OHAKUNE LIBEL ACTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9586, 2 September 1913, Page 6

OHAKUNE LIBEL ACTION.

NONSUIT POINT UPHELD. A motion for a nonsuit in the Ohakuno libel case wa6 determined by the judgments 0 f their Honors the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) and Mr Justice Chapman, delivered at the Supreme Court by the latter yesterday afternoon. The action was one for libel, in which William Canning, postmaster, of Ohakune, was the plaintiff and Alexander Herbert Wilkie, land agent, of Ohakune, the defendant. When the case was heard at Palmerston North, before his Honor Mr Justice Chapman, the jury found a verdict for plaintiff for £250 damages. Leave was reserved to the defendant to move for a nonsuit, and the point was argued in Wellington. The. libel alleged was contained in a letter sent by defendant addressed to the Secretary of the General Post Office, Welling'on. containing the following statement:—"A police raid Mas made in Ohakuue about two months ago on the premises of a Chinaman, Ah Duck King, a convicted sly-grog seller. Some licpior was seized by the jxilice, and when giving evfllence in the open Court when the case wan tried the Chinaman stated on oath that ho had received tbo whisky seized from Mr Canning. As a resident of the district, therefore, 1 respectfully submit that an explanation should I>e made in connection with this matter.' 1 His Honor the Chief Justice, in the course of his judgment, upheld the nonsuit, and this view was concurred in bv his Honor Mr Justice Chapman. The defendant war, awarded costs of the trial as per erale, with witnesses' expenses and disbursements as fixed by the Registrar. At the hearing Sir John Findlay, K.C.. and Mr A. W. Gould (Ohakuue) appeared for the plaintiff and Mr C. K. jMackay (Wanganni) for the defendant.