POLITICAL LIBEL CASE

Otago Witness, Issue 2309, 2 June 1898, Page 20

POLITICAL LIBEL CASE

Wellington, M&j 27. At the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice delivered the ju'lgmenfe oE himself and Mr Justice Edwards on the motion by the Otago Daily Times and Witness _ Newsp&pers Cotcpanj foe a new trial of the libsl aciioa brought against it by Mr Mills, M.H R. The ground of the application was the improper re-jection of evidence. The libel appeared in the Otago Witness .in the form of. a printed article from the Manawatu Standard, and related to the alleged improper conduct on the part of Mr Milis in obtaining the removal of Constable Jeffries from Picton to Tak&ka, Nelson, foi' political reasous. The jury g&vu k verdict in favour of the plaiutiff. The court considered that whereas the defendant admitted tbab the libel as a whole was written of the plaintiff, to permit defendant to say that the words were written of plaintiff bub therO were some faclsa . not specified as, being acts o? conOucfc of his which jastifiecl us fair comment tba opinions expressed, in the word* would bo contrary to tLe principle of defence and fair commenfc. It would be unfair to plaintiff that defendant should, without justifying as true any charge he had made, eecape the consequence of bis publication by -saying when, brought to trial that there was conduct of plaintiff which he did not mention or refer to in his article of- a kind jshiob justified ibis forming the bad opinion o[ plaintiff etprcßted in the words complained of. In this • instance the article did impute - that the constable was removed for party, political "reasons', and ib appeared capable of being understood to imoute that plaintiff's action in regard to party politics was the cause of the removal. If tha defendant w&uted to prove that the cotstabla was removed for party political teaaou*. such proof would admittedly ha?e been relevant \S defendant had accspted the position lhal he meant to ask the jury -to conclude bfcafc plaintiff's action was the cause of tha& removal on such grounds. If, however, defendant at the time the evidence n*a tendered shrank from that evidence, ib was, the court thought, inadmissible on rev purposes for which it was tendered. Counsel for defendant in effect; admitted when evidence was tendered that he was unable to wrova a. connection of plaintiff with removal on party or-political grounds, and, that being so, evidence was properly rejected as evidence of fact itself irrelevant. The court thought the evidence was, under the circumstances in which it was tendered, properly rejected, whether for purposes of defence of fair comment, justification on grounds of truth, or mitigation of damages. It was unnecessary, therefore, to consider the objection as to the mode of proof. The motion for a new trial was therefore dismissed, with £10 10s costs and disbursements.

Thirty-one candidates have entered for the annual accountants' examination — 5 as fellqvrs, 11 as associates, and 15 as students. This is a large increase on any previous year.

The Clufcha Free Press states that since the sentence of Matson for manslaughter at Pornahaka, the young woman who had been living; wi f b Matsou before his wife returned oa tte last occasion has been living by herself in the lonely hut on the Back Creek, Pornab.tt.ka, formerly shared with M&tson, supporting herself by doing a little rabbiting, and has avowed her intention to wait there until her eretwhUe protector is released ■ from