A POLITICAL LIBEL SUIT

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 4258, 17 July 1895, Page 5

A POLITICAL LIBEL SUIT

MR ALISON SMITH PUT THROUGH HIS FACINGS.

The hearing of the action brought by Mr Alison Dalrymple Smith, formerly locomotive superintendent of New Zealand railways, and until recently occupying a similar office in Victoria, against the Melbourne 'Age' for £15,000 damages for alleged libel, is still proceeding before the Chief Justice. Cross-examined by Mr J. Purves he said : I served an apprenticeship of three years and a-half in the North British Company, and left when I was twenty-one and a-half years old. That was the only experience I had before I was appointed to the New Zealand railways. I was trained for an engineer from my childhood. You took in instruction with your bottle. — (Laughter.)— lt might be said so. I went through America and inspected the leading railway works in that country, and spent about six weeks in doing so. The result was I bought a Westinghouse brake and brought it to New Zealand. And that was the result of your travels, and buying a brake qualified you to become a railway engineer ? — Yes. I served first as a draftsman and clerk in the Wellington railway offices at £150 a year under Mr Passmore. Before leaving London I worked for three or four weeks with the firm of Westinghouse, in London, learning the mechanical part of the brake. So you didn't discover the Westinghouse brake in America, as you stated before? — No. You were afterwards appointed locomotive superintendent of the Wellington Railway ? — Yes. How long was the railway, and how many engines and carriages were there ?—lt? — It was fourteen miles long, and had five engines and twenty-five carriages. Afterwards I took charge of the Canterbury railway system. The manager, Mr Conyers, after being insensible for some months, sent a report to Parliament stating that he had lost all confidence in me. For three days I and another man had to hold him down in bed by sitting on him. — (Laughter.) Mr Purves read certain papers presented to the New Zealand Parliament by Mr Conyers, Commissioner of Railways, in which Mr Smith was charged with making a " pointless, untrue, and malicious statement " in connection with the purchase of certain iron. The papers also stated that Mr Smith's statements were "false and scandalous, and his conduct is base and treacherous." You are charged with treachery, falsehood, and a malicious desire to injure the commissioner, also with malicious insubordination, and you are recommended for removal. Do you deny those charges ? — Yes. And you assert that Mr Conyers was a lunatic ? — He suffered a serious injury to his head, and was not responsible for what he said. Was there a royal commission appointed in 1880 to inquire" into the railway system on which you were engaged at Canterbury ? —Yes. Do you know that it reported : " The Railway Department is the one in which the greatest amount of useless expenditure exists," and "that the greatest waste of public money occurred in the railway workshops ? " — Yes. And were you in charge of the workshops when this excessive expenditure occurred ?—? — Yes, but it is untrue. His Honor held that the report of a royal commission was not evidence. The members of it were irresponsible, and the evidence was not taken on oath. Mr Purves : Were you attacked in the New Zealand House of Representatives on the report of the Royal Commission ? Plaintiff: Yes, for ten years, on every conceivable charge. What were the nature of the charges made against you ? — First, that I was young, was guilty of mismanagement and extravagance, and with being rough on the men.