RANDOM NOTES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 41, 7 February 1874, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES.

" A chiel'B am&ng ye takin' notes, Ar.d faith he'll puut 'em." It has been allegeJ that climatic influences exeuoise a powerful sway upon the cuticle of persons of a sensitive nature. If Buch be tho case, the climate of Dunedin h,ii a deal to answer for, and the number of those subject to its influence somewhat numerous. Some years since 0 le ecntitivo itind recGiled with honor *t the thought of being co i • pared to tho Hon. C. E. Jones, of Victoria ; and lately we have a pub!.e officer wildly appealing for justice at the hands of his countrymen, on the miscreant who hud stigmutited him as well, it might not be -safe to repeat the expiession- Bulwer mnkes Richelieu declare the pen iuore mighty than the sword, hut it sometimes happens that it becomes fi two-edged weapon, and unless used with judgment and skill, recoils u^on the person by whom it is wielded To boa writer of, or to, tl.o Press, requires a tuet and finesse of which few are possessed j and the line of dfcinaicatiou which separates sarcasm mid satire from legal libel is of ?o line a character, that man.y in-idreitently overstep the boundary, and place themselves at the mercy of the impecunious and lapacious. The case which has recently been heard before Mr Justice Clirpman is certainly a most extraordinary one : the fact of its ever being brought into Court at all n. matter oi turprise ; but the climax ha* been capped by the Gilding of the jury ou the evidence adduced, and in the face ot the charge from the Bench. The gracamen was that complainant had been designated a "Bumble of the fust water." Witnesses were called on his side, who deposed thkt, so far from that gentleman being injured in their opinion by the usage of the term applied to him, their admiration and respect for his character had been the greater, and itstead of being reduced, he hud been con-iJerably raised in their estirnution. As the deputy-harbourmaster sought a pecuniary (solatium for the dswmigo to his character alleged to have been received, but -which lamentably failed to be proven, the most natural, and in fictonly, presumption to be arrived at is, that the gentlemen of the jury fully endorsed the truth of the expressions constituting he socalled libel, and in their appreciation of Mr Orkney being a " Bumble of tho first water" presented him with a testimonial of £50. While •thoroughly decrying the prostitution of the mighty lever of the Press, I think the recent verdict will have an injurious effect on the community at large, for it is scarcely to be supposed that journalists will light the battles of the public, and set themselves up as " Aunt Sallys," to be shied at on every trivial occasion. In future Mr Bell and his ,confr4res will bo 6omewbat chary in trying issues with a Dunedin Twelve, and j>erhaps when next a public wrong ha? been perpetrated,

or a social evil to be redressed, there may be some difficulty in fiudiu any one to " Bell the cat." The enquiring minds of the jurors have however, set at rest one point they held in doubt, the oft-repeated, but never- assured, question, " What's in a name," has been solved by them. The rose might smell as sweet by any other name, but the florescence of the deputy harbour-master has been seriously impeded by the application of the opprobious epithets ; and Mr Bell can thoroughly res* pond to thequery — "Eifty Pounds." Peter Possum.