"A TRUMPERY CASE."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19736, 8 September 1927, Page 13

"A TRUMPERY CASE."

SEQUEL TO LIBEL ACTION, RIVAL LAUNCH PROPRIETORS, JUDGE DISMISSES APPEAL. [B7 TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. J HAMILTON, Wednesday. The literal meaning of the words "Don't be had," was discussed at length before Mr. Justice Herdman in the Hamilton Supreme Court to-day when H. R. McDonald, launch proprietor, Rotorua (Mr. E. Roe), appealed against the decision of Mr. W. G. Kenrick, S.M., in a case in which the magistrate had found that a rival launch proprietor, C. H. Hayward, of Rotorua (Mr. H. J. McMullin), had libelled appellant, the magistrate assessing the damages at £5. The circumstances, as explained by Mr. Roe, were that Hayward and McDonald conducted launch trips on Lakes Rotorua and Rotoiti at, 7s 6d a trip. Hayward undertook an extended trip and employed a Maori historian to explain to visitors points of interest. He then increased the fare to 12s 6d. McDonald also added similar improvements, but maintained his fare at 7s 6d. Then there commenced a war of vituperation and innuendo, both parties displaying notices in their office windows regarding the rival concern. The libel action heard before the magistrate was principally based on the notice posted in McDonald's window which bora the words: "Don't be had. Why pay 12s 6d for a 7s 6d trip ?" / The magistrate held that these words could be read in a defamatory sense, but Mr. Roe, on behaK of McDonald, contended that the words did not bear that meaning and that they were privileged in that they formed a retort to words used by Hayward.

His Honor remarkeji that the case was a trumpery one. Mr. McMullin argued that the words, "Don't be had," imputed dishonesty and fraud, and that the magistrate was right in his decision that a libel had been perpetrated and that it was clear the words referred to Hayward. . The Judge, in giving his decision, said the case was a paltry one and the Supreme Court should not have been troubled with it. The rivalry between the two concerns developed into a wordy warfare in which McDonald libelled Hayward.

The Judge upheld the magistrate's decision and dismissed the appeal.