T. B. SLIPPER CASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 370, 13 September 1930, Page 6

T. B. SLIPPER CASE

SAMOAN COURT’S JUDGMENT FULL COURT’S DECISION [ Per Press Association. ] WELLINGTON, Sept. 12. The Full Court to-day delivered judgment m an appeal brought before it in July last by Thomas Benjamin Slipper, solicitor, formerly practising in Samoa from two convictions of the High Court of Western Samoa oj information made under Sections 153 and 154 of the Samoan Act- Tho judgements of the Chief Justice (Sir M. Myers) and Judges Reed and. Adams were delivered by Sir M. Myers. In his judgment his Honour held that the conviction under section 154 could not stand as the section contemplated spoken worlds only and that, therefore, a letter written by Slipper to the Administrator of Samoa would not constitute an offence under that section. Dealing with the conviction under section 153 that Slipper did publish defamatory libel against the Administrator of Samoa, his Honour stated that the letter was full of the most objectionable and insulting (if not per haps seditious) expressions- Tho Chief Judge at Samoa had held that several statements in the letter, and particularly those in tho latter portion to be defamatory of the Administrator and false. The Court was completely in agreement with this view. The letter was published to the Commodore, a copy being sent to him by Slipper on his instructions. There was also publication to some Samoan women, also to an interpreter. It was contended on behalf of the appellant at the hearing that publication to the Commodore was the one to which qualified privilege attached. His Honour held that he could not accept this contention, for privilege could only attach if the Commodore had common interests with those for whom the appellant was acting, but this was not so, and further that even, if qualified privilege did attach to the letter by reason of the fact that it was written by appellant as solicitor for Samoan women, tho privilege was lost, as Slipper had introduced a defamatory statement of his own. The Court refused to vary the sentence imposed on Slipper for the expressed reason that in imposing the sentence the High Court of Samoa had taken all of tho circumstances into consideration and was in a better opinion than the Full Court to determine what penalty should be imposed. The libel was a very gross one. It was shown to a number of Samoans, and his Honour said that it was difficult to imagine circumstances under which a libel was more likely to be widely disseminated- w Sir A. Herdman wrote concurring in the judgment.