MALICIOUS UNCLE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11977, 14 May 1914, Page 6

MALICIOUS UNCLE.

HAS TO PAY DAMAGES

[By Telegraph —Press Association.]

AUCKLAND, Wednesday

A libel case -with unusual features •was heard in the Supreme Court to-day, and a verdict for the plaintiff for £1 :ii) damages was given this evening. Many years ago, in London, a man named Armstrong met a Misa Barber, and they lived together as Mr and Mrs Barber. Only when the first child was born did tho woman discover that Armstrong was already married. Other children were born subsequently, but the illegitimacy of their birth was carefully hidden "from the family.' When the oldest boy (Robert) was eighteen years old, a. brother of Miss Barber, whose name was also Robert Barber, and who had settled in Auckland, offered to take the boy under his protection. Robert, junr., worked for his uncle for some time. Then, objecting to the small wages he received, he quarrelled with him, and started business on his own account. After a. recent Court case, in which tho catering of Robert Barber, junior, was criticised, Robert Barber, the uncle, inserted the following notice in an Auckland paper: —"I, Robert Barber, caterer, of Karangahapo road, am in no way connected with Robert Armstrong, going under the name of Robert Barber, caterer, of Buchanan's Cafe." Thereupon young Barber had to explain to his principal clients, _ his friends, and his brothers and sisters (who had recently come to Auckland with their mother) the shame of his and their birth. The .act of the undo, it was claimed, was deliberate and malicious. Young Barber waa entitled id that name a3 an illegitimate child, and always took tho name of the mother. Tho jury found for plaintiff as stated.