LIONEL TERRY GENTLEMAN.

NZ Truth, Issue 130, 14 December 1907, Page 4

LIONEL TERRY GENTLEMAN.

Now that Lionel Terry is recaptured, what do the authorities propose to do with him ? They cannot clap him m gaol for } escaping, "because, legally speaking, ' ho is beyond the pale of the Law, being an utterly irresponsible individual. He will, no doubt, be shut up again m the mental asylum under very close guard. Terry certainly 'had a long holiday this time, and the pursuing police seem to have had a ticklish time of it ere they captured him. But it is a really dangerous and wicked thing for a paper, like "Truth" to record anything of Terry, the man who has strong convictions, and who, if mad, showed Iris, madness m a very - tactical manner. Terry, by shooting a nondescript Chinaman certainly went a tittle further than twentieth century ethics expects of a man with a mission ; still, his homicide opened New Zealand's eyes wider than ever to a colored curse, which ■ even now is a problem, but with which posterity will have to grapple. It is, "Truth" repeats, a dangerous thing for a paper like this to say anything capable, of bearing the construction of lionising Lionel Terry, that is providing one can seriously consider the "Evening Post's" recent animadversions on Terrvism. No one ever made a I'Pi'o of Terry, no paper ever recorded !

Terry's utterances as the weighty utterances of a statesman, and "Truth" certainly never incented the small "tiger" of Kilbernie to deeds of lawlessness against the alien within our gates. The penny pinching pious "Post" would. have everybody believe that recent outrages on Chinamen were due to the canonisation of Lionel Terry forgetting all the while that the white, young or old, has a natural antipathy to anything .yellow, offensive or defensive treaties notwithstanding. The small boy. the youth, and the man will always look at the Chow as his natural enemy, and it is foolish on the "Post's" part to think or print otherwise. Of course, the ignorance of a recently-imported inkslinger on the "Post" m trying to paint Terry a blackguard, because he escaped from an irksome captivity, the endeavor to create a Terry scare by picturing him a& a ruffian ready to murder the first being that crossed his path, is responsible for the truly remarkable letter to a Dunedin paper from Dr. Truby Kino-, "medical superintendent of the Seacliff Asylum, from ' which Terry escaped. Thus Dr. Kinft, who should, above anybody, be able to form a just estimate of Terry's character :— "Mr Terry has, unfortunately, placed himself m v position which, causes people, though it does not entitle them, to speak, write, and act. as though he had neither understanding, nor feeling, nor sensibility. The fact that a man of strong convictions and intense earnestness of purpose , has felt impelled to act, and has acted, m a way which gained him entry to a hospital for mental diseases, affords no excuse for insulting public references, which can do nothing but harm. It is not reassuring to lonely women, m the back country to read alarming and suggestive articles representing as a particularly dangerous type of criminal a man who m reality ■ is a singularly kind and courteous gentleman, who would never dream of molesting or harmine: them m any way." A nasty jab on the jaw for an ignorant inkslinger this.