"SCURRILOUS PARAGRAPHS"

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 101, 28 April 1917, Page 6

"SCURRILOUS PARA GRAPHS"

A NEWSPAPER'S , LEGAL RIGHTS,

/Judgment in a novel case arising out of certain statements published in a newspaper was delivered in the Magistrate's Court to-day by Mr. L. ,G. Reid, S.M. The case, which was heard at Upper Hutt last week, was that in which Eileen May Alexander and Laura E. Higgins, for whom Mr. J. S. Barton appeared, asked that Flora May M'Curdy be bound over to keep the peace. The charges arose out of paragraphs which appeared in defendant's nevvspaper, the Upper Hutt Independent, and which, it was alleged, referred to the plaintiffs, and were of such a ptovoking nature as to be likely to result in a breach of the peace. Evidence was given by plaintiffs that the paragraphs referred to ;them, that they had been spread over a long period, and were still continuing. The, case was brought under the subsection 12, Clause C, of the Justices of the Peace Act, whiph states: " . . . . who gives him satisfactory evidence oa oath''that iho person from whom surety is sought used provoking, or insulting language." The defence raised by Mr. H. F O'Leary, who appeared for defendant, was that the word "language" in the clause in question meant spoken language, and no other. '

Mr. Reid held that the contention put forward by Mr O'Leary was a good one. There was no .evidence that the worda complained of were really spoken or used by the defendant, and it was apparent that the person who used the words was defendant's father, Angus John M'Curdy. Hia Worship had, not the slightest sympathy with the "act of publishing the paragraphs, which, in his opinion, were most, scurrilous. - There was no doubt about the legal position, however, and the casa would have to be dismissed. No costs were allowed. ■ ,