HARVEST 0F LIQUIDATION.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 15163, 6 October 1913, Page 9

HARVEST 0F LIQUIDATION.

RECORD ENGLISH LAW TERM. WIDE RANGE OF INTEREST. A scrutiny of the records of the Law Courts would probably fail to discover a term of such crowded concern as that which has occupied the last nine weeks and came to an end on July 31 (says the "Daily Telegraph")- From the first week to the last there was an abnormal succession of important cases, touching almost every interest in the composition of national life—-commerce, the stage, religion, sport, politics, medicine, literature, as well as the purely domestic and personal elements. Many of these cases occupied three or four days, two took up eight days, and one lasted nearly ten days. This fact of extended trials lends substantial support to the contention that one of the principal causes of the increasing costliness of litigation and of delay is' the growing length of trials. Although the action for breach of promise of marriage brought by Mrs Moss, professionally known to theatregoers of Miss Daisy Markha-m, against the Marquis'of Northampton occupied but a very short time, being uncontested, it resulted in the record damages of £50.M0. An additional circumstance which has helped to make the term noteworthy was the debut of two new judges—Mr Justice Astbnry, of the Chancery Division, and Mr Justice Atkin, of the King's Bench Division. SOCIETY. STAGE, LITERATURE. Without doubt the- case of acutest human interest was that relating to the bequests made by the late fair John Murray Scott to Lady toaokviile. ' It brought together' a congregation of wellknown ladies day after day for over a week such as the courts have rarely seen although in recent years what have come to be described as "ladies' days" have not been infrequent. - An audience of totally different personnel was that which from day' to day witnessed the turf libel action, Woottpn V. Sievier, its constituents being for the greater part devotees of the turf. The interesting phrase of the case recently revealed by the statements of jurors as to the motives which led them to give a verdict for one farthing damages still remains to be enlarged upon in the Court of Appeal. Apart altogether from such small matters specially interesting to the theatrical world as have related to the revuo "Come-Over Here," and the Gaiety play, "The Girl on the Film," there was the dispute between Mr Moffat and Mr Cyril Maude as to who was entitled to select the performers in the revival of "Bunty Pulls. the Strings." Literature 'and the stago were combined in Miss Mario.Corelli 5 s successful application for an injunction to restrain Mr George Gray, the "Fighting ' Paa - -■ son" of music-hall fame, from performing a sketch based upon her Jiovel, "Temporal Power." - The purely literary side was bfst re-' presented by an action in which Mr William Pett Ridge obtained £l5O damages in respect of the miblioation : by the English Illustrated MngaWnp of ; a story entitled "Th* Man WniV'Fad h,-. CoTisnionce," to which his inimcVi ; s! attached, but which, he had not written. CASES OF POLITICAL INTEREST, ii Two important cases were of a moro or less iJouticai character, ouo bemg an action brought by Mr George lialiour, Unionist candidate at Govan, in 1911, against Mr Ben Tillett and the Glasgow "Daily Record," in which, after two days' hearing, a •'creditable arrangement" was come to, and the other bemg the three days' action brought by Mr Oswald Verman Forbes against Sir Stuart Samuel, M.P., to recover penalties alleged to have been forfeited by the defendant by reason of his sitting and voting in the House of Commons. Opinions will differ as to how far politics were to be regarded as the groundwork of two actions brought by West End firms against Suffragist leaders for window-breaking, and Mr George Lansbury's appeal against a magistrate's order binding him over to be of good behaviour as the result of particirjation in a "seditious" meeting, but they drew together many spectators whose creed is avowedly political. Religion had its day in the hearing of the Chancery suit brought by the trustees of Crane Street Calvinistic Baptist Chapel, Pontypool, against the Rev. Daniel Hughes, the "sledge-hammer parson," in which a restraining injunction was granted. The world of medicines was greatly interested in the case heard by Mr Justice Pickford involving the right of the Governors of St. John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skirl, Leicester Square, to exclude from the corporation three West End doctors who were on the official staff. Not only the two branches of the profession of the law immediately eon--oerned, but the public in general, found special attraction in the test- action brought by Miss B."hb to compel tlie Law Society to admit her to the rank of solicitor. The action failed, and it remix'Ti* to b<» *een whether the matter will be carried to the Court of Appeal. ART AND LABOUR, To lovers of antiques there. was also abundant interest in the one-day actiion before Mr Justice Darling relating to the disposal of the famous Richard Bennett collection of Oriental porcelain valued at £275,000, the parties being Mr Edgar Gover, the Bond street dealer in antiques, and Sir William Lever, Bt. The same judge had before him the Sicilian Princess Di Formosa as.plaintiff in an action brought against Mr Hope-Johnstone to recover damages for slander and false imprisonment, which afte: two days' trial was amicably settled. The strange . disappearance of the Irish Crown jewels was the subject matter-of an action for libel brought by Sir A. Vicars, formerly Ulster King-at-Arms, against the London "Maiil," which came into Court for formal settlement and apology, damages at £SOOO being agreed upon. In the Matrimonial Court .there has beeu a frequent introduction of names well known in society and on the stage, and one case. Moosbrugger v. Moosbrugger, bore away the palm for extensive trial in that particular divisr ion of the Courts. Finally, there was the six days' trial brought to a conclusion yesterday, in which Mr J. Havelock Wilson, formerly" president of the National Seamen's and Firemen's Union of Great Britain, sought damages against the Shipping Federation for alHeged ' conspiracy to procure his bankruptcy, so that he might be debarred from seeking a, seat in Parliament. -./ These are but the cream of an unbroken series of actions which have marked Trinity term, 1913, as of unparalleled general interest.