Lillywhite's Pitiful Story.

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 8, 6 September 1901, Page 4

Lillywhite's Pitiful Story.

A Broken Down, Grey Headed Old Man. “It has taken all the sunshine out of my life. I shall never be the same man again.” The speaker was Mr Charles Lillywhite, whose confusion with Blatch, cost him eight precious months of liberty. An Evening News representative accidently met him in town, whereupon Lillywhite told the effect his imprisonment has had upon him, and uttered the words quoted.

“ I didn’t quite know what I was doing when I was released,” he went on, “and even, now I feel like a man who is recovering from a stiff dose of chloroform. When I was arrested at Auckland I had only been at work two days. It was the first time I had touched tools for eighteen months. During the whole of that period I had been laid up through having had both of my ankles broken. You can imagine my state of mind when I was told I was a prisoner, charged, with murder and arson. Was it any wondex* that I almost broke down in health ? On the voyage Home I was. kept below nearly the whole of the time. Just think, on the voyage from Sydney to the Cape in the Duke of Norfolk I w<ison deck only three hours, and the voyage occupied a month ! After leaving Capetow n for London we were well into the tropics before I was allowed on deck. The cabin in which I was closely confined was like a furnace. So great was the heat I had to sit in my underclothing. When permitted to go on deck it was only for two hours at nightfall, and then I was handcuffed to Constable Frost/’ Mr Lillywhite does not care to dwell on that terrible voyage —terrible to him. He is trying to forget, too, the agonising anxiety he suffered during those weary months between his arrest, and release. “My hair was only slightly tinged with grey,” he said,.

“ when I left New Zealand. Now it is almost white.” Deep lines have appeared on his forehead, his eyelids are constantly fluttering; he starts at every sound, his nerves are almost shattered. At forty-three he is prematurely aged, apparently yeax-s and yeax-s older than his brother Mr Isaac Lillywhite, of Leeds, who is only two years short of fifty. “ I don’t mind so much about myself,” he went on, “ but my friends have suffered as severely as X have done. In Auckland one all but died, and my mother, who is seventy-eight, was lying almost at death’s door when I was released.” As an American citizen, Mr Lillywhite has left his claim for compeu sation in the hands of the American Ambassador, with whom he has had an interview since his arrival in London. If he cannot obtain any satisfaction of his claim against the British Government in London he will make it again at Washington, which he will visit on his way back to New Zealand. His. belongings are still in the possession of the police at Coischester. Before going to Yorkshire, he intends taking trip to the quaint old Essex town —just to have a look round to "see what it is like, “ I didn’t have much opportunity while I was the guest of the borough recently, ” he said, with a smile. He may even deliver a lecture to the inhabitants to let them know the real facts of the case. He has had a lecturing offer from an enterpx-ising theatrical agent but has declined it.