LIBEL SUIT

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2665, 29 November 1923, Page 3

LIBEL SUIT

SCHOOLMASTER AND VICAR, PLAINTIFF AWARDED £1 DAMAGES. Auckland, Last Night. In the case at the Supreme Court in which William John May, school teacher at Waimate North, sued the Anglican vicar of Waimate, John William Robinson, for £SOO damages for alleged libel, Air Endean, counsel for the plaintiff, said the school committee summoned the plaintiff to appear before them, and, according to him the defendant accused him of being guilty of immoral teaching to children. Naturally, the plaintiff jumped to his feet and said: “It is a lie.” Defendant amended his statement to “improper teaching.” Apparently, in the course of giving civic instruction to school children, Mr May gave a brief account of the Ponsonby murder trial with the object that it might be a deterrent to boys to commit, crime. Then thei-e was a. reference to a woman who committed suicide to illustrate the meaning' of the term “despondency.” “There was nothing very serious about that,” commented counsel, “Yon will hear from Air Dunlop, advisory inspector, who investigated the matter, that he considered that what was read to the children was reprehensible, and that Mr May was told to do it again.” Air West (for defendant): He was censured. Air Endean: Yes, he was censured, but does that justify a. minister saying that a schoolmaster who had been 42 years teaching was the most unmitigated scoundrel he had ever met?” Cross examined, plaintiff said he did not read the Ponsonby murder case to the children. He mentioned ir. TTe admitted that he might have told the children how an execution took place, and that lie might have drawn on the blackboard a gallows with a trap-door. , A considerable amount of evidence was heard. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff for £1 damages. The Judge did not enter judgment and reserved decision on the question of a non-suit.