LABOR LIBEL ACTIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 223, 8 February 1913, Page 5

LABOR LIBEL ACTIONS.

.«». FIFTY POUNDS DAMAGES AWARDED. Per Press Association. Auckland, February (5. Two actions for alleged libel against tlie Federation of Labor and Alexander Crigg were beard in the Supreme Court before Judge Edwards, to-day. The subject matter in the complaint was paragraphs published in the Maoriland Worker during a controversy over the Waihi strike. Plaintiffs were respectively Thomas Walcsh. publisher of the paper Voice of Labor, and William P. Black, who described himself as the manager of the company publishing Voice of Labor. Each plain till' claimed £450 damages. The eases were heard separately. The hearing of the cases occupied all day. Tu the case of Walsh the article was claimed by the defendant 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 (he organisation. The. jury awarded £'>(] damages. Costs were allowed. In the case of Black the plaintiff denied the authorship of the articles which were the subject of the alleged abusive comments by the Mnoriland Worker. The point which defendants stressed was lliaf 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 the hearing the judge lemarked that the use of violent language such as that employed by both journals should be suppressed by law.