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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1301, 27 March 1883, Page 4

The following, which we quote from the Melbourne Age, are the main facta of the great libel case which has just been decided in favor of the defendant, the “Leader" newspaper The case ef De Mestre versus Syme, which was tried in Melbourne on the sth inst., has quite as much interest for the general public as it has for the defendant to whom the jury awarded their verdict. The facts ara briefly these : Mr De Mestre, the well-known owner of racehorses, had a horse named Gudarz running both in the Spring Handicap and V.K.C. Handicap of 1882. Though expected to win the former easily, Gudarz ran only fifth, and the result was 61b was taken off him for the V.R.C. Handicap which he appropraited without much trouble and thereby secured a victory for his stables as against the public. The sporting editor of The Deader not unnaturally called attention to this circumstance, and his comments w ere considered so damaging by Mr De Mestre and his friends that the former determined to appeal to the courts to clear his character from any stain that might be left upon it by the iuuendo.