LIBEL ALLEGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 171, 21 July 1936, Page 5

LIBEL ALLEGED.

EVIDENCE CONCLUDED. ACTION BROUGHT BY SEAMAN. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. The hearing of the action for alleged libel brought by Douglas Gibson, a seaman, against Fintan Patrick Walsh and Felix Newfield, president and secretary,! respectively, of the Wellington Seamen's Union and the New Zealand Federated Seamen's Union, was continued before Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court to-day. Plaintiff claimed £000 damages. Defendant Newfield, in evidence, was questioned by Mr. Hay, who appeared for defendants. Mr. Hay: Gibson has charged you with going out of your way to suggest to seamen that they should peruse the books in the union office in Wellington, where they would find what sort of a man Gibson was. Witness: That statement was not true. Mr. Hay: What is your remembrance of the Waipahi incident ? Witness: There was some trouble among the men about going to sea with Gibson, and I told the men that Gibson ! was a financial member of the union I and had as much l ight to go to sea with [ the steamer as they had. I also made | a similar remark in regard to the case | of the Orepuki. Mr. Hay: Gibson has had frequent opportunities of getting jobs during the past six months'! Witness: Yes, he could have got a job almost at any time. Mr. Hay: Have you any animosity toward Gibson ? Witness: No, and he knows it. This concluded the hearing of evidence. Counsel addressed the Court this afternoon. On the question of damages, Mr. Hay pointed out that in the action for wrongful expulsion begun by Gibson last year at about the same time as the present case, £35 damages were awarded. The hearing was adjourned until I Saturday.