ALLEGED CRIMINAL LIBEL.

Evening Star, Issue 4172, 11 July 1876, Page 2

ALLEGED CRIMINAL LIBEL.

The libel action instituted by Bishop Moran against Mr George Bell, of the Evening Star, was heard in the Resident Magistrate's Court this afternoon, before Mr J. Bathgate, R.M., and Mr T. A. Mansford, R.M., and in the presence of a full bar and crowded court. Defendant was proceeded against '* for wilfully causing to be printed and published in the Evening Star newspaper a false, scandalous, and malicious libel of and concerning the Roman Catholic clergymen of Dunedin aforesaid, being officebearers, branches, or organisations of the Roman Catholic Church, under the control and supervision of the Most Reverend Patrick Moran, Roman Catholic Bishop of Dunedin, aforesaid in the words following:—"The ' Tuapeka Times' says it is reported that a rev. father of the Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin, has thrown off the trammels of the Church, and followed the example of Pere Hyacinthe, of Parisian celebrity, by taking unto himself a wife. The fair one is reported to possess considerable personal charms, and at one | time is said to have been numbered with the Dunedin Sisters of Mercy " to the scandal of the religious body known as the Roman Catholic Church, and against the peace of our Lady the Queen, her Crown and dignity, being an indictable offence." On the charge being read over, Mr H. Howorth said : I appear for defendant, may it please your Worship, and plead not guilty. Mr Macassey: I appear for the informant, with my friend Mr M'Keay. Mr Howorth, before the case was proceeded with, wished to draw his Worship's attention to an article appearing in the ' .New Zealand Tablet' referring to this case, and which was prejudicial to the defendant's case.

Mr Macassey submitted that his learned friend was not in order. The Court was here for the special purpose of holding an inquiry. Mr floworth pointed out that in the Supreme Court there would not be the slightest difficulty in bringing the proprietor of the ' Tablet' forth. There was no machinery in this Court to enable that process to be followed up, and he (the learned counsel) sub? mitted that it was perfectly competent for him, and a matter of justice to his client to bring the matter under their Worships* notice, and that before the case was proceeded with.

Mr Bathgate: Assuming for the Bake of argument that you have ground of complaint, the question arises : can I give any remedy ? I apprehend not. lam Btrictly speaking, sitting as a Court of Justices of the Peace to inquire whether a primd facie case has been made out. That would not enable me to call up the publisher of the ' Tablet' for centempt. Mr Macassey then opened the case for the informant. He stated that this was the first time during a long and active life that Bishop Moran had found it necessary to challenge the proprietor of a newspaper with the propriety of any article written by him—at all events to challenge it in a court of justice. It would have been impossible to institute civil proceedings, as no person was directly alluded to, and defendant could have pleaded that no one had sustained actual damage. Defendant might say in mitigation that he was not the originator of the scandal. The ' Tuapeka Times,' in which the scandal first appeared, was a paper with a small circulation, and when the scandal was re-published in a paper with the circulation of the Star the offence became aggravated instead, of mitigated. When such astatementappearedin aDunedinpaperit was telegraphed afloverthe Colony, and probably all over the world. In the Supreme Court it had been ruled that any person could set the law of libel in motion, so Bishop Moran's right to take action could not be questioned, The following evidence was given : James Cahill, law clerk, purchased the Japer produced on the morning of the 6th uly in the Evening Star Office, Bond street, paying one penny for it. Witness had read the local in the paper referred to. [Witness read the paragraph containing the alleged libel.] If any Roman Catholic clergyman was guilty of taking a wife, neither witness nor his friends would associate with him. If he read the paragraph, as a stranger here, he would infer that |a Roman Catholic clergyman had thrown off his vows, and married a lady at the Convent. Exclusive of the Bishop there are Father Crowley and two other Roman Catholic clergymen in ( Dunedin. Cross-examined i We are taught by the Church, which is our faith, that if a Roman Catholic clergyman marries he throws off the trammels of the Church. If a Roman Catholic clergyman here did so I would shun him as a convict, and worse than that. A priest can never have his vows absolved; he would be cut off as a rotten branch.

Colin M'Kenzie Gordon, Deputy-Registrar of the Supreme Court, deposed that defendant had. filed an affidavit in November last testifying that he was proprietor of the Evening Star.

John Griffin,gJ.P., said he was a merchant carrying on business in Dunedin. He was and always had been of the Roman Catholic faith. He had read the paragraph referred to in the Evening Star of the 3rd of July. As a Roman Catholic and as a colonist of fifteen years' standing, he stated that he had never, in the whole course of his Colonial career, read a paragraph which had given him so much pain. It was a scandalous libel. He interpreted the paragraph as meaning that a priest belonging to Dunedin had ceased to be a priest and taken unto himself a wife. From the local it would appear that a Sister of Mercy had thrown off her vows and been married. He was not aware that there was such a society of nuns as the inters of Mercy. There was a convent here of the Order of St. Dominick. He thought there were eight nuns here. In the absence of such a society as the Sisters of Mercy he should have taken the " fair one " to refer to one of the order of St. Dominick. The marriage of Pere Hyacinthe, which was referred to, occasioned great scandal in the Church. He would simply detest a clergyman who threw off his trammels. Cross-examined: He never took much trouble to read Martin Luther; he only knew he was a very naughty man.—(Laughter.) [Witness complained that Mr Howorth wished to make a historian of him, while ho never professed to be one.] He was not aware that in the early ages of the Ohurch priests were allowed to be married. The paragraph certainly related to an Otago clergyman, and should be looked upon as a domestic scandal. He did not believe there were *' trammels "of tho Church. Any per* son becoming a priest, or member of the Church, should do bo of bis own free will.

Frank Petrie, C.E. : I belong to the Roman Catholic Church. I have read the favagraph in the Evening Stab of June 3. was in England at the time when the occurrence referring to Pere Hyacinthe happened. It occasioned a very great scandal. If any name had been mentioned in the matter I should hare thought the party had committed perjury of such a nature tnat looking at in a spiritual light it would have been perjury of the gravest nature that a Eoman Catholic could be guilty of. Any toman Catholic clergyman who married m the manner spoken of would be shunned by one's co-religionists. Great importance iB attached to vows of celibacy. Knowing that no such order as the Sisters of Mercy exists I should think that the person writing had mistaken the order for that of St. Dominick. [This question was objecfedto by Mr Howorth.] I should read the paragraph as a direct attack on that order of nuns by conveying the imputation that one of their number had broken her vows and married. Cross-examined : My opinion is that Pere Hyacinthe would not be received amongst respectable society outside his own Church. What I mean by spiritual light is in reference to the next world. I cannot repeat the forms of the vows of celibacy. The substance of them is to abstain from matrimony. John D. Connor, printer: I belong to the Roman Catholic Church. I have read the local in the Evening Star of July 3. It produced the impression on my mind that a very great wrong had been done to the Catholic persuasion in this Colony. When I first read it I took it to mean that one of the clergy who resided in Dunedin had broken the vows of a Catholic priest and married one of the nuns resident in Dunedin. All Catholics would regard such a person as having fallen to the very lowest depths to which mortal men could possibly fall. It created a very grievous feeling in me when I first read it.

Cross-examined: I am prepared to say that the general public are very much concerned about it. lam printer for the ' New Zealand Tablet.'

Mr Howorth : Who is the proprietor ? Mr Macassey submitted that they had nothing to do with who was the proprietor. Mr Bathgate could not see what the question had to do with the action. Mr Howorth could learn by obtaining an affidavit from the Deputy-Registrar of the Supreme Court. He was clearly of opinion it was inexpedient at this stage to introduce extraneous matter. He ruled that counsel was not now at liberty to ascertain who were the publishers of the 'Tablet,' or to get witness's opinion of the article in that paper. Mr Howorth: Is the 'New Zealand Tablet' a paper written in the interests of Roman Catholics 1

[Question objected to and disallowed.] Michael Fleming : I am a member of the Roman Catholic Church.. I have read the local in the Evening Star of Monday, July 3. I consider it a great wrong and an insult to the Catholics of New Zealand. I should consider a priest who so married as no Jerson— as a rotten branch of the Church, know the local has occasioned great feeling amongst the Catholics. Bishop Moran stated that he had been a Roman Catholic Bishop for upwards of twenty years. By the allusion to Pere Hyacinthe contained in the paragraph in the Evening Star he understood that it chaiged one of the Catholic priests of Dunedin with having broken the vows ©f celibacy. The penalty to a Roman Catholic clergyman for marrying is suspension, excommunication, pud deposition. Any nun who married a priest would be excommunicated, and, according to the law of the Church, would incur perpetual imprisonment. Pere Hyacinthe s marriage occasioned the most grievous scandal and the most intense pain to all Catholics. There was not the least foundation for the statement that one of his clergy had thrown off the trammels of the Church and taken a wife. We have no order of Sisters of Mercy here, but we have an order of St. Dominick. There was no truth in the suggestion that a nun had been married to a priest. Cross-examined : I gave directions for having proceedings against the 'Tuapeka Times' the same day. 1 have not yet sworn the information. I have made no inquiry whatever as to the circumstances under which the Stab published this paragraph, and I take proceedings against Mr Bell, because he is the proprietor of the paper. At the close of Bishop Moran's crossexamination Mr Howorth asked for time to consider whether he should call witnesses for the defence. The case was adjourned till Saturday, Mr Bell being admitted to bail in his own recognisance of LIOO.