VERY LATEST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3809, 13 May 1891, Page 2

VERY LATEST.

(By Telegraph). (Per Press Association). Qrtli XtopalxUff. Wellington, Wednesday. The cable steamer Recorder goes out on Friday with five knots of cable to ropair the line first broken. If the weather is favorable she can complete the work in nine hoars.

Ti» TOdtftkir-Sutofclioa Appial: Wellington, Wednesday, Judgment was given in the Appeal Court this morning in the caso Whitaker v. Hutchison, an appeal. | from the judgment of Chief Justice Prendergast, refusing to Btrike out a paragraph in the defence in thii action, charging Messrs Atkinson and Mitchelson, members ot the late Ministry, with being indebted to the Bank of New Zealand, and with hav* ing on that account confederated and. collusively aoted with the plaintiff Whitakei in assisting the Bank in its financial difficulties. The Court fc mi the real question to be deter* n mi was whether the evidence that It Isrs Atkinson and Mitchelson w m heavily indebted to tbe Bank , f wal admissable in support of the justification of alleged libel by the defendant on the ground of its truth. Messrs Atkinson and Mitchelson ' were presumed to have taken a lead* ing | part in the transaction, but in order to establish this the Court thought it relevant to show the aotual position of all other members of the . Ministry in relation to the plaintiff either as Chairman of Direotora of the Bank or Attorney-General. In order to prove the transaction was at the instigation of Sir F. Whitaker, it + seemed relevant for the defendant to 8({ow that the individual members of the Government were at the mercy of the Rank of which he was chairman. The directors appeal was dismissed, with costs on the lowest soale.