MR STEAD'S CONVICTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1445, 22 December 1885, Page 3

MR STEAD'S CONVICTION.

Mr Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Q<z tte, whs convicted on the charges of abduction and tampering with a minor, Eliz* Anm-t ong, and was, on November 10th, sentenced to three months' imprisonment. To a correspondent who called upon him in prison Mr Stead said: " I am in monstrously good spirits because I regard the trial as having disposed or' all the stock charges brought against my investigations. Let it be remembered that out of 57 columns of the Gazette articles h.irdly three depended upon Mrs Jarrett's evidence, and that I employed her only at the earliest period before I had learned how to go lo work myself. I strongly diprecate any attempt to make u row on my behalf, or to my that I have been treated unjustly, because that is not true. I made a blunder and am now paying the penalty for it. Still I nm upheld by the knowledge that my blunder is better than the wisdom of others." In a letter published on the 9th ho said lie would not quarrel about, the verdict whatever it nrght be, and that lie had a fair trial. He preferred Rebecca Jarrcit to be treated with mercy in prefer'nee to himself. He remained firm in the conviction that he whs rigl-t. After the conviction of the Gazette's Editor, the "conspiracy of silence " that he charged aerainst the LonJou Press was broken, much to Ids disadvantage. The Post alluded to Stead's " experience, in the monl vivis?ct ; on of helpless girls/' The Observer concluded that the revelations are a fibric of exaggerations resting on testimony that is utterly unreliable. T»-e Daily Telegraph attacked Stead for his " baseless scare and unutterable pollutions rpread broadcast." The Chronicle alluded to "Stead's ghastly harvest." The Daily News said "to oil these things rsvelutions is like confounding the Apocalypse with the Apocrypha. The Times strongly criticised the Bishop of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and ttie Cardinal, for the part they took "in a foul slander on London, whereof we have now been acquitted."