LIBEL CASE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 5

LIBEL CASE.

m DAMAGES AGAINST A NEWSPAPER. By Telegraph. — Press Association. -Copyright. SYDNEY, 24th March. The jury awarded Captain Strachan £1000 damages against the Herald for libel. The Chief Justice, in summing up, r,iid it did not matter how fair a newspaper was in opening its columns to two disputants in the publication of their version side by side ; jsuch fairness did not shield a newspaper from an action at law should a defamatory statement be contained in what was published. A court of law was the only tribunal which was given privilege for statements of a serious nature for and against. | Captain Strachan, a well-known master | mariner, claimed £5000. The libel was contained in statements said to have been made by Dr. Inner, Consul-General j for Germany, and published by the i Herald on 17th May last. The article ] was headed "Alleged Kidnapping," and j referred to the voyage of Captain Strachan in the ketch Envy, charging Strachan with recruiting natives oi Tobi Island under promise to return them to their homes, which promise, it is alleged, he failed to keep. The articles also alleged that Strachan had used efforts to induce the Tobi Islanders to i-eplace the German flag with the British.