THE BULLETIN LIBEL CASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 397, 7 June 1881, Page 3

THE BULLETIN LIBEL CASE.

The cablegrams have told iis that great interest was felt in Sydney in the action for libel against 'tlie proprietors of the Bulletin by Messrs, Moore Bros., the proprietors of the pleasure grounds at Clontarf, a favorite holiday resort on the harbor, a few miles from Sydney. As our readers are already aware, the jury, by their verdict, awarded plaintiffs one farihing damages, and at public meetings since subscriptions have been . started to

recoup the costs to the Bulletin proprietors. The libel was contained in the following paragraph, which appeared in the Bulletin of the Bth January “The scene presented by the motley crowd af Clontarf on Boxing Bay is one never to be forgotten by an eye-witness.,, Englishmen heve been accused of taking their pleasure sadly. The larrikin takes his or her pleasure madly. At Clontarf it was notan excursion—it was an orgie. Large ocean steamers discharged cargo after cargo of young Australians. Young men, young women, lads, girla, and still more sad, children thronged the ground, crowded the dancing pavilion (save the mark !) and jostled at the drinking bars. A# their blood warmed by the dancing, and their passions became inflamed by liquor, the scene within and without the hovels which served for drinking and dancing became indescribable. Horace has no picture more revolting. The dancing was that of satyrs and bacchantes, but of satyrs and bacchantes in soiled tweed suits, and squalid finery and squalid gowns that had at first been stiffly white. Depravity of physique thrust itself upon notice. Young Australia was here represented by faces prematurely old countenances cunning, debased, dull, sensual, surmounting figures undergrown, meagre and angular. There were no manly 7 youths. A six-foot constable towered like a giant amid the seething crowd —a sturdy water-police officer of middle size appeared a formidable heavyweight among them. And the girls! Thera was beauty of feature here and there, blurred by traces of intemperance and ravages of excess. But, worse still, amid the flushed, paniing bevy of young girls, clinging in romping abandon to promiscuous partners, were some unworn, childish faces with the devil’s mark not yet stamped on their foreheads, but obviously preparing to have the seal at* upon them before anotherj day. Drink and excitement, inherited impulse, and, above all, example and evil associations, were doing their work, and breaking down the last barriers of modesty. As the orgie grew, and drink, desire, and jealousy inflamed the participants, young girls—comely and shapely enough to make homes pleasant and parents proud—flew wild-beast fashion at one another, boxed like men, and anon scratched like cats. Female children not yet in their ’teens romped around with gestures and antics which would have shocked a camp of bhc.: gins. The men rarely restrained a semblance of decency ; the women reoC-utjd no familiarity. The ones were inflamed, the others melted. The devil had broken loose. We looked round for the ministers of God and saw—policemen. We looked for parents and dis-covered-bawds.’