CONTEMPT OF COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 230, 28 September 1880, Page 4

CONTEMPT OF COURT.

Our Sydney telegrams have made frequent reference of late to an action for contempt of Court brought against the proprietors of the Evening News, which resulted in their being fined £250. The article containing the "contempt" was certainly a pretty '• warm one, as will be gathered irom a perusal of it. lt was headed "Tend-, porary Judge "Windeyer and the Presß," and ran as follows :.— ; '• Hi'b Honor the Temporary Judge has had another opportunity to show his utter want of judicial impartiality, and from the Bench he has delivered once more a bitter and one-sided advocate's speech. In the case of Moy Mow against the Daily Telegraph, concluded yesterday, he proved to demonstration his titter unfitnees for the judicial office, for his summing up was nothing more nor less than a most

vigorous speech for tbe plaintiff. We do not know that it influenced the jury, and wo do not dispute that their verdict was a just one ; but none the less is such a speech, delivered even by a temporary wearer of the ermine, a degradation. 'of the judicature of thia colony. As for the liberty of the Press, attacked though it has been of late, it will take stronger men than Mr. Windeyer to destroy it ; but the character of the justice administered ' to the general suitors of the courts is likely to be seriously affected by the conduct of the temporary occupant of a seat upoa'Jthe bench. No man can be sure of juatice when he may find the judge as one of the advocates against him, and moreover as an advocate who is not bound by the rules which regulate ihs coadujt of members of the bar. Fortunately tbe gentlemen of the jury in the case to which we refer were men of some independence of character, and they decided the case on its merits, awarding the comparative small damages of £25, but if they had been guided solely by. the Judgo they wculd have given a very different verdict, for his Honor failed to point out; anything which weakened the plaintiff's case, or anything which qualified the alleged offence of the Daily Telegraph, The libol complained of was contained in a report of Eeilly ? s evidence in a police court case ; and yet the Judge attached' no weight whatever to the evidence of the manning proprietor, editor, and subeditor, that Eeilly slated to them the report was correct, and he would not allow the evident anxiety of the managers of the paper to aecertain the correctness of the report before contesting the case with Moy Mow to have any weight with him. Indeed, his Honor actually stated what was contradicted by the evidence, that the paper had Had an opportunity of making reparalijr, and h.d refused to do so. \ ;Eyery weak point in the evidence for the defence he laid bare, but he.saicLnot a word about the utter breakdown of the plantiff's assertion' that Eeilly did -not mention Moy Mpw's name in coVrt — a~ statement which was contradicted by almost every witness. So severe was he upon the defendants that he threw.all gentlemanly, feeling on v one side, and ccommented u'pori the personal appearance of one 1 of their witnesses. If he had been able to point out any; iacstfsistenciesjin! his evidence, or any hesitancy in his manner of answering important questions it would have been fair enough, but for him to criticise the man's personal appearance in the manner he did \his little short of fbrutality. We suppose a judge" cannot commit a contempt oft court, but certainly . Mr. Windeyer committed a most -grievous contempt of justice when he suggested, in a charge which should have been an impartial one, that the reporter might have impaired his powers of preception by his habits, and that he might have • goneiin'late and; picked :up:; a report — partly from one person and ., partly from anqther/ when there was not one tittle of evidence to show either that the witness was addicted to bad habits or negligent of his dutiesi Even if an over- zealous and unscrupulous barrister had made such insinuations, ib- would have been the duty of a just judge to have told him thafc a man's character could noi|be wmtonly impugned without giving him a chance of bringing rebutting evidence. If this had been permitted, the witness would have had no difficulty in proving that he is regarded by those best qualified to judge as an honest, industrious, and careful reporter. One more instance of the cliarader of the summing up, and we have done. In giving instructions as 1.0 damage, the Judge abstained from any analysis of the plantiff's evidence on this point, although it consisted of the assertion of Ah Kum and Ban Tong, that they would not trust Moy Mow aince reading the paragraph, and the declaration of Mr. Isaacs, 'than.he would not trusi him any less since reading the paragraph than before.' When the defendant's evidence was subjected to such a severe criticism, it would have been thought that a word Would have been devoted to this^ extraordinary admission on the part of the plaintiff's principal .witness . s as to damage. JWiifcli >Bflch :a= system of judicial advocacy, it is only when the jury are exception'allynintelligent, as was the case" yesterday, that, anything approaching justice can be expected to result from a trial before Mr. Windever." -! .-.?. V He asked a Cincinnati belle if there was much refinement and culture in that city, and she replied — "You just bet your boofs we're a cultured crowd. " An Irishman who had on a very ragged coat was asked of what stuff it was made. "Bedad, I don't know; I think the most of it is made of fresh air." i Children's "Guides" (says the tost) are ,very handy - when their pages are confined to teaching children how* to oonduefc themselves an^tp^jvjng.ipatruclion suitable (d ttie moderate, development of juvenile minds, butwben they literally tench the young Idea "how to- 8.h00t,". their useifylgeflß ie apt to culminate in something unpleasant. ' A gentleman residing in a suburb of Wellington recently procured for his olive branches- an^ inoo-ceDt-iooking book, yclept "The Child's Guide," and their hearts were, made happy by the gift. Not'eb^ the father's however, wbeu he returned from 1 town a day or two ego just in tirao to -see a sudden'flasb in one of the rooms of his dwelling, followed by a dense volume of smoke. Tbe cause was soon ascertained. The darlings of his heart had discovered in the book in question a receipt for manufacturing gunpowder, and, being of an incentive turn, the eldest lad had procured (he proper proportions of sulphur, saltpetre, and oharcoa), which be had manufactured into an explosive. ■- He then called his brothers and Bisters to witness theresuit of his skill, placed a light to the compound, and — the rest is known. The juveniles were considerably, frightened, papa was horrified, tha house had a narrow escape from being burned down, the eldest hope' Was well ipanked, and order was' once more restored. The innocent Guide was shortly after added to the fuel in the (grate, and tbe firat putipowder;<:noonufictory in the colony hod died ; in its earliest-infancy. ' !j 7 '•. ■ i ' ■ -■•■■'-■"■••'

i Amongst tlio rumoured nuptial alliances spoken of in the fashionable world as being about, to lake place . shortly, we have to mention that between the Baroness Burdet-Coutts and Mr. Ashmead Bartlett. This statement obtained currency, a short tittle ago, and it was sooii denied, ttie'fficf being that the gentleman in question is brother to the M. P. for Eyre, who was first mentioned as the intended husband of this illustrious lady. By this alliance, it is stated, the Baroness -vVill lose a great , portion of lief income, as the interest in Coutts'Banlc and other-properties ceases on her marriage with an alien or natur-alised-subject. Mr. Ashmead Bartletfc, who baa acted as private secretary to the lady above mentioned, is an American by birth, and he has been recently naturalised as a British subject., It is also stated that many of the lady's most intimate friends have remonstrated with her upon the step she ia about to take, nnd that. similiar advice has been tentiered to Her from' the Highest quarters. The age of the Woness is giv'eii in the Peerage as sixty-six, while Mr. Bartlett is under thirty Such, at least, is the gossip of the day. — Home News. The " National Car Builder " says that a locomotive on the Pennsylvania railroad made the fastest run on reCord a fW eVettmgs 1 ago. It Wtls ordered from the roundhouse to the scene of an accident, and. ran 60 miles in 45 minutes and 8. seconds. This is at the, rate of a trifle under 80 miles an hour, and is a very remarkable performance. ;. ' Well Father Brown/ how did' you like the sermon yesterday ?' 'as'lc'ed a young, preacher. ' You see, parson/ wns . the reply, ' I haven't a fair chance at them sermons of yours, I'm an old man now and has to sit pretty well back by the stove; and there is old Miss Smithie, Widder; Tuff *n Eylan's dMefC'rt Mabby Birt.'n all the rest • sitting in front or me with tlieir mouth's 1 wide open a swallerin' down all the best of the sermon^ 'n what gets down to me is putty poor stuff, parson, putty poor stuff.' Is ifc really a fact that a stone statue diminishes in- size when exposed to a shoWer of rain ? Certainly, because it . instaatty becortles a statiie-Wei.— rJud^t The New York Shipping List CQn-i eludes a review of the sugar trade of 1879 with an expression of opinion that the average price of sugar in the markets of the world will be higher! in 1880 than in '1879. ■ t i