DOWSING'S DEBT.

NZ Truth, Issue 128, 30 November 1907, Page 5

DOWSING'S DEBT.

SEQUEL TO A SUIT FOR SLANDER.

Who is the Injured Party?

Unusual circumstances surrounded the application m Wellington Supreme Court of St. George Edward Dowsing for his discharge from bankruptcy. Dowsing is employed by the Land and Income Tax Department, and the cause of his bankruptcy was his inability to pay the costs of an action for slander instituted by Michael Bee Demuth, a clerk m the employ of Lingard and Co., property agents. Demuth's prosecution was based upon the following , letter, written by Dowsing to his employers :—

■ . 12/12/06. To Messrs Lingard and Co., Sirs,— You have m your service a mw of the name of Michael Bee Demuth, who is totally unfit ' to represent you and is a menace to society, at large, and lam at the present moment about to take criminal proceedings against him. On or about four weeks since he sent to- my daughter the ENCLOSED OBSCENE POSTCARD, on which he addresses her as "Dearest Dot." He has been endeavoring to decoy her from the lawful custody of her parents and guardians and to enter into a clandestine correspondence and otherwise to rebel against the authority of her mother and myself. I hope, sirs, you will support me by well punishing the scoundrel. Yours faithfully, St. Geo. A. Dowsing. * To this. Lingard and Co. replied : The above is mpst libellous, if you cannot prove, it. Dowsing, m response :

I can prove all that I have written.

Answering the above allegations, Demuth. stated on December 13, that four weeks previously he went out to Maranui on Lingard and Oo's. business to introduce two clients to a person named Neilson, with a view of purchasing property adjoining Dowsing-s mansion. He remained on the road while Neilson took the clients on to the terrace, and while awaiting • their return two girls came out of Dowsing's house on to the front lawn. They notioed him sitting there, and they,!'mutually exchanged glances with each other." He then walked over to them and chatted with them for half an hour, and made such a favorable impression that the younger one gave him a button-hole. She told him her name was Dot, and both asked him to come and have tea with them at any time he ' might be over there, excepting Fridays, when mother would be at' home. He had, however, never been on Dowsing's property nor m his house and had never walked out with, the girl, nor had he met her by appointment, although he did drop across her one day m front of Lingard and bo's, office. He denied having made any , suggestions or overtures m any way whatever: to her ; but the girl told him they were collecting postcards and wo\ild like to have any he could send them. He had sent them the objectionable postcard, but he didn't see anything wrong m it and meant nothing wrong. He said he had only spoken to the girls twice m his life and only onee — for about one minute on Lambton Quay — to the younger one by herself;

On December 12 Dowsing wrote to William Lingard, one of the firm, stating that the reading of the Act sustained the- charge made by him, as it directly incited the child to come out from the lawful custody of its parents and to act on its own responsibility, but which the law didn't allow on account of . its tender age. • However, for his child's sake, ("Not for that young blackguard's"), Dowsing said he would accept Lingard's advice m the matter of proceeding no further, but at the same time he asked Ling-ard to compel some sort of a guarantee for a discontinuance of such conduct, or, judging by. the impudent manner and bearing of Demuth, Dowsing might be subject to even more annoyance m the future than m the past.

Somewhere about this time Demuth consulted his solicitors, and instituted an action for slander, claiming: £200 and costs. , The case was undefended, and Dowsing

WAS FORCED INTO BANKRUPTCY by the proceedings. He is earning 11s a day with the Department, and has a wife^and three daughters dependent on him. The wife is a muKic teacher, but the money she earns m that way is devoted to the paying off of a mortgage , on a property owned by her. The Maranui house belongs to her, but it has a monkey on it of £750 at 6 per cent, wliich is equivalent to paying a rental of £45 a year.

Solicitor Williams, for Dowsing, told Justice Button that bankrupt had filed his petition because he was unable to meet the costs of the slander case, and m the circumstances he believed that he, and. not Demuth, was the injured party. He had not defended the slander case out of consideration for his family.

His Honor said he would discharge the bankrupt on condition that he paid the sum of £25 within twelve months from January next, payments to be made m four quarterly instalments.

Mr Williams pointed out that Dowsing might lose his position and be unable to pay, but his Honor remarked that he didn't think the Government would dispense with Dowsing. Also, Assignee A,shrroft remarked that if he could do anything to help Dowsing to retain his position it would be clone.