NAPIER.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2798, 1 February 1878, Page 2

NAPIER.

': ' ""~"''''""""" Thursday. * The K.M. Court has been occupied yesterday and to day with an action to recover £100 damages brought by- Dr Dale, surgeon of the ship Renfrewshire, against the captain of the vessel, for an assault on the high seas. The matter arose out of an exaggerated notion on the part of the doctor as to his position in regard to-the immigrants being one of authority, independent of the captain. The magistrate held that what the doctor considered an assault was merely a justifiable action on the part of the captain to enforce his authority to prevent an outbreak of mutiny-which was then imminent. Fearing bad weather, the captain had to order the hatches; to be battened down. The doctor, rushed up and dragged the main batch off and threw it overboard, calling on the single men to help him, and crying,, " Whois for the captain, and who for the doctor i'" The captain loaded his revolver and fired three shots in the air to intimidate the people. . Before, that the captain had taken the doctor by the scruff of the neck and pushed him on one side, which was the assault-sued for. The captain and'several witnesses alleged that the doctor was drunk.. Judgment was given for the defendant, with £8 19s costs. - '',' . '■:■ The accounts given by some of the respectable immigrants lead to the conclusion that there was a laxity during the voyage, and that there was immoral intercourse with the single girls.