LIONEL TERRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3778, 26 November 1907, Page 3

LIONEL TERRY.

Still at Large. Dunedin, November 25. Lionel Terry was seen on Saturday afternoon at Hindoo. He must have crossed the saddle-track from Seacliffe, a distance of 40 miles in a southerly direction. He was wearing sandals and was barebeaded, but otherwise was dressed as when he made his escape. When he was observed, Terrv was close to a settler’s house, and an invitation to partake of a meal wcs declined. He proceeded inland inthe direction of Middlemarch.

Lionel Terry who escaped from the Seocliffe Assylum and is still at Lrge is a most remarkable man. Two years ago last mouth he set out to enter a practical protest against the admision of Chinese into the dominion, by shooting a Chinaman in Haining street, Wellington. He was sentenced to death, and viewed the sentence with equanimity. The sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, but subsequently Terry was removed from the Lyttelton gaol to the Sunny side Asylum. Twice, by ingenious methods, he escaped, and on each occasion he enjoyed a couple of days’ liberty. On his recapture he submitted quietly, stating that he would escape again when opportunity offered, but, having emphasised his hatred for the Chinese race, he would show no further active hostility to it. The object of his persistent atL-mps to escape, according to his statement, is to enter a protest against being pent up with insane persons. He prefers the imprisonment to which he was sentenced to the treatment be is receiving, and considers that his committal to an insane asylum has neither justification nor excuse. There is little reason to fear that he will commit any offence against the public peace.

Terry’s escape from Seacliffe is related by a Dominion correspondent :—lt seems that he was in the library with two attendants shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday. He went into the adjoining scullery, and thence into an ex-patient’s room. One of the window stops had been taken out of this room recently, and the stop was loose. It is surmised that Terry, having gained a knowledge of this fact, took advantage of his opportunity to make an escape by means of the window, which opens on to the grounds, and Is not high. Only a couple of minutes could have elapsed between the time he left the attendants and the discovery of his escape.