LIBEL CASE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1913, Page 8

LIBEL CASE

ffULLER v. THE TRIAD. (B* TBLB6BAPH— PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, This Day. At the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Edwards and a jury are hearing tho action for alleged libel brought by John Fuller against The Triad newspaper, claiming £501 damages for libel. The libel complained of was published ort 10th March, and set out in part that the plaintiff was never a singer of any special merit, because his voice was never properly trained, and quoting a story alleging managerial -meanness, with' the comment, "But that is John all over, and John will never change this side of the Rolling Jordan. His closefistedness doesn't matter, because that, after all, is his own affair; but, ah! if somebody could only persuade him not to eing any more." The defence is that the article is incapable of a defamatory meaning, that the statements were true in substance and fact, and a fair comment om a matter of public interest. , The case is proceeding. The following is the full text of the article complained of : — "The Theatre, Sydney's bright little organ of mummerdom (and the thickest of flapdoodle of laudation regarding actorß), some time ago looked as if it might pick- up and become a critical paper in a small way. But that time is no more. To-day everything is grossly praised and fulsomely beslobbered. Even poor old John Fuller has it ladled out to him. It is not fair to encourage an old man like that in the delusion that he has a voice, because the more fully he is persuaded that he has one the more likely he is to make a fool of himself in public in the future some time. But The Theatre talks the wildest nonsense about John's voice, and in the end that sort of thing becomes rather disgusting to us. The fact of the matter is that while John had a shrill and tuneful enough little pipe > years ago, it is now not much more musical than a pig's whistle. He never was a singer of any special merit, because his voice was never properly trained, and he never knew just what to do with it. Otherwise John Fuller is an original and most humorous old bird, and when he wastes a penny or runs the risk of losing sixpence, you may expect to see the stara drop. Home months ago in Auckland he stopped a well-known journalist in the street. 'Come up and hear me sing,' he said. Old John knew in his heart, of course, that the writing man could not possibly want to hear him fling. However that may be, the writer said he would call" up. 'I'm pretty busy,' he said, "and I've been pretty seedy. Still I'll try to look in on Saturday night.' At that John pursed his lips. 'Rather big business on Saturdays,' he said. Now, John Fuller is perhaps the only man now prominent in the show business in Australasia that could be capable of quite that depth of managerial meanness. But that is John all over, and John will never change this side of the Rolling Jordan. His closefistedness doesn't matter, because that is, after all, his own affair; but, ah, if somebody could only persuade him not to 'sing' any more." ,