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New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5495, 27 June 1879, Page 4

A curious action for libel has just been tried in Fiji, before Chief Justice Gorrie, and a summarised report of the case will be fourd elsewhere. The case was brought by Air. J. S. Hobday, a solicitor of the Supreme Conrt, Fiji, again3fc Mr. W. F. Parr, who was also a member of the Fiji bar. Damages were laid at £1000, and the plaintiff W33 awarded £150, defendant being saddled with the costs of the action. The facts of the case are rather peculiar. It appears that Sir Arthur Gordon had appointed Mr. Hobday to the office of Crown Solicitor, much to the annoyance o£ Mr. Parr, who thereupon wrote a letter to Sir M. Hicks-Beach, Secretary of State for the Colonies, impugning the appointment of that man Hobday, "as aninaulfc to the bar." In this communication, which also contained some allusions to the question of native taxation, the writer contrived to revive some old scandals concerning Hγ. Hobday, and these formed the subject of the libel referred to. It seems that Mr. Parr had previously sent letters to the Secretary of State, which had not been transmitted through the ordinary official channels, and which, he had been informed, could not be taken notice of. The defendant pleaded that his communication to that high functionary concerning Mr. Hobday was a privileged communication, but the judge ruled that only such portions of it were so as dealt with public matters on public grounds, and that where malice was cleary proved in such cases, the plaintiff had his remedy. The Chief Justice alluded to the fact that there are always men in every colony who bear the self-imposed duties and cares of State, and constitute themselves a Court of Review alternately upon the Ministry or the Governor. "We have seen something of this kind of thing in New Zealand, and the colony, during the Waitara controversy, suffered severely through these ungenorous practices. Chief Justice Gorrie assures all such persons that they will take nothing by their motion by being " a thorn in the Governor's aide." " The antidote gene-

rally goes home, as a rale, with the poison and Governors _ are generally able to hold their own against such antagonists, and they have always the advantage of the la«t word."