LIBEL ACTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2881, 2 June 1909, Page 15

LIBEL ACTIONS.

FARMER AWAEDED DAMAGES. PAHIATUA, May 26. In a libel action by Charles Lao-sen, farmer, against another farmer (Patrick „ M'Clafferty), a claim for £250 on the Aground thai defendant had . referred in letters to business firms' to plaintiff as a house • burner, and accused him of having set fire to the houSe of a settler, the jury awarded £50. ACTIOX AGAINST A NEWSPAPER. CHRISTCHURCH, May 26. The libel case brought by Huston Curilett, of Chrisfcchurch, money-lender, against the Lyttelton Times Company, a , claim for £501 damages, was heard at ; the Supreme Court to-day before Mr Jus- I tice Deniiiston and a common jury of 12. , The statement of claim set out that the plaintiff was a registered money-lender carrying on business in Chxistchurch, and that on March 5 the defendant company, I in the issue of the Star of that date, pub- ! lished an article headed " Shylock," which made it appear that the plaintiff had acted in a grossly unjust, arbitrary, unscrupulous, and improper manner in his transaction of the particular case referred to, and in the general conduct of Kis business as a money-lender ; that he -.was an undesirable person for borrowers to do business with, and that he was in the habit of bleeding his fellows. In consequence of the said article plaintiff had >een greatly injured in his reputation and in his business, and had been brought into public odium, ridicule, and contempt. The publication was held to be fake and malicious, and the plaintiff praj-ed for Judgment for £501. For the defence, it , was admitted that the words set out in ' ihe" statement of claim had be«n printed ' ?nd 'published as a leading article in the ' Star, but it was contended that the words ' did not mean what the plaintiff alleged 1 • they meant, that they were incapable of ' that or any defamatory meaning, and that they were no libel. It was further stated : that on March 4 an action was brought in the Christchurch Magistrate's Court in which Samuel Fullerton Tait was the plaintiff and the present plaintiff was the defendant, for the recovery of £86 Ss 4d in respect of an advance by the present plaintiff to S. F. Tait. A full report of the said action appeared in the Star of March 5. The article complained of. it was contended, was published by the defendant company in the ordinary course of its business as public journalists, and without any malice towards the plaintiff ; and that it was fair and bona fide comment on the said action and the evidence given thereon, wb«ch were ihen matters of public interest in Clixistchurch and neighbourhood. His Honor, in summjng Tip, said that the comment had been based on facts which were not true, and therefore* the comment was unjustifiable, and the- jury should find a verdict for the plaintiff, with reasonable damages. A verdict was returned for the plaintiff, ■with id damages. The question of costs was held over. ! I

! The flower crop of the Scilly Islands this year is unprecedented, and by the time the season is ended over 1000 tons of daffodils, hyacinths, and other bloonis will have been transhipped for ti-e English market. These will yield a profit of £40,000.