CONFESSION OF MURDER.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1751, 27 September 1905, Page 42

CONFESSION OF MURDER.

SUNDAYS TRASECY. THE OFFENDER SURRENDERS. LIONEL TERRY IN GAOL. The murderer of Joe Kum Yung has surrendered. On Sunday night tbe Inspector of Police said, ‘The evidence is slight; there is an absence of motive, and the search for the murderer may be long, for it is evidently the act of one demented.” But the search terminated at half-past nine on Monday morning, when Lionel Terry walked into the Lambton quay police station, and calmly informed the watehhouse-keeper that he had murdered a Chinaman on the previous evening; “and that,” he said, laying a five-chambered revolver on the counter, three compartments of which were loaded and two empty, “was the weapon that did the deed.” Inspector Ellison was immediately informed. and the man reiterated to him what he had said to the constable. Subsequently he handed the inspector two copies of his book “The Shadow,” and remarked. “That will explain the position to you.” The inspector informed Terry that he could do nothing more than charge him with the Haining street murder, committed the previous night. He was, therefore, taken into custody. Inspector Ellison informed a “Mail” reporter that Terry made statements to him. but he could not repeat them. However, they would come out at the inquest on the Chinaman, which is to be held at the hospital at two o’clock to-day. Accused had been in Haining street previously, and he expected to be able to give evidence in this regard at to-day’s inquiry. The accused did nob oommunicate a great deal to the inspector. AT THE COURT. Half an hour after Terry had given himself up, the City Police Court was opened, and there was a large crowd of onlookers “behind the rails,” in expectation of an arrest having been made in connection with the murder. The first name called was “ Lionel Terry,” and there walked to the prisoners’ dock a fine, handsome-looking man, standing .6ft 3in high, and built in proportion. He was clean-shaved, and dressed in a neatly-fitting Norfolk suit. His tread was firm, and he stood perfectly still while the Clerk of the Court lead out: “ Lionel Terry, you are charged with murdering Joe Kum Yung, a Chinaman, in Haining street, on the night of September 2’4th.” Accused did not reply, and his face showed no sign of emotion. Inspector Ellison, applied for a remand till the 2nd prox. This was granted, and the accused was taken back to the cells, and was lodged at the Terrace Gaol. On Monday morning, shortly after 9 o’clock, Terry visited Holliday’s book and stationery shop on Lambton quay, and inquired with the utmost composure how the sale of his pamphlet—“ The Shadow” —was going. On being informed that it was not selling very well, he remarked that it would “ sell better to-morrow.” His prediction was forestalled, for since the news that the author had become a self-confessed murderer, there has been a lively demand for the booklet, and in consequence of the demand the price has moved upwards. TERRY’S MOTIVE. LETTER TO LORD PLUNKET. In a letter forwarded to bis Excellency the Governor the self-accused man throws light upon the motive underlying the crime. The letter is in. the following terms: — “Club Hotel, “ Wellington, Sept. 24, 1905. “ To tbe Governor, “New Zealand. “ Sir, —Having spent several years in various portions of tbe British Empire in inquiring into tbe subject of the results arising from alien immigration, and being convinced of the evil consequences arising therefrom, I have decided to bring the matter before tbe public eye in a manner which will compel the attention it demands. I will not, under any consideration whatever, allow my rights, and those of my brother Britons, to be jeopardised by alien invaders; and, to make this decision perfectly plain, I have this evening (Sunday) put a Chinaman to death in the Chinese quarter of this city, known as Haining street.—l remain, “LIONEL TERRY, ■ r< British subject.” TERRY’S MOVEMENTS. It is not clear where Terry went immediately after committing the murder, but, according to tbe constable on duty at Lambton quay police station on Sunday night, a man, whose description coincides in every detail with

Terry’s, walked into the watch-house at about ten minutes to 9, and asked to “see one of the officials.” When informed that the officers were not about, the man walked off. Terry must have wished to give himself up on Sunday night shortly after the shooting took place. Aocused had been staying at the Club Hotel, and a “Mail” reporter made inquiries at that place on Monday. When the reporter called, a number of guests were sitting in the smoking-room, included amongst “ whom were several members of Parliament. Every person in the room was acquainted with Terry, and all were of the same opinion—that he was the “finest and most manly fellow they had met.” On the “alien question” he showed narrowness of mind. He refused to eat vegetables or fruit, or anything else which “might have been sold by a Chinaman.” “They say he is thirty-five,” said one person; “but. I thing that is wrong. I remember that the ‘Otago Daily Times’ used to publish letters on the Yellow Peril’’ twenty years ago written by Lionel Terry in San Francisco; and I should say he is forty-five at least.” s Mr Sherratt, tbe licensee of the hotel, said Terry on Sunday night “slept just as sound as anyone else.” Terry came into the hotel on the evening in question, and went to the smoking-room, where three or four guests were sitting, and held an auction sale of a walkingstick. It was a very fine stick, made of New Zealand wood, and was handsomely carved in floral designs by the owner. Terry said he would have no use for the stick after that day, and it was “knocked down” to one of the guests for 2s 6d. . f

LIONEL TERRY—THE MAN. Lionel Terry is a man whom anyone with an eye for physical excellence would look at a second time. He is tall—6ft 3in—with the carriage of a Life Guardsman. Evenly-moulded, cleanshaven features, lit up by a good-natur-ed expression, a well-bronzed skin, and dark hair turning grey, make him a fine-looking man. The people most surprised at hearing of the extraordinary affair and its denouement were those who bad met him. In manner he is unostentatious, with the quiet bearing of an English gentleman, whose mind has been broadened by extensive travel. He is a native of Kent, England, and only a few days ago, in the course of a chat with a “Mail” reporter, supported the claims of his county to be called “the garden of England.” Terry is a surveyor by profession, and a roamer by inclination. He was at one time a trooper in the Horse Guards Blue, _ until his nomadic disposition asserted itself, and be went to South Africa, where be joined the South African Police Force, but between whiles he had tramped about the Continent in various directions. Some two years ago Terry obtained employment in the Lands and Survey Department at Wellington, and remained there for twelve months, performing his duties, both in the office and on the field, efficiently, and being regarded by his fellow-workers as a courteous, amiable man. A WALKING TOURIST. A year ago he left for the North, and nothing was beard of him until wayside papers began, to notice his progress on a walking tour from Mangonui (in the extreme north of this island) to Wellington. He left Mangonui on July 19th, and, walking in easy stages, reached Auckland 'in a fortnight. Thence the journey was made via Waikato, Rotorua, Taupe, Napier, the Bush district, Wairarapa, and the Hutt, the final stage from the Hutt to Wellington being made on the morning of the 14th inst. This is not the only walking feat to his credit. He knows British Columbia thoroughly, having walked eleven hundred miles over its ways. Walking with him is a hobby, and train travel makes him sick.

TERRY ON RACE DETERIORATION. Speaking to a “Mail” reporter, Lionel Terry enunciated some radical yet not altogether irrational ideas on the causes that are bringing about a deterioration in the people. His walking proclivities _ led' up to the subject. He maintained that walking was man’s natural exercise, and that anything that lessened the necessity for that exercise was not beneficial. He instanced the. electric trams as a cause of deterioration, and pointed out that it was quite palpable in America, where people seldom walk any distance in the <cities, and. whore they live in an unnatural atmosphere for half the year. “If a man would only look after himself as he does his engines or bicycle,” said Mr Terry, it would be better for the race. It seems that the greatest time is taken up by inventing something or other that will prevent them taking natural exercise, In mixing concoctions to ward off the evils resulting from a want of exercise.” He is, too, an advocate off “natural” food, and holds the belief that a people should live on the food products of their own country. “It is all right to make a meal of bananas in tbe tropics. I have done so many a time,” he said; “and never felt the worse, but to eat the same quantity in Wellington would be unnatural, and surelv not flood for the health.”

THE DAY OF THE TRAGEDY. The Chief Draughtsman in the Lands and Survey Department, Mr F. W. Flanagan, was on intimate terms with Terry, and was frequently in his company. Terry first appeared in Wellington in May, 1903, when he obtained a position in the draughting office of . the department. He was a man of some culture, a good speaker, a clever artist both in .and white and watercolours, and had a literary bent. He had been in the Horse Guards, and through the Matabele war in the Mounted Police; yet he was quiet, unassuming, and every inch a gentleman. He neither. gambled nor smoked, and •was of a kindly disposition—“the last man in the world,’ 1 Mr Flanagan said, “whom you would expect to raise a hand to do anybody any harm.” Terry was for three months in the draughting office,, and then went bushfelling in the Taihape district, with the object, it was believed, of going on land. About fifteen months ago he went to the north of Auckland on the survey staff, and it is believed by those who know him that in the long days of loneliness spent there his feelings on the alien question became accentuated, even to the extent of a monomania. At any rate, it was during this period that he published the booklet on the subject, and from the time he left the North he had taken every opportunity of thrusting his arguments home with the public. He holds extreme views on other subjects. He objects to smoking because it pollutes the clear atmosphere; he objects strongly to any Parliamentary work being done, even by private members, on a Sunday ; he does not believe in cities, but in segregation he believes in going back to the pristine methods of living. In fact, he is a pessimist, believing in none of the things that the great majority of men to-day believe. Yet on none but the alien question could his views be regarded as eccentric. With regard to the necessity for exterminating the Chinese, lie was quite pronounced. He had, it is believed, lived in' China; had, at any rate, studied the life of the Chinese in Chinatown, San Francisco; and had seen them in South Africa. His book shows what- he thought of them. The question had often been argued between Mr Flanagan and the prisoner, but never with agreement. Terry’s manner was charming and magnetic, and refined even in ih-e heat of argument. He insisted the matter could only be settled by bringing it to a head early. It must be done by revolution. Mi* Flanagan held that the only way to effect a remedy was by constitutional means. No, his reply was, someone would have to make a beginning. Someone would have to be martyred. And yet, Mr Flanagan says, he never threatened or hinted at using firearms. That was the last thing he might he expected to do. One day last week Terry asked his friend to accompany him to Haining street, where they might see how the Chinese lived. Had he a passport from the police? No-, but that was not necessary. He would go into the Chinese houses himself. /. . Mr Flanagan replied jocularly that if he were a Chinaman he would kick the intruder out.

On Sunday Mr Flanagan and Terry spent the afternoon together walking. They returned to the Club Hotel at 5.30 p.m., had tea, and then Terry went out alone. What happened in the interval was told in yesterday’s “Times.” It was 9.15 p.m. when Terry returned. There was nothing peculiar in his manner. He was composed and in his usual spirits. At 9.30 the party had supper together—Terry, Mr Flanagan, one or two members of Parliament, and ladies. Terry mentioned, with indignation, that the Parliamentary Buildings were lighted when he passed. On Monday morning Terry and Mr Flanagan were together at the break-fast-table. The latter, who was reading the “New Zealand Times,” remarked in fun: “You were three days too early in going to Haining street. I Bee a Chinaman was shot last night.” Terry smiled, but said nothing. After breakfast he paid' his account at the hotel, and went out. It seems he had written a letter to the Governor explaining his part in the tragedy of the previous night, and his reason for acting as, he had done; he delivered the letter, and left the stick to be called for. Then he went to the station and surrendered himself. THE VICTIM. GREYMOTJTH, September 26. The victim of the Wellington murder was well known amongst the Chinese in this district. He was a native of Canton, and left China forty years ago. He spent four years in Victoria, and then came to Westland, where he followed mining at Maori Creek and Ahaura. He was on the Coast for thirty-three years, and it was while working on hag claim at Ahaura that his leg was broken by a tree falling on it. He was six months in the Grey Hospital, and sufficient money was subscribed by Chinese in this district to enable him to return to China. He left about ten months ago, and the local Chinese express some astonishment that he remained so long in Wellington.

A RULING PASSION. His theories on racial deterioration are far-extending, and embrace a determined objection and a whole-spirit-ed loathing of the Asiatic. In his pamphlet, “The Shadow, a.d. 2000: A Condemnation and a Prophecy,” he publishes a warning to civilised races against the introduction into white men’s countries of alien races. On the title page is printed a poem, entitled “A Prayer.” It is as follows: — When the Great Gold God, advancing, shall inherit all the earth, When our country shall be governed by the slave, When love and truth and honour shall be strangled at their birth, And the noblest shall have won the felonV grave; When our land shall be polluted by the outcast of the earth,v When corruption rageth rampant at its root, When our leaders shun their duty far the halls of reckless mirth, And blended blood shall bear its shameful fruit; When our land shall seek defenders midst an alien kith and kin. And shall writhe beneath a scourge of civil strife; When a mighty hybrid nation shall have .wen the wage of sin; Spare us. O God, the bitter curse of life’! On the following page is the dedication—“To my Brother Britons I dedicate this work.” Part of “The Introduction” is as follows: “Although the question of alien immigration into the British Empire lias been frequently brought into prominence during recent years, there are comparatively few people who realise its tremendous importance. This ignorance is partly due to the growing tendency of the majority of people to avoid great questions because they appear to be obetruso and complex, but the chief reason lies, undoubtedly* in the fact that the press throughout almost the whole of the civilised world is so completely under \the heel of the capitalist that it dare not make the truth known. For it is the capitalist . who is chiefiy responsible for such immigration. It enables him to work hie great industries with cheap labour, and therefore "i is to his interest that the people should be kept in the dark as to the evil consequences arising therefrom. And so perfectly is this bhndfoldiner system maintained that the ignorance of one British colony of the internal condition of another' is just as complete as it is amongst the respective inhabitants of any one of them. “It is only when the veneer of seeming prosperity and respectability is penetrated, and when one enters the ranks of labour, that the terrible ravages created by the alien can be properly appreciated. The reader will not need to be reminded that the British Empire is represented entirely by her labouring classes; from them she receives sustenance, and from them only she obtains her strength in time of peril. “ Take away her rulers, princes, and governors, her bishops, priests, and deacons, her lawyers, politicians, and capitalists, and she would still remain the British Empire; more so, in fact, because she would then be more representative of the British race and of its interests.

“ And that the labouring classes constituting the British Empire must he composed wholly of British, or, at least, of white people, is obvious for the following reasons: — “ 1. That the natural hatred existing between the various races of the world can never be eradicated by civilisation or any other means without the sacrifice of racial purity. “ 2. That in cases where this natural hatred has become in a measure smothered by unwholesome social conditions and circumstances, brought about by careless and corrupt legislation, and have respited in the inter-marriage of white with black or coloured people, the punishment exacted by nature has been signally severe, as is evidenced by the moral, mental, and physical ill-health of crossbred people throughout the world. “ 3. That the morals, methods of living, religious beliefs and general customs of the black and coloured races are totally strange, and in many cases revolting, to the white race, and, therefore, alien immigration into British possessions has a tendency to produce degenerate habits and to lower the moral standard amongst their white inhabitants. “4. That nothing is more conducive to the destruction of the great sentiment, patriotism, upon which the life of the Empire depends, than the presence of aliens amongst British people. “5. That the employment of alien labour in British industrial and commercial enterprises represents a. criminal injustice to the British workman, who is forced thereby into a competition for existence with an opponent whose cheap and low methods of living secure for him an overwhelming advantage, and must inevitably result in his commercial and industrial supremacy. “ 6. That the employment of alien labour in the industries of the Empire is the chief cause of the poverty, crime, and general degeneracy existing throughout the Empire. . “ 7. That by the importation of alien races into the British Empire, their diseases are also imported, and leprosy,

bubonic plague, and cholera axe a few of the terrible scourges that have been spread in many parts of the Empire in consequence thereof.” “THE SHADOW” POEM. The following are a few extracts from the poem, which throughout breathes the sentiment expressed in the introduction : Britain! thy name shall live in all the ages A mighty warning for a future race! Long after thou hast won thy sins’ dread wages Shall ring the story of thy life of glory, Thy fatal avarice, thy downfall —thy disgrace. O wherefore, Britain, wherefore didst thou not Thus, at the zenith of thy glory, die? E'en had thy name, thy greatness, been forgot Thou liad'st not thus have lived a scathing lie! Thou liad'st not thus have opened wide thy gate®, For all the plague-fraught offal of the . • earth, For thugs and thieves and vicious profligates Who fled the law of land that gave them birth! Thou liad'st not thus have wed to heathen lands And raised a scourge of mongrel nations round thee To claim thy royal name to plunge thine hands In seething sin—to rob and murder those who trusted thee — To suck thy blood in peace, in war to spurn thee Or fight with thee for gold as they would fight against thee. Tho pamphlet also includes a poem entitled “To the King;—an Exhortation.” The following extract show's the depth of the writer’s feeling on the great question he eventually stumbles’.over:— Wilt thou know the truth, O monarch? Church and State by Mammon led! Wilt thou know the truth, O monarch, ere the spark of hope be dead? Have our martyrs died for slavTy ? have our heroes fought in vain! Shall thy nation's strength be strangled bv tbe blighting lxist for gain? Shall the mighty British Empire, like a harlot steeped in shame, Cast off they who carved her glory on the pinnacles of fame? Shall she cherish craven Mongol, cringing slave of Mammon bred ? Shall she thus condemn her living and disgrace her mighty dead?

God and Purity thy watchword, all thy subjects' prayers thy law: Strike! and be thy nation's Saviour, King of Britain evermore! Strike! and reign in all the ages! Strike, if 'tis thy latest breath! Strike! O King! 'tis God or Mammon! Strike! O King! 'tis life or death!