NEWSPAPER LIBEL ACTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12282, 8 July 1914, Page 5

NEWSPAPER LIBEL ACTION.

" ACTION AGAINST OTAGO DAILY TIMES. (Per Peeks Association.) Christchurch, July 8. Andrew Fairbaim's claim of damages of £IOOO for libel, brought against the Ofcago Daily Times, opened before Judge Sim; for plaintiff, Sir J. Findlay and Mr Wright; for defendants, Messrs M'Gregor and Stringer.. In opening the ease Sir J. Find lay said Fairbairn first refused to act 011 tlie Cost of Living Commission in 1912,. but consented when he found his name gazetted. A leading article in the Times headed "Faked Official Documents" implied that the Commission had distorted the evidence. The liiere fact that tlie report was different from the newspapers' report was not cient to justify a -charge oi rascality. The article was actuated by malice unprecedented in the annals of the Dominion's journalism, and showed tlie writer unfit for his position. plaintiff's case was that there was •no tampering and that all tlie. official reports were corrected by the witnesses. The charge 01 suppression rested 011 statements about .Beckett's Blue, alleged to have been made by Cut-hbert Bowyer and A. W. Janiieson aiyl not included in the official report. Ettie Rout.. official reporter, said Janiieson did not make the statement before the Commission. Janiieson corrected and signed the official report. Dr James High, a member of the Commission, stated that tlie statement regarding blue was not made by Jjuiieson. and no proposals were made "by the Commission to tamper with, evidence.