jumped out, and turning back intercepted Terry. 

“Good-day, sir,” Constable Simpson said politely. “Mr Terry, I presume. I’m a police officer, I suppose you’ll guess." 

“Yes,” answered Terry, "I thought so from your cape. I wish you had missed me though. This is the only way I could protest.” 

In answer to an inquiry as to whether he was prepared to come quietly, Terry answered: “I don’t mind having a bit of a go, but as you have spoken so courteously I’ll come with you, but don’t send me back to the asylum tonight.” 

He went quite quietly with his captors to the police station, where he was accommodated for the night, and was brought back to Christchurch by the first train this morning.

Terry had no idea of making a permanent escape; he realised that his recapture was only a question of a day or two at most, whilst hoping to be free as long as possible. His escape he persists in characterising as a protest against a system of which he disapproves, and it is his intention to make the same protest whenever opportunity offers. He will, in point of fact, escape from custody again the first chance that he is afforded. He regards escape as being the only possible protest for the inmate of a mental hospital, and it is his incarceration in such an institution which worries him most. Terry says he would much prefer gaol to the asylum, if he has to be kept in confinement.  -Waikato Argus, 3/10/1906.

TERRY REMINISCENCES.

THE MATABELE REBELLION. 

"POSSIBLY A SUNSTROKE." 

(By Telegraph — Own Correspondent) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Mr. H. T. Cross, a war veteran recently arrived in this colony after twelve years' experience in South Africa states that he knew Lionel Terry in 1896, at the time of the Matabele rebellion, both of them being attached to the Buluwayo field force. Although Terry was not in the same troop, they were camped at the same place. Mr Cross describes Terry as one of hundreds of gentlemen's sons who at that time came to South Africa "with sacks full of references and letters of introduction from dukes and earls" to the late Mr Cecil Rhodes. Terry, who was a private in the force, was regarded as a "white man." Through and through he was noted for his pluck and endurance and he came through a number engagements in which his courage was tested to the uttermost. Mr. Cross, who, by the way, participated in the Jameson raid and fought in the last campaign against the Boers, being with Plumer's column at the relief of Mafeking, thinks that after they drifted apart Terry rose to be either a sergeant or a lieutenant. It was easy to account for his affliction. "Anyone who has had a touch of malaria or sunstroke out there," he continued "is always liable to be a little bit cracked on the top." Mr. Cross said he intended to go to Wellington at the time of Terry's trial for the murder of a Chinaman, but was unable to get away. He recognised Terry immediately at the Kaiapoi railway station, and gave him the old South African greeting, "Saka bona mulunga" (i.e., "Good-bye, white man,"), at which Terry's face lightened up, and he smiled genially in token of farewell to his old comrade.  -Auckland Star, 3/10/1906.

This evening Lionel Terry will leave Sunnyside by the 8.30 tram to enjoy a little shooting. His simple yet expressive way of protesting against any grievances he may consider himself to labour under has deservedly earned him full public sympathy. In fact, the martyred hero has been supplied with shooting-irons, ammunition, food and coin by the eager subscriptions of admirers of this typical Britisher. He, therefore, looks forward to a pleasant little outing. His plans are not yet fully matured, but he hopes to still further emphasise his "protests" against such existing law as inconveniences him by bagging a Supreme Court Judge or two and a brace of Crown Prosecutors. He is rather afraid, however, that should this little indulgence in field sports lead to any further, legal unpleasantness, he will be elected to Parliament, whereas he is particularly anxious to mix with gentlemen only. -The Star, 6/10/1906.

in which Terry's poetical effusions are initially presented to the nation

EMOTIONAL INSANITY.

(For N.Z. "Truth.") Three experts reported that Harry Thaw suffered from emotional insanity when he killed Stanford White on June 28: — New York cable. 

Oh, what a wondrous body is the medical profession.  

'Tis difficult indeed to give our feelings due expression. 

There's nought so strange that mortal man may do, or think or say

That the doctors cannot diagnose and make as plain as day. 

For instance, if a burglar breaks into your house at night

And robs you of your silver plate and gives your wife a fright,

And you shoot him in the interests of safety and humanity, 

Why, you prove yourself a victim of emotional insanity! 

Again, if you should chance upon a shameless renegade, 

Who struts around and brags about the girls he has betrayed,

And if he makes a victim of your daughter or your wife 

You'd better cogitate a bit before you take his life.

For remember that however strong may be your provocation 

You'll certainly be forfeiting your mental reputation. 

What! damn the doctors? Steady man, don't utter such profanity 

Why, that's another symptom of emotional insanity. 

And if a crowd of Jews and Chows invade your peaceful land 

And spread a few diseases of an extra special brand, 

And if they teach your boys and girls the latest things in vice, 

And generally prevent your getting peace at any price, 

And if at length you kick against a state of things chaotic 

And give free play to feelings which are mainly patriotic, 

Rash man! Your action won't fit in with modern Christianity. 

Most clearly, you're a victim of emotional insanity.

Then raise your hats and bend your knees and crawl with humble meekness 

Before these wondrous medicos who prove your mental weakness, 

For there's nought that mortal man has done since the dawn of all creation 

That they cannot prove to be some form/ of mental aberration; 

And though it sounds exceedingly like blasphemy and libel, 

Anent a little tragedy that's mentioned in the Bible, 

They'll glance above their spectacles and state with calm urbanity 

That Holy Moses suffered from emotional insanity. 

LIONEL TERRY. "Sunnyside,"  Nov. 26, '06.  NZ Truth, 1/12/1906.

in which Terry is adjudged "bad" once more

TERRY'S LATEST "EXPLOIT."

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

CHBISTCHURCH, this day.

Since his last recapture a close watch has been kept on Lionel Terry at Sunnyside, and he has been denied his former liberty. The commendable endeavour of the authorities has been to keep him from the public eye, and, as Dr. Gow remarked to a reporter some time ago when questioned regarding the lunatic. "The less said about Lionel Terry the better it will be for him; he simply lives on what the papers say of him." Recently, it is believed, Terry wrote to the Premier protesting against his incarnation at Sunnyside, and stated forcibly that as a protest he intended to kill an attendant within 24 days. This sanguinary threat, coming from such a source, necessitated his removal to Lyttelton gaol, where he is now understood to be under special supervision pending the completion of the criminal lunatic asylum in Dunedin. In connection with' Terry's case a significant notice in the latest "Gazette" proclaims the hospital of the Lyttelton gaol "a place deemed suitable for the reception of lunatics."  -Auckland Star, 20/12/1906.

in which various New Zealand newspapers assume the role of defenders of the nation's morals in the face of  the "mongol minotaur"

FEE-FO-FUM-ALIAS, AULD ROBIN GRAY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Having been brought up on porridge and the Shorter Catechism, you may faintly imagine my feelings on Christmas Day when the following story was sent to me by "a base Southron." A canvasser for reapers and binders was out in the country looking for orders. He called at a farm, and the Misses, rather a comely dame, told him to go up the field and find the boss, who was ploughing, and tell his story to him. The traveller did as directed, but come back and said, "Well, ma'am, I couldn't see the boss; there was only an old Chow there, and I didn't speak to him." "An old Chow, do you call him?" said the woman; "well that was my husband." "Good heavens," said the man, "do you mean to say you have married a Chinaman? Now I understand Lionel Terry." "Why, bless you, man, that's nothing: at the next farm you will find a younger woman than me and she has even married a Scotchman!" Will the Scottish Society take action? 

Kenneth McAlpine.  -Ashburton Guardian, 28/12/1906.

THE CHINESE CURSE.

AN EARNEST WARNING TO PARENTS. 

Chinese Stores Altars of Lust. 

Confuscians One of the Curses of Chicago. 

Their Methods of Obtaining Wives.

One matter likely to receive the attention, and God knows not before it is wanted, of Parliament next session is the rapid advance of the Chinaman and the steady inflow of the alien race into the colony. What Parliament will do, if it does anything, to grapple with this yellow curse, it is hard indeed to say. Whether a Commission of Enquiry will be appointed to investigate the condition of the Chow in New Zealand, or whether an Alien Restriction Act, absolutely forbidding Chinese immigration into the colony will be passed, are matters presumably resting with the Government, who made a loud cry of a White New Zealand at the beginning; but seem now to have forgotten all about it. There is one thing as certain as that the earth revolves on its axis, and that if nothing is attempted or done, the present anti-Chinese feeling — and this paper is proud of the part it has played in the crusade — is such that the evolution of more Lionel Terrys will be effected, and to effect the evolution of a Lionel Terry is something achieved. Mad as they pretend that Terry is, his name will live longer in the memory of the people than those of a worthless, shifty, set of politicians playing at the game of statesmanship. Lionel Terry was no murderer; he was the instrument of a Higher Being. It is coming to this, dangerous doctrine as it sounds, that to take the life of a member of one of the most degraded races on the face of the earth, is to give emphasis to a protest that the white race must be freed from such a source of contamination. Will the enunciation of such a dangerous doctrine that

KILLING IS NO MURDER move the People? China is awakening, we hear; then let us first lull him to sound repose before fair New Zealand is overwhelmed by the Asiatic horde. 

What will move you, mothers and fathers, husbands and brothers? Are you going to stand idly by and hear weekly (and the daily press will not sully its columns with the disgusting details) stories of this Mongolian menace to N.Z. maidenhood? Is the honor of your child, or your sister or those near and dear to you of such infinitesimal importance to you that that you need not pause and consider the possibility of being grand-parent, uncle, aunt, cousin or blood relative to a little half-caste Chinese bastard. Are you aware that by your cold neglect and indifference and blindness and deafness to an evil never more pronounced than now, you are practically playing the "grand role" of Pander to the .Alien by offering your maiden child as a sacrifice to the Mongol Minotaur? That is what you do when you send your daughter to the Chinese store. That is why Yow Lee told Detective Williams the other day that "plenty smaller come here." Persist in sending your daughter, the tender plant so tenderly reared, so susceptible to the Oriental touch of impurity, to the store and you deserve to have in your family a Chow begotten hybrid. Will this terrible warning suffice, or must the horrors, the terribly degrading exposures made in New Zealand nearly twenty years ago be dragged to daylight now. Will it suffice to say that in and about the year 1886 there were more female children ruined by this devilish race in "God's Own Country" (the satire and blasphemy of it!) than the police then cared to admit. What head of a family of 1886, not only in lowly circumstances but those well blessed with the good things of the world, will care to be reminded of the day he learned with shame and sorrow that his young daughter, aye and elder one, too, had been ruined by these lecherous yellow fiends, over whom the Law exercised no control. Many of those cases were carefully suppressed; the families were allowed to keep the skeleton in the cupboard, but like hideous, grinning phantoms they are hovering about us now. The state of affairs existing in  1888 is eclipsed, if that were possible, by what is going on today. The police, and they are seemingly powerless to act, openly admit that ninety-nine per cent. of the Chinese shops in Wellington are

BURNING ALTARS OF LUST the sacrifices on which are our white-skinned daughters. This is no exaggeration; it is police testimony. The police cannot protect you. Who will? Nobody but yourselves. Buy what you want from white men. Boycott the Chow. Send your daughters to the Chinese store and her utter ruin will be on your own heads. If your future great-grand-children have Mongolian blood coursing through their veins, hell's fire will not have torments enough for you.

In Wellington alone we are rearing a choice brood of half-caste Chinese. In years to come they will seek, and even now they are seeking, wives. And where do they expect to find them ? In New Zealand, of course, "their own native country," and they will cast covetous eyes on your fair daughters. And they will woo and win them, and rear more mongrel broods. Once a white woman becomes a victim, willing or unwilling, to this slant-eyed race, she can never hope to rear her head again in respectable society. She is

A SOCIAL LEPER and an outcast. Educate your daughters, and your sons, too, to hate and fear the race, so that your daughters will help to keep the nations blood undefiled, so that your sons' hatred and fear will help him vent his prejudice, aye, even as Lionel Terry did, if the occasion arises.

There are in every community white-skinned apologists for the Chinese, who is described by these mean whites as honest and industrious; but never is a word said of their morals. The Chinaman is said to be kind to his wife. The kindness is this: he does the housework; he keeps his wife in idleness: she never soils her hands. So kind is the Chinaman that we find that at a recent inquest on a Chinese white-skinned paramour he allowed her to drink herself to death. Opium and drink generally help to kill the Chinaman's wife or paramour and fancy the kind of children an opium-smoking, hard-drinking woman is likely to bear to a Chinaman! And these children, in years to come will seek their connubial couch-mates. Where the Chinaman gets a footing, vice, squalor and misery are inevitable. They are most of them cruel, lustful, lecherous satyrs. The white wives of Chinamen in New Zealand were not always what they are, but by degrees they succumbed to the fatal hypnotism of the yellow man; he dragged them down and they seemed powerless to resist. Wellington is not the only city in the world; nor New Zealand the only country in the world where the Chinaman has sought and secured a white-skinned wife. It is the same everywhere. There is the same

TRAFFIC WITH YOUNG GIRLS; but because a similar state of affairs, better or worse, is found in other climes that is no reason why the fight, of the white against Yellow for race preservation should not be fought out unrelentingly and to the bitter, and, if need be, bloody end. In many American cities besides San Francisco the invasion of the Chinese is alarming. Chicago has been stirred of late by the announcement that there are about 200 white girls in that city who are married to Chinamen. On an average of over one a month the Celestials of the Windy City continue to win white brides.

The downfall of the white race before the yellow in the Japanese war seems to have inspired not only the Japs but the Chinese with new claims of equality. One result is the increase of marriages between white girls and Chinamen, which has been noticed in all our large cities during the last year, says an American paper.

But this wiping out of racial prejudices is not given by the brides themselves as their reason for choosing Chinamen. Twenty-five of the most recently-wedded gave the following as the object of their action: — Love, money, opium, a home, kindness.

But, behind these assigned reasons is, another and deeper reason. That is that a Chinaman, when he takes a white bride, wipes out her past entirely, and, no matter what she might have been, she, as his wife, is honored. 

The "Tribune" goes on to say that the Chinaman never considers marriage until be is financially able to support, a wife, in which he differs from the white races; but, like the white, he believes in the power of money to make courtship. easy — and he spends lavishly. It may take him weeks to attract the attention of the object of his love to himself, but once he has made her acquaintance and broken down the racial barrier, 

HIS PROGRESS IS RAPID. He spends money, he banquets her in the private rooms of chop suey restaurants, and — it is alleged — if then she does not agree to marry him, he does not surrender and mourn the loss, but he inveigles her into smoking opium — and, having once tasted the charms of 'the pipe, she is his. For a few weeks she smokes.

Then, perhaps, she is arrested in some Chinese house, dazed and filled with opium dreams. When she is bailed out by the Chinaman who does a professional bond business she returns. She knows the police will pick her up if she is found in the Chinese haunts, and then comes a proposal of marriage.

The girl knows that once married she can smoke as long as she pleases, in her own home, secure from molestation by the police and secure and certain of opium as long as she may want it. So she becomes the bride of the Chinaman, and lounges in the gilded den he sets up for her, scarcely ever caring to go out— even were she permitted, which she seldom is, except in company with her lord and master, who, during his leisure moments, delights in taking her out, attired in her most gorgeous gowns, to dine with him.

But not half of the brides are won by opium. Some admit that they married Chinamen while under the influence of the drug, which killed the prejudices against Chinamen, but the reasons alleged by the others are varied. 

Naturally the Chinaman's chances of meeting white women are not numerous or auspicious. They meet them sometimes in chop suey restaurants, at the counters of stores down town and in the missions. An investigation of the old tradition that white women and 

GIRLS WHO WORK IN CHINESE MISSIONS are won by Chinamen revealed the fact that so far as the mission workers themselves and the Chinese know, there is but one such case on record in Chicago.

That the Chinaman might become a dangerous rival of the white man in love affairs if he had equal opportunities is shown by the fact that in a period of 18 months in 1905 six girls in one department of one of the big down-town department stores married Chinamen. The first raid upon the department beauties was by Hop Sun, who won a pretty bride and took her away. Whether her marriage to the Chinaman and the visits of her chums to her beautifully furnished little flat on the south side caused the stampede, or whether the friends of Hop Sun met these friends and improved their opportunities for courtship, is not stated, but at any rate five others on that floor wedded Chinamen in the next year and a half.

Hop Sun refuses to tell the maiden name of his white wife, and she refuses to tell the names of her friends. When questioned as to why she married a Chinaman, Mrs Hop Sun grew a bit indignant.

"Opium had nothing to do with it.. My husband does not smoke, and not one of his friends who married the white girls that I know smokes. I married my husband because I liked him, and because he is kind and generous. I have plenty of money and plenty of clothes. I have my own servant, and Hop insisted on my mother coming to live with us." 

SHE CARES FOR HIM almost as she would for her own son. "True, I don't go out much, except with him. I married a Chinaman, and I intend to live as he wants me to live. My friends and I exchange calls. We go to the theatre, and I have my baby to care for. I am happy and have comforts that no white man would have given me." 

When a white girl marries a Chinaman the problem of the mother-in-law is settled at the same time. Instead of taking the comic paper view of the mother-in-law, the Chinaman insists on treating her with even more regard than he does his wife, and in perhaps a third of the households in which white brides live with their yellow husbands the girl's mother is one of the inmates who are honored and treated with deference. 

The social life of the white brides of Chinamen is limited in the extreme. Not only are they barred from any intimate social life with the Chinese wives, but the lines between the tongs are closely drawn. If a 

WHITE GIRL MARRIES A CHINAMAN and her chum happens to marry a Chinaman of another company they cannot meet except as strangers. In their own households they rule — if they prove good housekeepers there is no trouble. They are supplied with plenty of money to spend for household wants and with more than enough for themselves. They dress beautifully, and in most cases the only complaint uttered by them is that they are forced to live in squalid neighborhoods. The Chinaman's idea of comfort at home means the interior. He does not care about the exterior, how dingy or even dirty it may be, and he never is in the market for exclusive residence property. An alley appears to suit him better than a street, and he seems to prefer a down-town street, the narrower the better, to suburban property.  -NZ Truth, 19/1/1907.

THE CHOW CURSE.

TO THE EDITOR

Sir, — Being a constant reader of "Truth" I have read with interest your articles dealing with the "Yellow Peril"; a question, I think, requiring the careful consideration of the citizens of New Zealand, and also by their representatives in the House of Parliament. Now, Sir, I consider it a scandalous shame that for the sake of £100 per head, the Government allow these yellow-skinned mongrels into "God's Own Land" to contaminate the younger generation, and, moreover, what does the Government gain (beyond the paltry £100) by allowing them to land, I consider it is doing the country a most grievious wrong by not only allowing the Chinamen in the country, but also in not passing an Act of Parliament to rid the country of them, for, if something is not done, the time is not far distant when the white men will be crowded out to make room for the Chow and his bastard race. Now, seeing that the people view this question with indifference, could not something be done, such as forming an Anti-Chinese Society, that would bring the matter forcibly before the people and so enable them to thoroughly appreciate their danger. I feel convinced that if someone who thoroughly understood the question would but start a movement to form a society like the one indicated he (or they) would soon have a large following (and also the blessings of the community), and who is more fitted to start such a thing than yourself, with your knowledge of the question (excepting poor Lionel Terry) and he cannot help us now. We are waking up and want him more than ever. Hoping I am not taking up too much of your valuable time I thank you in anticipation of moving in the matter. — I am, &c.

ANTI-CHOW.  -NZ Truth, 9/3/1907.

CHOW SUPPORTERS.

TO THE EDITOR

Sir.

It appears to me to be all in vain for you weeping, wailing and airing your just and righteous indignation of Europeans supporting and encouraging the Chows in this God's own country of ours. In vain has your columns belched forth horrors emanating from the yellow Heathen; in vain is your voice listened to, or heeded by some; but when facts become stubborn blocks, they should certainly be ventilated, per columns of "Truth." A case in point, I quote a cove up this way; whom I consider a menace, and quite unfit to mix with European civilisation, an encourager and admirer of Chows and their customs. This fellow's name is bad deeds of rotten seeds, or something bearing a like similarity, and by occupation, a railway employee. He has taken up a piece of land across the river for Chinese gardening purposes, and will shortly install 15 or 20 of the yellow mongrels, and employ them for that laudable object, the place being a Wanganui suburb and mighty adjacent to ex-M.H.R. Willis's palatial residence, a by no means desirable ornamentation, but sufficient guarantee to show a reliable article in the shape of vegetables matured there. So intent was this coon in removing to the site of future operations that he had the dammed effrontery, and succeeded too, in shifting his chattels on a recent Sunday morning, per transit, a Chinkies Stink Cart. If this sort of thing is to be tolerated, the sooner New Zealand is passed over to the yellow skunks, the better; there are two ways I would suggest to effect a speedy clearance, one is to find a few more Lionel Terry's, in fact, advertise for them, per medium of the "Truth" the other is to call aid, enforce every Chink in New Zealand, recent and past, in fact everything that bears a semblance to a Chinkee visage, to assemble in a building in Wellington, and blow them body and soul into the arms of their "Joss," by the careful and expert manipulation of gelignite. You may expect a White New Zealand then, or very near it; those who may have escaped would be few, and would flee New Zealand shores as from a pestilence toward the flowery land. I for one would not have the slightest compunction or hesitation in experimenting with gelignite, dynamite, or any other explosive, for I would be working in the cause of humanity and saying other from themselves, by exterminating the pestilence. Yet, some of the hob nobs will howl out for a White New Zealand. How can they have it White when for a paltry lousy hundred pounds per head as many Chows as please, can swarm our shores to-morrow. The laws relating to the Mongols are too easy altogether, in fact, there are none worth a curse, so the sooner they are made drastic, in fact prohibitive, the better, and we may then expect to have a  White New Zealand, free from the taint of the filthy heathen scum.— I am etc., THE WARRIGAL 

Wanganui  -NZ Truth, 20/4/1907.

in which Terry is moved south to inhabit a castle

NEWS OF THE DAY

At the end of last week Lionel Terry was removed from his quarters in the Lyttelton Gaol, where, since December last he had been under the care of two warders from Sunnyside, to the Seacliff Mental Hospital. His sojourn at the latter place will be of short duration, as it is intended to proclaim Larnach's Castle (a stately mansion on the Otago Peninsula, purchased by the Government) a criminal mental hospital, and thither Terry will be transferred, to serve the remainder of his life sentence for the murder of a Chinaman at Wellington.  -The Press, 13/6/1907.

CORRESPONDENCE.

TERRY'S WELL-WISHER. 

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Reading the "Star" of June 11 I see that Arthur Alfred Lynch who was convicted of treason in 1903 for fighting with the Boers against the British, has now been pardoned. Is it not high time to release Lionel Terry for shooting an aged Chinaman, who no doubt by this time would have died a natural death?  I am, etc. 

TERRY'S ADMIRER. Oxford.  -The Star, 14/7/1907.

in which Terry makes his second bid for freedom

LIONEL TERRY.

AGAIN AT LARGE. 

ESCAPE FROM SEACLIFF MENTAL HOSPITAL. 

Lionel Terry, whose name has become a household word in consequence of his sensational crime of shooting a Chinaman in Wellington and his two escapes from Sunnyside Mental Hospital, has added another chapter to his career of adventures. For some few months past he has been confined at the Seacliff Mental Hospital, where, as mentioned below, he has occupied most of his time in scene-painting. 

Late last evening unofficial information was received in Dunedin to the effect that Terry, possibly longing for a little more excitement than that obtainable at Seacliff, had evaded the watchful eye of the warders, and had made good his escape. We have not yet been able to ascertain the circumstances under which he effected his escape, but we learn that his disappearance was noticed about 9 o'clock.

Jerry was formerly confined at the Sunnyside Mental Hospital, but in consequence of his escaping from that institution twice in a very short space of time, he was committed to Lyttelton Gaol, where he remained until he was transferred to the Seacliff Mental Hospital some months ago. 

Of late he has occupied most of his time painting at the institution, and he designed and executed a beautiful dropscene representing a Norwegian fiord. 

Speaking about the Chinese, Terry has, we understand, said that he has no feeling against them apart from their being, in his opinion, out of place when away from China and a menace to the Caucasian races. Having made his protest, he states that he has no intention of repeating the action which brought him to his present position, but at the same time he admits that his views have not undergone the slightest change. 

Terry is about 35 years of age, and is 6ft 4in in height. He is erect, broad-shouldered, and well proportioned, and has a strikingly handsome face and wavy hair, which is markedly grey for a man who is so young.   -Otago Daily Times, 22/11/1907.

THE SEARCH CONTINUES

The search for Lionel Terry the escapee from the Seacliff Mental Hospital, continues. Detachments of police were out in all directions on Saturday in the hilly country at the back of Seacliff and Waitati. About half-past 4 on Saturday afternoon a telegraphic message was received in town by Inspector O'Brien to the effect that Terry had been observed at Hindon by some of the settlers there. To reach this locality he must have crossed over the mountains by means of the bridle-track which extends from the back of Seacliff to Hindon. The distance required to be covered would be anything from 40 to 45 miles. When observed he was close to a settler's house, and was invited in to partake of a meal, but declined the offer, and proceeded on inland, in the direction, it is supposed, of Middlemarch. He was wearing sandals and was bare-headed, and was otherwise dressed as he was when he made his escape. He did not appear to be carrying any provisions. On the track from Merton to Hindon are two huts, which are utilised by shepherds and musterers, and which are kept provisioned, and the probability is that Terry struck both of these, and obtained a supply of food at each of them. 

As soon as word was received in town that the missing man had been observed in the Hindon district the search parties in the hack country inland from Waitati and Seacliff and near Merton, where he was believed to have been seen the previous day, were withdrawn. A motor car was immediately ordered in Dunedin and with Detectives Lilly and McLeod on board left for Hindon at 5.30 p.m. The constables stationed at Outram and Middlemarch were also instructed to join in the search. The party on board the motor car did not reach Hindon, which is about 26 miles from Dunedin, until rather late in the evening, owing to two or three mishaps on the road, but once there horses were procured and a start made across country.  -Otago Witness, 27/11/1907.

CYCLING AND MOTORING NOTES

That it takes a lot to stick up a motor car when it is a reliable make and the driver, like Barkis, "is willin' " was demonstrated on Saturday night, when Mr Carpenter's Darracq was commissioned by a couple of detectives to drive them through to Outram on their way to Hindon in search of the escaped Lionel Terry. On arrival at Outram the detectives were unable to secure horses, and Mr Carpenter determined to try to get them through as far as Hindon per motor. The steep hill just out of Outram proved a heavy task for the Darracq, but Driver Carpenter managed to surmount it all right by turning his car round and going up backwards — the direct drive on the back wheels with the reverse and the probability of a lower gear on this drive being the explanation of the car thus turning its back to the hill. After a pretty rough trip, the darkness handicapping the driver, Hindon was safely reached, the 15 miles occupying three hours. The return trip, made in daylight next day, was, however, easily negotiated.  -The Otago Witness, 27/11/1907.

The Fretful Porcupine

The authorities do not appear particularly anxious to repossess themselves of that erratic individual named Lionel Terry. At least, if they are, it would be well if they lost no time in doing so. It may not be generally known that the law provides that any lunatic who escapes, and who succeeds in eluding his captors for fourteen clear days, cannot be re-committed to the Asylum until he has been once more certified insane by competent medical authorities. In other words, the original order on which he was committed becomes waste paper. Presumably, the idea is that if a man is clever enough to elude his would-be captors for fourteen days, he is too clever to waste his talents in a mental hospital. 

A case of this kind occurred some years ago at the local asylum, although, for obvious reasons, it didn't get to the ears of the general public. One of the patients who was permitted, in view of his quiet demeanour, to go out into the grounds with a gang of workers, made a dash for liberty, and succeeded in getting clear away. He was evidently well acquainted with the provisions of the Lunacy Act. After the expiration of fourteen days from the time of his escape, the asylum authorities received a bulky parcel, which, upon examination, was found to contain the official moleskin livery that had been worn by the absconding patient. To the clothes was pinned a note explaining that, as the sender had no further use for the enclosed garments, having replaced them with others more to his liking, he begged to return them, with many thanks for use of same. That gentleman is still at large.  -Observer, 7/12/1907.

LIONEL TERRY CHASED.

LOST IN DENSE BUSH. (By Telegraph. — Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Wednesday. 

For some days past nothing had been heard of Lionel Terry, who escaped from Seacliff Mental Hospital three weeks ago. Detective Hunt, of Dunedin, and Constable Kidd, of Waikouaiti, came across him in the back country. As they approached him his suspicions became aroused, and he placed a barbed wire fence between them and himself. He admitted his identity, and said that he was aware that they were police officers. On being invited to accompany them, he said he was not yet tired of his free life, and thereupon made off. The police officers pursued him on foot, but he ran away at full speed, and sought cover in the dense bush, where he was searched for in vain. In the course of the chase Detective Hunt fell heavily, sustaining a painful gash on the forehead, and injuring his hand as the result of coming in contact with boulders. The officers state that Terry was wearing boots instead of the sandals in which he escaped, and that he looked remarkably fresh and hearty.  -Auckland Star, 12/12/1907.

THE FUGITIVE FROM SEACLIFF

LIONEL TERRY CAPTURED,

AN ATHLETIC CONSTABLE. 

Lionel Terry, who escaped from Seacliff and has been at for upwards of three weeks, was captured yesterday morning on Ben Doran Station, which lies about 15 miles back from Waikouaiti. The capturing party consisted of Constable Kidd (Waikouaiti) and Constables Pont and Brien (Dunedin). This party went out on Wednesday morning, reaching Ben Doran Station that night and camping in a shepherd's hut. In the morning Constable Brien, on going outside, saw Terry sauntering along towards the hut without either boots or hat on. Brien went back into the hut, and Kidd came out and called on Terry, who had stopped, to surrender. With a "No fear" the fugitive turned and made a dash for cover. Terry's running powers had, however, been anticipated. for Brien had been specially included in the party by reason of being the champion runner at the Dunedin Station. Brien followed Terry in a twinkling, clearing a fence in his stride, and, although Terry had a fairly good start, he quickly overhauled him. When the constable was close on his man, Terry turned round and let out a blow. He, however, missed his mark, and Brien, rushing in, closed with the prisoner. A sharp struggle ensued, but Terry had met his match and was brought to the ground, where he was held until the other two of the party came up. The handcuffs were put on, and the fugitive was once more made secure. 

Terry expressed a desire to go to his hiding-place, as he had some belongings he would like to take away. He accordingly led the constables to a whare, which he had constructed in the bush underneath a large rock, thatched over on top. That Terry bad not lacked friends was at once made manifest, for in this place of hiding were discovered a panama hat, a new pair of hoots, a wool pack, some blankets, a few articles of food, and a pound note. The whare was capitally concealed, and the constables are very doubtful as to their having been able, unaided, to find it. In addition to the things above-mentioned, there were also the pair of leather sandals which Terry wore when he left Seacliff, and a flax pair which he bad evidently made during his period of freedom.

During the forenoon the party made a start for Waikouaiti, Terry and his captor taking turns riding and walking for distances of about three miles. The constables took no chances with their prisoner, notwithstanding that he gave his word of honour that he would not try to escape. Waikouaiti was reached in due time, and here the express train was caught. At Seacliff Terry was once more handed over to the authorities, and thus ended his third unsuccessful attempt to regain his liberty.  -Otago Daily Times, 13/12/1907.

LIONEL TERRY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — As a taxpayer allow me to protest against the washy, sentimental sympathy, that exists amongst a number of weakminded people for this man, who, in addition to having killed a Chinaman, is earning the country considerable expense by his recent "Deadwood Dick" escapades. If surrounding him with a halo of romance is persisted in, the authorities should confine him with other criminals, where there are no opportunities of playing to the gallery. — I am, etc., Pentridge. December 13.  -Evening star, 14/12/1907.

in which Terry once more makes contact with his "public"

A DANGEROUS MONOMANIAC.

Under the above heading the "New Zealand Times" in its editorial columns of Tuesday makes the following remarks: — The unfortunate man Lionel Terry has addressed a long letter to the editor of this journal upon the one solo subject which seems to dominate his disordered mind. The letter is dated December 15, but as the postmark is “Waikouaiti, December 15,” it was probably written just after his return to Seacliff. No good purpose would be served by publishing the document, which contains nothing but a restatement of the wretched man’s well-known illusions on the subject of racial purity, it, however, supplies another strong reason why Terry himself should be placed in secure confinement. Terry adheres to the belief — if such a word may be used when the capacity for intellectual assent is so obviously absent — that the shooting of aliens is a highly commendable proceeding, but he goes further, and intimates his intention to repeat the act. His design in slaying the Chinese in Haining street was to put our laws to the test. He was not, he says, with “arrogant ignorance, contemptuous scorn, and transparent trickery,” and he insinuates in pretty broad terms that he intends to give the administrators of the law another chance. He may be, as Dr King assures us, perfectly gentle and harmless so far as most people are concerned, but as he is obsessed by the notion that it is his destiny to kill Mongolians. It is the duty of the authorities to see that he gets no opportunity for carrying his intentions into effect.  -Evening Star, 19/12/1907.

in which Terry makes his next escape attempt

LIONEL TERRY.

INSANE, BUT NOT A CRIMINAL.

IN TRUBY KING’S OPINION. [From Our Correspondent.] DUNEDIN, January 15., 

Dr Truby King communicates the following statement to the “Otago Daily Times”: — “Mr Terry was engaged in painting at an easel on the stage of the recreation hall at the time of his escape. The two attendants in charge were men of experience, the senior having been trained at Morningside Asylum, Edinburgh, under Dr Clouston, prior to entering the service at Seacliff some three years ago. The escape was due entirely to carelessness on the part of the men in charge, who, in spite of daily warnings, allowed the patient out of their sight, under the impression that there was no means of escape. The patient secured a piece of rope used for scene shifting, lifted the sash of the window, let himself down most of the way and jumped the rest. Only last Sunday I commenced a letter to the central authority pointing out that owing to his increasing determination to escape Terry would have to be transferred to some institution affording greater structural facilities for safeguarding him. It appears to me desirable to prevent further public misconception regarding the patient in question. He is neither a hero nor a criminal, but unfortunately he is, and has been throughout, unquestionably insane and irresponsible. After Mr Terry’s recent escape I wrote pointing out that certain alarmist statements then in circulation suggesting danger to lone women and children were without foundation, but I did not wish to convey the idea that he was sane or responsible. It was obvious that Mr Terry was insane, but the way to make him actively dangerous was to let him see announcements in the newspapers that his fellow-beings regarded him, and expected him to prove himself, a bloodthirsty criminal. He is not a criminal and not bloodthirsty, but nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of his effecting what he believed to be necessary for the salvation of his race. The treatment accorded to Terry by the settlers in Central Otago was not merely kind and humane, but was the only safe and sensible way to deal with a man of his temperament and tendencies. However, Terry himself, on being replaced in Seacliff last month, was indignant that the authorities had not sent him to gaol, because he resented being in an institution which implied insanity and irresponsibility. He said that he did not want but justice. He continues to insist that he would be happier in prison, and becomes daily more and more resentful and bitter at being kept here. Under these circumstances I am satisfied that the best thing for himself and for everyone concerned is to let him have his own way meantime, but whether he remains here or is sent elsewhere he will not be allowed the opportunity of escaping again.

[Per Press Association.] DUNEDIN, January 15. 

When Terry was re-captured on the occasion of his former escape from Seacliff, he told Mr Myers, the deputy-inspector of mental hospitals, that it entirely defended on his health whether he would give the authorities another chase. He could make no promises, he had escaped as a protest against the Government’s attitude towards aliens. He had considered the matter previously for a whole fortnight. Mr Myers says that unless Terry will give a reasonable assurance to abide strictly by the laws of the institution in which he is now confined, he should be secured in another place. “I shall strongly advise that,” said Mr Myers in conclusion.  -Lyttelton Times, 16/1/1908.

LIONEL TERRY. 

STATEMENT BY THE PREMIER.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —  PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, 16th January. 

Sir Joseph Ward stated to-day that he had read Dr. Truby King's statements in regard to Lionel Terry, but he did not know if they had been submitted to the Minister in charge of asylums. Sir Joseph added, however, that on his return to Wellington he would have the whole case specially looked into. 

As to the proposal that the Government should establish an asylum for insane persons of criminal tendencies, said Sir Joseph, that was a subject upon which he was not prepared to make any definite statement. It was true that Terry's case was quite exceptional, but there was no doubt that there were many others in the Dominion's asylums who should be specially considered. 

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I think by this time the public (at any rate the male portion of it) is becoming somewhat wearied by the repeated attempts of Lionel Terry to escape from his confinement. I cannot help thinking that by far the best course to pursue would be to send him, under suitable escort, to England, either at the expense of his friends or of the New Zealand Government. I feel sure that the most rational treatment of this case resolves itself into a question of placing him in a suitable environment. As long as he remains in the Dominion his mind will naturally tend to dwell more and more upon his supposed grievances as regards aliens, and he will be continually meditating further designs against the unfortunate "chows."' 

Having been one of the resident medical officers at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in England, where the majority of the patients are largely of the Terry type, I am convinced that if he were examined by an expert alienist in mental disorders in London he would speedily be sent to Broadmoor, where he would not only be very far removed from the scene of his crime, but would be placed amongst patients of his own class and intellect, and no doubt in time his menial condition would become greatly ameliorated if not entirely restored. 

Dr. Truby King, in your issue of the 15th ult., asserts in the Otago Daily Times that Lionel Terry is unquestionably insane and irresponsible, and later in another paragraph says that it would be the best thing for Terry and everyone concerned if he had his own way and was sent to prison! 

It is obvious that a prison is in no wise a suitable place to send a man suffering from any form of mental aberration, neither was it even intended to be used us such. In the meantime the comparative ease with which he has managed to evade his attendants and break asylums does not redound to the credit of those establishments. — I am, etc., H. HOLLAND MONCKTON. Wellington, 16th January, 1908.  -Evening Post.

LIONEL TERRY.

[Per, Press Association.] WELLINGTON, January 23. 

At a Cabinet meeting to-day, it was decided to transfer Lionel Terry to one of the gaols, and to declare the portion in which he will be located a mental hospital. -The Star, 23/1/1908.

Page 4 Advertisements

Lionel Terry's next attempt at escape is due in about a fortnight.  -NZ Truth, 25/1/1908.

PARS ABOUT PEOPLE

If it is true that Lionel Terry had the luxurious time at Seacliff which one grumbler represents, there need be no further doubt as to his insanity. The complainant is the father of another inmate of the asylum, and this is how he sums up his own grievance and Terry's luxuries: — "I pay 15s a week for my son, and he has to get up in the morning and milk cows and feed pigs, and at night the same, besides working at odd jobs during the day. I consider I ought to be paid For his work. But Terry knocks around like a gentleman, does nothing, gets what he wants. At the table he has a waiter, and it's 'Mr Terry' this, and 'Mr Terry' that — lives on the best, with waiters to look after him." And yet Terry, for the sake of his "protest," preferred to get away from this life of ease and liberty to the hardships of gaol! Would any sane man throw away such privileges?  -Observer, 8/2/1908.

in which the fortunate staff of Lyttelton gaol make their reacquaintance with Terry

LIONEL TERRY

Dunedin, March 2. Lionel Terry was removed from the Seacliff Mental Diseases Hospital to the Lyttelton Gaol to-day.  -Colonist, 3/3/1908.

It is complained that Lionel Terry is a 'costly luxury 'to the Dominion. A Southern exchange says he is located in a comfortably furnished room with a fireplace, and has three warders appointed to look after him, two in the day time, and one at night. A doctor from Sunnyside Asylum is to visit him at regular intervals. "This pampered lunatic — if he is a lunatic — must be costing the Dominion something like £750 a year," says a Wellington contemporary. "There is about £650 worth of warder in attendance, rent, fuel, and firing will cost another £50, and the medical attendance and other etceteras half a hundred more." 

Woods' Great Peppermint Cure for Coughs and Cold never fails. 1s 6d &2s 6d.  -Opunake Times, 20/3/1908.

Another Terry poem.

MADMAN'S VIEW OF HIS KEEPERS.

Lionel Terry, the murderer of an inoffensive Chinaman in Wellington some three years ago, was recently, as readers are aware, removed from a mental hospital and lodged for safe keeping in Lyttelton prison. On arriving at Lyttelton railway station, says the Auckland, Star, Terry dropped on the platform a piece or paper, on which was written the following. Verses: 

— THE SONG OF THE ATTENDANTS. 

We're a noble band of heroes of the very, finest class

And we're servants of Sir Joseph Ward and Co

Our uniforms of navy blue and buttons made of brass,

Are found where e're there's gallant work to do. 

As "attendants" on the "patients" at the Mental Hospitals,

We carry out our duties without fear, 

For the glory of the Government, and incidentally,

Our bed and board; and seventy quid a year.

Terry's lines continue in this vein for a few more verses and conclude with:

For what's the use of conscience when you've gone and sold your brain, 

And what's the use of anything but beer?

We'll follow any Government to Hell and back again

For bed and board and seventy quid a year. 

LIONEL TERRY. February 29, 1908.  -Taranaki Herald, 24/3/1908.

in which Terry makes known his lack of appreciation for his lodgings

FIRE IN LYTTELTON GAOL.

IN LIONEL TERRY'S QUARTERS.

This morning a fire occurred in the part of Lyttelton Gaol, a portion of the prison hospital, in which Lionel Terry is domiciled, but the damage done was insignificant. Terry is lodged in a room, a very good one, on the ground floor of the hospital, on the right-hand side of the entrance passage, and close to the door opening on to the hospital yard. In a similar room on the opposite side of the passage is accommodated the warder in whose special charge Terry is placed. Just beyond the door of Terry's room and on the same side of the passage rises the staircase leading to the upper floor. This staircase is of wood, and the surrounding walls are of concrete. The door of Terry's apartment is kept open during the daytime, as is also the door between the passage and the yard, but egress from the latter into the main yard of the gaol is prevented by a high iron-barred fence, the gate of which is kept locked. At twentyfive minutes to ten o'clock this morning the warder on duty on the watchtower of the gaol saw smoke arising from the hospital in the vicinity of the staircase. He promptly gave an alarm, the prison firebell was rung, and the fire, which was in the recess beneath the staircase, was soon put out by means of a few buckets of water. The boards of the staircase for several feet were charred, those near the floor so much so that they had to be removed, but, on the whole, the damage was trifling, and can be made good by the expenditure of a pound or two. Some paper and a piece of mat were found burning in the recess in which the fire occurred. Had it not been discovered so early the staircase would probably have been destroyed, but, on account of the fire-resisting character of the concrete building, that would, it is considered, have been the extent of the damage. Terry, who, as his door was open, had access to the recess, would make neither admission nor denial as to whether or not he was responsible for the fire, but there appears to be no doubt that it was his work.  -The Star, 24/9/1908.

Lionel Terry presents a difficult problem to both the Mental Hospital and the Lyttelton Gaol authorities. He recently made another effort to fire the building by boring a hole in the ceiling of the lower storey of the building, and attempting to burn the records and papers stored in the upper storey, but this scheme was nipped in the bud. Many of his privileges were then taken away from him, and he was confined in a cell, but it has been necessary to have a warder with Terry day and night, to  keep a strict watch over him and prevent him from doing further mischief. In the dead of night Terry often commences to shout and call out at the top of his voice, and he frequently addresses the warders in insulting terms. During the past few weeks Terry has refused to take his food, and "tube feeding" has been necessary to prevent him from starving himself, and this method of feeding him has had to be carried out by the Mental Hospital doctors, who take it in turn to make daily visits to the gaol for the purpose of feeding Terry.  -Manawatu Standard, 20/11/1908.

YELLS AND SCREAMS

LIONEL TELLY'S NOCTURNAL SERENADES.

WARDERS AND PRISONERS COMPLAIN.

PRESS ASSOCIATION. CHRISTCHURCH, December 15. It would surprise most people and more especially those who regard Lionel Terry as a suffering hero if they knew to what lengths he goes to give annoyance and trouble to those whose duty it is to keep guard over him. Yesterday evening, Mr Cleary, governor of  the gaol, informed a reporter that Terry still continues to disturb the nightly rest of the prisoners and warders in the gaol as well as the neighbourhood outside by his wild yelling and screaming, and also by violent hammering on his cell door. On Sunday night he commenced the din at 8 o’clock, just as people were coming out of church and he continued yelling and shouting at frequent intervals until 2 o’clock on Monday morning. The warders and the prisoners are complaining bitterly of their sleep being disturbed every night, but Mr Cleary states that he can do nothing to prevent his charge from continuing his disgraceful behaviour.

Terry boasts to him that he will continue to give as much trouble as possible with the idea that the authorities will eventually release him. His idea for creating the nightly disturbance is to attract public attention to his case and he is certainly not turning the sympathy of Lyttelton people by his extraordinary conduct. Since his two attempts to set fire to the hospital building, Terry has been confined in the “solitary cell” division of the gaol. By some mysterious means he recently set fire to the mattress in his cell, The warder in charge saw smoke issuing from the cell but found that Terry had plugged the keyhole of the door. After some trouble he effected an entrance. The cell was full of smoke and Terry was lying on the floor, but whether he was overcome by the fumes or was only shamming the warder did not stop, to find out. A bucket of cold water dashed over Terry quickly revived him. Terry claims that he is a gentleman, but according to the gaol authorities his methods disprove that suggestion. He addresses disgusting and grossly insulting expressions to the warders, who are “heartily sick” of him. "I was never so sick of a man in my life,” said Mr Cleary, who has done everything possible for Terry, and has been only snubbed by him for his trouble, as is the case with the warders. The doctor from Sunnyside Mental Hospital makes a special daily visit to the gaol for the purpose of feeding Terry who, for several weeks, has steadfastly refused to eat any food. The prisoner very strenuously resists the process of “tube feeding,” and four warders have to hold him down during the operation. Terry clenches his jaws firmly and they have literally to be forced open by means of a gag worked with a screw after the manner of a screw-jack — a somewhat mediaeval process. The doctor then inserts the tube down which eggs, milk and other food are poured.

Recently Mr Laurenson, M.P., wrote to the Minister of Justice with reference to the complaints made owing to the nocturnal disturbances created by the prisoner. The Hon. J. McGowan, in his reply, stated that, as Terry is under the control of the Minister in charge of Mental Hospitals, Mr Laurenson's letter had been forwarded to the Hon Mr Fowlds for consideration.

The prison authorities had, however, already brought the matter under the notice of the Superintendent of Mental Hospitals, who states that as soon as the necessary building is completed at Sunnyside, Terry will be removed from Lyttelton.  -NZ Times, 16/12/1908.

in which Terry, too mad for Lyttleton, returns to Sunnyside

LIONEL TERRY.

CHRISTCHURCH Wednesday. The removal of Lionel Terry from Lyttelton Gaol to the Sunnyside Mental Hospital was carried out last night. That he was to go last night was known only to a few, and he was quietly conveyed to the station in a dray at midnight. The warders who had charge of him waited until there was scarcely anyone about, and then placed him in a first-class carriage and pulled down the blinds to stop the curious gaze of the  railway porters and the night owls. Terry went quietly, and utterly discounted the preparations that had been made for any showy behaviour he might have indulged in.  -Auckland Star, 7/1/1909.

PERSONAL PARS

One never hears of Lionel Terry, the homicide who killed a Wellington Chinese, and made several escapes from the insane asylums wherein he was incarcerated. It used to be a weekly matter to hear of Terry's doings now, he seems to be as silent as the grave, and others on Terry are just as quiet.  -NZ Truth, 23/10/1909.

Kept in a cage

By Telegraph. — Press Association. Christchurch, This Day. A reporter visited Sunnyside Mental Hospital in connection with a letter from Lionel Terry, which was published in a Wellington newspaper and with the medical superintendent, saw Terry in a cage-like cell, which has been specially constructed for him. The erection is in the old airing yard, and practically completely surrounded by the hospital buildings. In reply to the reporter’s questions, Terry stated that with the exception of a cold and some boils he was as well as he could expect to be in such a place. The medical superintendent admits that in winter very little sunshine reaches the cage, but Terry had recently declined to take an airing in a  court, where plenty of sunshine is obtained when the weather is fine. The reason for his refusing was because on several occasions the attendant could not be spared to look after him, and Terry said he would not take advantage of the opportunity to get sunshine unless regular.  -Waikato Argus, 20/6/1910.

A PLEA FOR CLEMENCY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, We are now in the Coronation year, and in the year of a great Imperial gathering in the British metropolis. The pageantry of the Coronation ceremony appeals strongly to millions of people; but there is one traditional usage on such occasions that appeals more strongly to me, viz., the custom of extending Royal clemency to certain "spirits in prison," who are deserving of consideration. From the viewpoint of Imperialism, there is no prisoner to whom the Royal clemency could be more fitly extended than one in New Zealand who is being detained "during his Majesty's pleasure." That prisoner is Lionel Terry, and I appeal to the people of Christchurch to take the lead in presenting a petition for his release. Terry's crime was the result of an excess of patriotic and Imperial feeling. He wished to save the British from the pollution that must result from an admixture of coloured aliens. His method was wild, criminal, indefensible; but his motive was sound; and it must be remembered that he was willing to sacrifice his own life in the cause of racial purity. It would be wise, just and merciful to set him at liberty, if the authorities and experts are satisfied that he would not resort to violence in advancing his ideas. Personally, I am convinced that Terry could, with absolute safety, be released. Here is a copy of some lines of his own composition which he sent to me from his "cage" the other day: —

THE FAITH INVINCIBLE. 

They say the age of chivalry has passed away, That all things noble drift into decay, 

That life is nothing but a shadow grey, And God no longer heedeth those who pray. 

But what care I what purblind fools may say? My faith in God is new-born every day! 

I'll live my own proud life; and come what may, I’ll fight old Mammon till the Judgment Day! 

Now may old Mammon grind his teeth with rage And marvel at the might of Him who made me,

For I have solved the secret of the age, And Nature’s forces all combine to aid me

When Mammon guides the legislator’s pen The prison is the home for honest men! 

I submit that these are not the sentiments of a homicidal maniac. I submit, further, that Lionel Terry has by his five or six years’ confinement, suffered enough punishment; and I earnestly hope that some energetic person in Christchurch, with more spare time than I have, will set about promoting a petition tor his release, and that the  Lyttelton Times will assist by allowing thoe petition to lie at its offices. — I am, etc.,

TO ERR IS HUMAN, TO FORGIVE DIVINE. March 11, 1911. -Lyttelton Times.

in which Terry becomes the symbol of resistance to the defilement of racial purity

THE PARNELL JUNGLE

WHAT THE MAYOR WOULD DO.

"LET LIONEL TERRY LOOSE WITH A GATLING." Auckland, July 12. Notifications from the District Health Officer (Dr. Makgill) condemning various insanitary buildings in the Borough of Parnell were brought before the council last evening. 

"If I had the power," proceeded Mr. Briggs indignantly, "I would let Mr Terry out of the asylum and would arm him, not with a revolver but with a gatling gun." The Mayor in conclusion moved:

"That the Borough sanitary inspector be instructed to take the necessary steps to at once carry out the district health officer's recommendations."  -Hastings Standard, 13/7/1911.

LIONEL TERRY.

THE AGITATION FOR RELEASE

[press association.]WELLINGTON, This Day,

As fresh requests for copies of the petition for the release of Lionel Terry are still arriving, the  promoter, (Mr J. L. Kelly, of Ashburton) has decided to extend the time for returning them to the end of the month, instead of the 15th. Kelly states that the petition is being very largely signed, more especially in the South Island. Three sheets have been returned from Dunedin with 400 names attached to them, and ten other sheets are in circulation there. Most of the sheets lying at the newspaper offices all over the Dominion are signed without solicitation, but a few voluntary workers are canvassing Dunedin. A lady took the petition to a meeting of the Highland Society, and out of 70 present 63 signed. She claims from this that 90,000 of the population is favorable to Terry's release.  -Bush Advocate, 14/7/1911.

LIONEL TERRY AGAIN.

DEVELOPS AN ANTI-SEMITIC CRAZE. 

[BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE STAR.] CHRISTHURCH, This Day. A resident of Lyttelton has received a post card bearing the signature of the prisoner Lionel Terry. On one side of the card appears a sketch of a serpent with a Jew’s head, the body bearing various offensive words, such as usury, malice and sin. On the other side is a four line verse which makes a general attack upon the Jewish people in very forcible language. The card is cleverly prepared but it does not suggest the operation of a well-balanced mind. Its authenticity is not doubted. Greymouth Evening Star, 20/7/1911.

“DON’T TRUST TERRY”

STATEMENT BY LATE GOVERNOR OF GAOL. 

SPECIAL TO THE "TIMES.” CHRISTCHURCH, July 21. In connection with the agitation for the release of Lionel Terry from Sunnyside mental hospital, a “Lyttelton Times” reporter interviewed Mr M. Cleary, who was Governor of Lyttelton gaol while Terry was there. “Don't trust Terry: don’t let him out,” said Mr Cleary. “I was as kind to Terry as a man could be. I did all for him that I could, and the gratitude I received was abuse and three attempts to burn the gaol. The third time he set fire to the room he was in he placed a dummy in a corner and hid under the bedstead. He expected a rush to save him, and intended to dash out of the door in the confusion and smoke. The warders certainly did go to the corner to save what they thought was Terry, but when he saw me in the doorway he did not move. He was a great trouble, but well-treated. The man would deceive anyone. He is courteous, well educated, and a charming conversationalist, but when there were only warders about he was quite different. “Did he ever say anything on Jewish matters?" asked the reporter. “Often. He used to speak about them in a most offensive way, and I feel sure that his hatred for Jews is almost as strong as his dislike for the Chinese. I would not like to say that if he were free he would attack Jews or Chinese, but certainly he used very strong language in speaking of foreigners. I do not speak from any fear of personal attack from Terry, but after my experience of him my advice is not to let him out again. You cannot trust him.”  -NZ Times, 22/7/1911.

NOT TO BE RELEASED

LIONEL TERRY'S CASE,

(Press Association) WELLINGTON, Feb. 14. Mr J. L. Kelly, who has been interesting himself in the question of Lionel Terry's release, has received a reply from the Premier stating that after the most careful consideration, it has been decided that the prayers of the petitioners cannot be granted. It is understood that the Government are acting upon the report of responsible officials, whose opinion is adverse to Terry's release. Mr. Kelly expressed disappointment with the result, especially in no reasons are given, and as matters stand the agitation is likely to be renewed. -Manawatu Standard, 14/1/1912.

in which Terry again goes south

Lionel Terry, who gained considerable notoriety some years ago by shooting a Chinaman in Haining street, Wellington, and who has for some time past been lodged in Sunnyside Mental Hospital, was on Saturday transferred from that institution to the Seacliff Mental Hospital. The journey from Sunnyside to Seacliff (states a Press Association telegram from Christchurch) was made in a taxi-cab, and Terry was accompanied by three attendants and a doctor. He was quiet and passive throughout the long trip, and gave absolutely no trouble whatever. He took with him a bottle of cold water, and this was the only refreshment he allowed himself.  -Otago Daily Times, 26/5/1914.

ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE

Lionel Terry, the tall, classic-featured Englishman, who was put away in an asylum some few years ago now after unprovokedly shooting a Chinaman in Haining street under rather singular circumstances one Sunday night and giving himself up to the police the next morning, is still an inmate of Seacliff Mental Hospital. At the time he broke away from the asylum a while ago and led his warders a pretty dance before he was recaptured there were statements in the press that he had grown violent in his actions. That may or may not have been so, but he is now quite calm in his demeanour and gives no trouble whatever. His hair, which, in former days was just touched with grey and which he always kept closely cropped, is now quite grey, and he allows it to hang in curls right down to his shoulders. Likewise, before he was closely shaven, now he wears a short beard or goatee. As of yore, he keeps himself well and fit with plenty of exercise, his morning constitutional consisting of a two or three-mile run across country. Two or three warders, of course, accompany him, and they run the distance in relays in order to keep pace with him. He devotes much of his spare time to reading, and is an interested student of the war news.  -Free Lance, 30/3/1917.

THE CRITIC

Some more verselets by our old friend, Lionel Terry: 

THE IMPRISONED PROPHET'S PREFERENCE. 

Tis good to be free among folk who will see 

That the laws of their country with God's laws agree; 

But, rather than be a tool of the "D.," 

I'd be caged up as mad until Death turns the key. 

WHEN THE WAR SHOULD END. 

Our Lord of War hath drawn the sword, Oh, may he never sheath it, 

Till earth hath honest men on top, And mongrels underneath it. 

THE VOICE FROM THE MADHOUSE. 

From the gilded halls of Hunland Came the shout of savage mirth: 

"We have built a mighty Empire! We'll be rulers of the earth!" 

From a grim and gloomy madhouse, Clear the Prophets answer rings: 

"When the Lord of Hosts is angered, Empires are but feeble things!"

-NZ Truth, 12/10/1918.

MOTORIST AMOK

CLARK BEFORE THE COURT.

"MISSION LIKE LIONEL TERRY." (By Telegraph. — Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, this day. Charles J. Clark, who ran amok through Manners Street in a motor car and seriously injured several persons, was brought before the court. The evidence was that he was going at 35 to 40 miles an hour and dashed into a crowd waiting for a tram. When arrested he was dazed and incoherent, and spoke of having a mission like Lionel Terry, but was not going to repeat his act by killing a Chinaman.

He was committed for trial, counsel intimating that the defence would rest on the mental state of accused.  -Auckland Star, 20/1/1921.

in which Terry has become the only sane person in an insane world

WEDNESDAY'S PROCEEDINGS

Terrible family history of the accused (excerpt)

On the second examination he put a question to accused, who got on to his delusion and spoke for two hours without a break. He had a theory for reforming the world and erecting institutions in the cities where the sexes would be able to discuss the passions. Lionel Terry was of a similar type to accused. At the present time Terry was quite hopeless. He had gone beyond his first mission, and now REGARDED HIMSELF AS THE MESSIAH. One of the most dangerous types of insanity was the paranoic, which, was responsible for many crimes.  -NZ Truth, 19/2/1921.

CELESTIALS BEWARE

Threats Of "Extermination"

TERRIBLE TERRY.

(From "Truth's" Otago Rep.) Many and varied are the requests which reach "Truth" for information on all manner of subjects, but probably one of the weirdest occurred the other day. 

This journal's Dunedin representative was toiling in his sanctum when the door opened slowly to admit a well-dressed but rather wild-eyed individual who seated himself on the other chair. 

"I want your advice, Mr. 'Truth,' " he announced. 

"What's it all about?" was the reply. 

"I want some printing done, and I want to know where is the best place to get it done." 

"Why, at 'Truth's' head office," was the natural reply. "What is the nature of the work you want done?" 

"I'll show you; it's pretty important,' said the visitor, who slowly unfolded a piece of paper some six inches square, and handed it across. 

"Truth's" man took it, and was aghast to read the following words set out in tabulated form: — CHINESE EXTERMINATION LEAGUE. To..... Our Mr. Lionel Terry will have the pleasure of waiting upon you on..... Signed. . . . . Secretary. 

This journal's representative, having read the amazing document, had to do some quick thinking. Manfully striving to disguise the fact that he "had the wind up" very badly, he inquired and was told that the visitor would want "a hundred or two, or maybe more." 

In reply to a further question, the visitor said that the origin, membership and headquarters of the League were at present secrets, and with cunning modesty declined a request for his personal card. He proceeded to enlarge on the necessity for the establishment of such a league in view of possible world happenings in the future. He challenged anyone to deny this statement. 

Diplomatically, if a trifle tremblingly "Truth's" man unhesitatingly agreed that all Celestials, of whatever age or sex should be put to death. But he argued that the time was hardly ripe for such drastic measures, and suggested quiet propaganda work amongst the white races of the world in the meantime. Besides, who was going to "do up" our collars and shirts and things. 

Gravely enough, the visitor agreed to the propaganda suggestion and the printing order is, at least, deferred. 

Anyhow, even should the "Chinese Extermination League" came to fruition its leaders will probably have to seek some other representative as, to "Truth's" own personal knowledge, Mr. Lionel Terry, hale, hearty and bronzed, is still enjoying lengthy constitutionals daily in the precincts of Seacliff.  -NZ Truth, 7/10/1922.

THE PASSING SHOW

By the Man about Town

SEVERAL STICKS

Wistfully mentioned herein within memory that the walking stick was creeping back into view. Only yesterday one saw a respectable person get an  accidental jab from a stick that was new to the wearer, and this morning the tobaccories seem to be hung with bunches of ash plants and other trophies of the forest. The walking stick technique will have to be relearnt. The "masher" of one's salad days used to carry his stick — and glove — held by the end nearest the ferrule, and seeing there were thousands of these weapons on the streets it was a marvel how emeutes, fracas and riots occurred so infrequently. The bunches of drooping sticks hanging from the doorways this morning reminded one mostly of those two or three pound weight sticks inlaid by devoted colonials in native woods and looking like strolling table tops. One determined gentleman, interviewing present stickless one, in a loud voice, produced an enormous street bludgeon hewed by him from the red heart of the manuka. He had spent six months of evenings doing it with a pocket knife and exhibited the stump of a knife that would make a Sheffield cutler blench with horror. It is not for one to declare where this stick manufacturer ended up; but once upon a time one possessed (without wanting to) an outsize in walking sticks hewn in puriri and carved from end to end with a pocket knife. It was the stick carried by a tall traveller who walked from Auckland to Wellington, carving his stick on the way. When he got to Wellington he shot a Chinese. Wonder who possesses Lionel Terry's puriri walking stick now?  -Auckland Star, 24/11/1934.

in which your author recounts the last years of Mr Terry

Terry settled down at Seacliff in his later years.  He remained physically fit and healthy and was permitted many freedoms around the village on condition that he not escape again.  He was constantly attended by two warders and delighted in punishing them with a vigorous walk up a nearby hill if he observed them to be hungover.  He was allowed to grow his own food, having by this stage a firm resolution that nothing "impure" would enter his body.  He was allowed to keep goats and sheep which would follow him around the village of Seacliff on his walks.  His home-made rose pergola was an attraction for visiting tourists.

Terry began to be obsessed with religion and, unsurprisingly, began to refer to himself as a prophet and was worshipped by some of the inmates of Seacliff as the long-awaited Messiah. 

Terry's life changed abruptly in 1940.  The hospital's Medical Superintendant was absent when it was time for all patients to be inoculated for typhoid.  The Superintendant had previously excluded Terry from the inoculation rounds due to his strong beliefs about what he introduced to his body.  On this occasion the inoculation was forced on him, Terry assaulted the administering doctor, and was put in solitary confinement.

This regime was made permanent.  Terry's garden was destroyed, his beloved animals were killed at the local slaughterhouse (much to the sorrow of Seacliff locals) and asylum staff confiscated his large supply of home-made parsnip and elderberry wine. (Yes, they let him make his own wine.) Apparently, the staff partied hard with Terry's wine, no doubt feeling free of any hard walks with Terry the next morning.

Terry felt entirely vindicated in the 1940s as the newspapers reported the advance of the "yellow peril" - Japan this time - invading its way towards New Zealand.  He read, wrote and painted and grew older.  In 1942 he produced a remarkable document, to "the People of New Zealand," charging them with 17 "offences and crimes" committed against him which included:

(I)"Fraudulent Misrepresentation and Deception" (presenting New Zealand to the English people as "God's own country.")

(III) "Incitement to Bloodshed"  ("did thereby compel me...to kill a Chinese alien...")

(X) "Maligning an Ancient and Honourable Family"  ("by representing me as a murderer and a criminal lunatic, you imputed shame and dishonour to the ancient and honourable family of which I am a member...")

(XV) "Attempted to Intimidate by Administering Noxious Drugs"  ("...attempted to impair or to destroy my sanity, to weaken my will...by the forcible injection of morphia and various other poisonous or stupifying drugs...")

(XVII) "Compelling a gentleman to Exist in a Madhouse by Forced Administration of Food" (he described being force-fed during his hunger strikes.)

At the end of his list of charges and claims against the people of New Zealand, he states: "And I require you to pay this sum of ONE MILLION POUNDS to Herr Adolf Hitler of Germany as a small token of my esteem and as a contribution towards the cost incurred by him and his brave and victorious followers in purging the world of miscegeneous, mendacious, slanderous, treacherous, murderous, covetous, blasphemous, hypocritical, cowardly, insolent and degenerate people, thereby making it possible for honest and intelligent men and women to live peaceful, happy and healthy lives."

He ends this claim by referring to himself as "the servant of ALMIGHTY GOD."

In 1952 he suffered a series of strokes and died. His body was taken to the Otago University's Medical School.  His later biographer, Frank Tod, heard the rumour of the fate of Terry's body and, having been told that Terry wished to have a Christian burial, organised the body's removal from the School.  

The body of Lionel Terry was buried secretly, in an unmarked grave, at Waitati Cemetery on the 27th of August, 1952.

in which your author finds a remnant or two

Quite coincidentally near the anniversary of Terry's death, I went to look for any remains of Terry's garden.  With the help of a neighbour or two I found the site of his gardens.  The last remnants of his rose pergola, a collapsing iron shed and what might have been one of his animal shelters could be found, as well as part of the garden's drainage system. 

in which Terry has the last word

As related, Terry came to see himself as a prophet in his later years.  This attitude is exemplified in his long poem "The Wonderful Religion of Wowserland."  I include selected excerpts:

(Terry begins by portraying a nation ruled by greed and allowing miscegenation)

And frowsy females prowled the streets
With pimply, piebald brats,
Arrayed in gaudy silks and furs,
and "Merry widow" hats.

And "biga-poly-hogamy"!
Lo! every vice was lawful!
And brothels, bethels, gambling-dens!
(The stench was simply awful!)

And then arose the SUPERMAN
When things were at their worst,
And said: "If you will go to Hell
"You'd better hang me first!"

He walked into a stinking slum
And killed a Chinaman
"There now, you filthy freaks! said he:
"Come, hang me if you can!"

The politicians hum'd and ha'd
The parsons ha'd and hum'd
And all their new religious views
To deepest depths they plumbed.

(His lines relate how the authorities refused to hang him and instead locked him up)

He laughed, and said "poor, purblind fools!
"Though chains my body bind,
"Your puny efforts cannot chain
"The forces of my mind."

"So wallow in your filthy slime,
"And drink and smoke and revel,
"You soon shall know that GOD can go
"One better than the Devil!"

He cursed the King and Parliament,
His charge they could not answer
The Government was overthrown,
The King he died of cancer!

And ghastly, strange and sudden deaths
Befell those wretched liars
Their doctors called it "heart disease"
(But some said "Ananias"!)

(Terry continues to describe the downfall of his foes - indeed, the downfall of the entire nation)

And thus those putrid piebalds died
And then, to end my story,
The SUPERMAN forsook his cage
And lived and reigned in glory.

His faithful children ate the fruits,
And played amongst the daisies,
That grew above the bones of those
Whose souls were sent to blazes.