STRONG CRITICISM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 200, 14 July 1936, Page 10

STRONG CRITICISM

MINUTES OF MEETING. SEAMEN’S UNION BUSINESS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, July 13. Strong criticism of the system of rerecording in the form of minutes the proceedings of the Seamen’s Union meetings was made by Mr Justice Blair during the hearing in the Supreme Court, Wellington, to-day of a claim for . £6OO for alleged libel made by Douglas Gibson, a Wellington Seamen’s Union member, against Finton Patrick Walsh and Felix Ncwfield, of Wellington, president and secretary respectively of both the Wellington Union and the New Zealand Federated Seamen’s Union. Mr L. K. Wilson and Mr lan MacArthur appeared for Gibson and Mr E. P. Hay for Walsh and Newfield. Mr Wilson handed in a three-page minuted speech by Walsh which, lie said, was vituperative throughout of Gibson. His Honour said he had never seen minutes before like those produced. It seemed that they were for the purpose of recording all the unkind things. Air Hay replied that the records were impartial. His Honour: It doesn’t matter. If a man gets up at a meeting and says another is a thief, then it is slander. It the secretary records it it is libel. If a person writes such a statement lie fathers it His Honour added that unsubstantiated statements could not be put down and circulated. “Did counsel mean to sav that an official had to record a lot of recrimination and blackguarding and call it privileged?” Air Hay: The otneials of this organisation would be in an unfortunate position if they could not record their •meetings in the wav it was done. His Honour: It is simply an abuse of the use of minutes.

Air Hay said it had been the custom to record meetings fully. His Honour: They had better be reported properly, leaving out the libellous matter.

Air Hay: The official only did his dutv.

His Honour: He has no duty to disseminate libel or publish irrelevant matter, even if true. It is an extra--01 dinary position. No man’s reputation is sale. All that lias to be done is for a man to get up and state that another member, say, m Alelbourne, is a big blackguard and should be off bis ship, and down it goes in the minutes. Alen come ashore and read these statements in the minutes. It is the same as reading a spicy newspaper. To say. that a person is entitled to publish what he likes about a man because someone lie would rather believe said it means that no man's reputation is sale in the circumstances.

Air Hay: It is an established practice.

His Honour: I don’t care if it is. The sooner it stops the better. It could be a very expensive practice. A man can come half-drunk to a meeting and say what lie likes and down it goes in the minutes. Air Hay: This was not quite fairly the position. The public wellare of the country was at stake at the time. Hi 6 Honour: Then as long as in the notions of some people the public welfare justifies it others can murder reputations at will. It is a great pity that statements can be put down in the minutes the only justification for which is that someone made them. It is like letting men go around sticking knives in persons’ reputations. The minutes are chock-full of libel, hake charges are embalmed in the minutes for no reason at all. ; The hearing will be continued tomorrow.