LIBEL ACTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 690, 9 December 1902, Page 2

LIBEL ACTION.

AGAINST NEWCASTLE PAPER, A RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright Sydney, Doc. 8. The action brought by Mr Griffiths, member for Warutah, and Secrotary of tho Parliamentary Labor Party, against tho Newcastle Morning Herat 1, claiming £IOOO damages for libel, resulted in a verdict for tho defendant newspaper. Tho alleged libel was contained in extracts from spcochcs of Griffith’s opponents during the election campaign, wherein tho plaintiff was accused of proßoorism, disloyalty, and sedition, and denounced as a traitor, and in the Herald's comments thereon. Mr Justice Fringe, in summing up, said tho case involved a question affecting not only Australia but tho whole of the British Empire. He dealt sevorely with Griffith’s pro-Boer utterances and his connection with the Anti-War League, and said a member of Parliament should bo free of tho faintest suspicion of disloyalty to his Sovereign. Commenting on the verdict, the Judge declared that he unhesitatingly concurred in the jury’s finding and could not understand how any man, after making such speeches in public could expect any other verdict. An application to stay proceedings on tho ground that certain passages in the libel did not come under tho category of f comment was refused.