THE OPOTIKI LIBEL CASES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 587, 26 March 1891, Page 2

THE OPOTIKI LIBEL CASES.

No one will be sorry to hear the end of the Opotiki libel cases. The progressive little district of Opotiki is meant for something better than to be the home o fire-eating editors or parsons whose belligerent attitude disturbs the general peace. The outcome of the cases proves the applicability of the comments we made some months ago. The editor? being unable to prove all the points tn his plea of justification, pleaded guilty, but the parson allowed his case to go to the jury with the result that they accepted his plea of justification. But he got what he is said to have courted, the fullest enquiry, with comments thereupon by the Judge. However, we should not care to allow a word to slip that could by any means still further estrange the parties concerned. We hope that both sides will take the lesson to heart, that each will see and admit his own fault in the affair, and that a general reconciliation may be the result. The litigants should look to something higher to engage their attention than miserable petty wrangling and the stirring up of dirty water, by which no one is benefited and many are injured. If a more kindly spirit were shown on either side the past might be buried with the dead past, and a new future could be entered upon. The trial plainly shows that the blame by no means rests on the one side, and if each were now to recognise the responsibility the chances of a wholesome change in the future would be greatly increased.