LIBEL ALLEGED

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 54, 28 November 1923, Page 8

LIBEL ALLEGED

CLAIM AGAINST VICAR TEACHER CLAIMS £5OO DAMAGES By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, November 27. The Anglican vicar of AVaimate North, Bay of Island, the Rev. John William Robinson, was sued in the Supreme Court for £5OO damages for alleged libel, tho plaintiff being AVilliani John May, school teacher at AVaimato North. The alleged libel was contained in a letter which defendant wrote to Air. Purdie, secretary of the Auckland Education Board, in the course of which he said that “May said to one of my parishioners: ‘lf you people do not want to see your vicar in Court you had better drop this matter altogether.’ My reply has been to publicly challenge the man to take the case to Court. I know well that he dare not. Ho is the most unmitigated scoundrel I have ever met, and I have met some queer characters in my time.” Plaintiff alleged that that was a false and malicious publication. _ The defence denied that publication was false and malicious, and further pleaded that the words were published to the secretary of the Education Board in reference to and in the course of a series of complaints against plaintiff made by the School Committee and householders to the board. Defendant believed that every word was true when he published them, and did so with the honest desire to protect himself and the children attending the Air. Endean (counsel for plaintiff) said that the school committee had summoned plaintiff to appear before them, and, according to him, defendant accused him of being guilty of immoral teaching to children. Naturally, plaintiff itimped to his feet and said, “It is a lie.” Defendant amended his statement to “improper teaching.” Apparently in the course of giving civic instruction to the school children May gave a brief account of the Ponsonby murder trial with thg> object that it might be a deterrent to the boys not to commit crime. Then there was a reference to a woman who committed suicide to illustrate the meaning of the term “despondency.” “There was nothing very serious about that,” commented counsel. “You will hear from Air. Dunlop, the advisory inspector, who investigated the . matter, that he considered that what was read to the children was reprehensible, and that Alay was told not to do it again.” Air. AVest (for defendant): He was censured. Air. Endean: Yes. he was censured, but does that justify a Minister saying that a schoolmaster who had been 42 years teaching was the most unmitigated scoundrel he had ever met. When cross-examined, plaintiff said that he did not read the Ponsonby murder case to the children, but he mentioned it. He admitted that he might have told the children, how an execution took place and that he might have drawn a gallows with a trap door on the blackboard. After a considerable amount of evidence had been heard, the hearing was adjourned. “