FORTY EIGHT THOUSAND

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1932, Page 9

FORTY EIGHT THOUSAND

WORD-TALLY IN COURT’ EVIDENCE REQUIRED SEVEN DAYS. CORKILL-STUART. SLANDER SUIT. • - . •<•-■•.'■ ... ■ ;?-■' Something of a marathon in Magistrate’s Court cases approached its conclusion at Inglewood yesterday, when evidence was completed by both sides in the slander claim for £125 brought by Alfred Corkill, formerly chairman of the. Inglewood County . Council, against • Robert Stuart, the present chairman. After sitting seven days, only threw of which were very briefly broken by other business, Mr. R. W. Tate,-5.M.* completed the taking of evidence from. . ■ll witnesses for the plaintiff and .nih® for the defence, and then adjourned th® matter to New Plymouth for legal argq-/ ■ ment on Friday afternoon; ‘ The slanders were alleged to hay® been uttered by Stuart at election me«i» togs last May, but the information placed before the Court predated that period by many years and included ajl. the by-roads as well as the main road® . " of . county affairs. It is probably . th® longest case that has ever occupied « - magistrate in Taranaki, but. apart from .■ the time involved the volume of th® evidence was remarkable. On the last six days it was typed, the result being 112| foolscap pages estimated to contain 40,800 words, equal to the length of \ many popular modem novels. In addition to that, however, there was the evidence of ' the plaintiff written by th® magistrate on the first day. This would Y ; probably require another 20 foolscap' pages for typed transcription. Thus. ,th<; \ grand total of words of recorded evidence, apart from council’s addresses, 4® . about 48,000. . ; i