TWO LABOUR LIBEL ACTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8348, 7 February 1913, Page 8

TWO LABOUR LIBEL ACTIONS

FIFTY POUNDS DAMAGES AWARDED. Press Association. AUCKLAND. February 6. Two actions for alleged libel against the Federation of labour and Alexander Grigg were heard in the Supreme Court, before Judge Edwards, to-day. The subject matter in the complaint were paragraphs published in tne “ Maoriland Worker ” during controversy over the Waihi strike. Plaintiffs were respectively Thomas Walsh, poblisher of the paper “Voice of Labour, and William P. Black, who described himself as the manager of the company publishing “ Voice of Labour. Each plaintiff claimed £450 damages. The cases were heard separately. . Mr M. Newton appeared for plaintiffs, and Sir John Findlay, with him Mr P. J. O’Regan, for defendants. The hearing of the cases occupied all day. In the case of Walsh the article was claimed by the defendants to be a contribution to a political controversy. On the other hand, it was advanced that there was no ground for the personal attack made on Walsh by name, in that his paper had made_ general charges against the organisation. The jury awarded £SO damages. Costs were allowed. . , In the case of Black the denied the authorship of the articles which were the subject of the alleged abusive comments by the “ Maoriland Worker.” The point which defendants stressed was that there was no specific reference made to Black in the article, and therefore there was no libel. Stormy passages occasionally occurred between Black and Sir John Findlay during the former’s cross-examination. The jury returned a verdict for_ defendant, for whom, judgment was given with costs.

During tho hearing th© remarked that the use of such violent language as that employed by both journals should be suppressed by law.