Attacks on the Premier.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 12975, 14 December 1910, Page 2

Attacks on the Premier.

A scurrilous pamphlet in which a scandalous attack was made upon the Prime Minister, has been freely circulated of late, and mention of it during the debate on the report of the Hino Charges Cdmmittee drew a remarkable speccli from Sir Joseph Ward, in which ho triumphantly vindicated his private and public career. Politicians on both sides of the House vied with each .other in condemning such contemptible methods of attack, and when the Attorney-General introduced an amending measure making persons responsible for the circulation of calumny in this way liable, upon summary conviction, to a heavy fine or imprisonment, it was passed into law without dissent. Public men will in future be prqtected from vilification of a peculiarly abhorrent form, -which tho law previously was practically powerless to prevent.