JURY'S JOLT FOR JOHNSON

NZ Truth, Issue 1173, 24 May 1928, Page 5

JURY'S JOLT FOR JOHNSON

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Wellington Representative.) "A STILL tongue maketh a wise head," might appropriately be annexed ■" by Leslie Johnson, man of many interests, as his slogan m the future. For permitting his tongue to rule his head, he was mulcted m the sum of £300 and costs m the Wellington Supreme Court recently for slandering a farmer m the Mangaroa (Upper Hutt) district. , The trouble arose over a deal between Johnson and James Joseph Maher J P chairman of the local school committee. Johnson leased a piece of swamp land to Maher some time last year, but when the latter took the land over, there were two heifers and a bull grazing there. What ultimately became of these animals — or,, strictly speaking, the two heifers was the cause of the slander, Johnson remarking to an employee of Maher's: "I know where the heifers, are. The milk has gone into Jim Maher's cans and the earmarks have been' tampered with." On another occasion Johnson told a carpenter employed m the district; that Maheri was a half-caste Maori and that "he couldn't help stealing if he tried: It was born m him." ' ''■" : •""•:' .The cattle had. been taken from the swamp unknown to Maher, but later, when he was apprised of the fact, he told his employees to return them. The heifers, however, got out on the road, wandered away and had not since been seen. : ;'. ' • _ Maher, when giving evidence concerning these cattle, said he. retained the- bull with his herd up till recently. Anyone was entitled to take it away and he- would have been pleased had someone done so. ' This bull, "the parish bull," as Mr. Justice ,Ostler described ft, used to stray about the district, and was not to be taken lightly. f Johnson denied the slanders, but admitted m justification, if he had uttered them, that he thought Maher stole the cattle. Johnson, m the box, admitted that he. had been convicted on two charges of forgery and one of false pretence. "But I didn't do it," he added. 'M said I did to protect a woman." After a brief retirement, the jury found for plaintiff for £300, 'anjdflCOßtß..;. ".'■• ;" " . .-..'■■ ' .1,/.'-. .- ' •,■••.■■.••■■;:■■. -^ aV^;;-