ALLEGED LIBELLOUS CARTOON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1117, 3 May 1911, Page 4

ALLEGED LIBELLOUS CARTOON.

HR. MASSI3Y MOVES 1 ; OR NEW TRIAL. The action \V. F. Maswy v. "The New Zealand Times" (re cartoon) will bo revived in the Sunronie Court on Friday next, ivhen .Mr. "Jl. D. Bell, K.C., will move on behalf of Mr. W. F. Mas;ey, Leader of the Opposition, for a now trial. The motion will be heard by mere than one Judge. When the case was Inst before the Court, a verdict wo.s given for the defendant company. The notice is as under:— "In the Supreme Court of New Zealand, Wellington district. ' Between William Ferguson Mass?y, of Mangerc, near Auckland, sheepfarmer, plaintiff, and "The New Zealand Times" Company, Ltd., a company incorporated under the Companies Acts in New Zealand, defendant. Take notice that this honourable Court will be moved that the verdict and judgment entered in this action bo sot aside and a new trial had between the parties, upon the grounds: (1) That the special verdict or finding of the jury is so defective that judgment cannot ba given upon it. (2) That the learned judge misdirected the jury in the follov.-inj? matters:

(a) By directing them that they might disregard the evidence of the witnesses as to the interpretation of such witnesses cf the cartoon and words which form the alleged libel. (b) By directing them that even it they found that the plaintiff was represented by the figiiro hitching the wagon, they might find that the cartoon and words wore a mere political skit, and therefore did not attribute personal misconduct to the plaintiff. (c) By directing them that their special finding was a verdict fer the defendant company and that they, upon such special finding, should give their verdict for the defendant company. (•3) That the verdict was againtt the weight of evidocce. (t) That the finding of the jury is not a verdict for tho defendant company. (5) That the learned judgo admitted improper evidence to which the plaintiff objected distinctly at tho trial, namely, evidence of the memory of witnesses of reports of what was said by members of Parliament in a debate in the Houso of Representatives on tho 30th day of November, 1910, and in a debate in the Legislative Council on the Ist day of December, 1910.