ARGUS ACCEPTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 1

ARGUS ACCEPTS

MR. LIDDLE MAY STAGE OPPOSITION SHOW CONDITIONS FOR PERFORMANCE The wide interest aroused in the controversy of Mr. K. W. Liddle and Argus, the professed boy mental telepathist, has been intensified by the conditional acceptance by Argus of Mr. Liddle’s challenge. Mr. Copeland, on behalf of Argus, is prepared to accept Mr. Liddle’s challenge for a test performance at the Town Hall Concert Chamber. Mr. Liddle is to have no assistants on the stage or under the stage, however, for the reason that Argus himself makes use of no such assistance. Mr. T. J. Fleming, solicitor for Mr. Copeland, writes to The Sun: “I have been much interested in the controversy in your paper with reference to Argus. I acted as solicitor for Argus when he was in New Zealand eight years ago, and when he was prosecuted by the police to* undertaking to tell fortunes. The case came before the late Mr. Poynton, S.M., on January 17, 1921. Mr. Poynton was so much impressed by the defence that he set apart the following Friday to enable Argus to give a public demonstration in court of his powers. “At Mr. Copeland’s request I asked the magistrate to permit a to be given there and then. There were present a number of members of the police, court officials, a reporter, Mr. Copeland, Argus and myself. Mr. Copeland requested the magistrate to test the boy himself by putting certain questions to him. The boy was sent to the back of the court facing the back wall. Mr. Poynton was on the Bench and the others present in the body of the court. Mr. Poynton picked up a book and opened it. No one could see it but himself. He pointed to something in the book and said: ‘Now, my boy, can you tell me what I am pointing at?’ The boy immediately mentioned the title of a Statute. “The magistrate turned over some pages in the book, pointed to something else, and again asked the boy what it was. The boy gave him the name of another Statute. The magistrate then in quick succession pointed to about a dozen different pages in the book and the boy immediately gave the number of the page on each occasion. The magistrate then closed the book and pointed to something on the back of it. The boy immediately called out the initials J.E.W.

“Mr. Poynton informed those present in court that the boy had been correct in every case, and that the initials mentioned were those of Mr. Wilson, S.M., to whom the book belonged. This seems to me to be one instance of several which took place at that test, and on the following Friday, which cannot be explained by the use of a code or any mechanical means. The magistrate was satisfied that the boy had telepathic powers, and was able to read his, Mr. Poynton’s, mind. I am citing this example in the interests of scientific knowledge and to give the critics of Argus an opportunity of explaining it. The boy at the time was only nine years of age. MR. POYNTON SATISFIED “Mr. Poynton was fully satisfied as a result of these tests that the boy had wonderful gifts, and said he considered it a pity that he could not be taken in hand by experts in the science of the mind for the purpose of affording data for that branch of science. He was satisfied that Mr. Copeland and Argus were quite sincere in their belief in the boy’s telepathic powers, and dismissed the information under section 92 of the Justices of the Peace Act. “I may say that the position taken by Mr. Copeland at the time was (a) that the boy could always read his, the father’s mind, (b) that he could often read the mind of others, but not always, and (c) that he could not foretell future events unless there was some presently existing clue in the mind of some person, and unless Argus by his powers could get in touch with that person’s mind. In any case they did not claim that any answer relating to the future would be correct and gave such answers only by way of experiment.”