POWELKA AND THE PRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 374, 27 April 1910, Page 2

POWELKA AND THE PRESS.

To tlie Editor. Sir,—Which of the three P's—Powclka, the Police, or the Press—is responsible for the death of Maguire and Quirke? The Press certainly holds an unenviable position in the matter. The I ■wave of hysterical sensationalism that swept over panic-stricken Palmorston must in the main be attributable to it. If every one who swore they saw Powelka spoke the truth, then tue population of the Dominion is composed of some two hundred panic-stricken citizens, and the remainder of the inhabitants consist chiefly of Powelka. The spectre of these demented individuals was dished up as headlines for a sensa-tion-loving Press. Things have certainly come to a nice pass -when the occasion of a prisoner escaping is made the signal for the arming of all and sundry and the liberating of a lot of p,eo.ple possessing more ammunition than brains upon an unoffending public. The next time a prisoner escapes the Press should be gagged and the work of capturing the prisoner handed over to some elderlylady of the W.C.T.U. persuasion. This method would save us from a repetition of a miniature civil war such as happened at Palmerston, and it would save us also from being made the laughingstock of the Continents. But for the tragedy that crept into the matter, the whole affair was a joke of the Gilbertian order, and out of the chaos of foolishness and funk the manly words of the dying Maguire,'T had no gun, nor would I have used one if I had it," are a fit epitaph for the gravestone of a hero. A perusal of our pa.pcrs during the last fortnight leaves one under the impression that our much-lauded journalism is not entirely free from a tinge of yellow. —I am, etc., FRANK BELL. Tolco, April 23.