OTAKI SLANDER ACTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3310, 31 August 1911, Page 5

OTAKI SLANDER ACTION.

POLITICAL ASPIRANTS AT VARIANCE. SOME INTERESTING EVIDENCE. I FEE, PRES 5 ’ ASSOCIATION j . PALMERSTON N., August 30. The .Otaki slander case, in _ which much interest is taken, occupied the Supreme Court all day yesterday, before- the Chief Justice and a jury or twelve, when C. A. Monckton, a farmer, of Otaki, and the selected Opposition candidate.., sued Byron Brown, another Opposition and a storekeeper of Ota.ki s for £IOSO dciniages, and an injunction on five -separate charges for £250 damages each. In evidence it was said that defendant told Mr Leslie Sherman, agent for Dalo*etv and Co .at Otaki, on 14th Jannary 1911, “I cannot get any money out of plaintiff. I hold dishonored promissory notes of his, which -have been owing a long time, and on which I have charged S and 10 per cent., and will on .this occasion charge 20' per cent, which Monckton will gladly pay. Look’ here, Sherman, if this man pays liis bill to-morrow I will give you the house you are purchasing from me. In January, 1911, defendant said to, Mr S. R. Young, Manawatu agenu for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, “Monckton! Who is Monckton? Look at these, referring to a bundle of papers. ‘ All this is dishonored paper. I have more of Monckton’s in my safe than I have of anybody "Wlisn tlio fiist billreturned to me I added. 2-1 per cent. Plaintiff signed that. The next time ;5 per cent.: the next time 10 pci cent,. It is due, to-day. I will add 20 per cent. He will sign rather than pay. He has been round the banks to -raise money on his wife's income, hut the banks will not touch it, because it is only an annuity,, and dies with her. On January 25th,, last he told Mr Stanley Beattie, of the Manaku station, “Don’t think Monckton is a wealthy man. Yon can get that off your mind, Beattie. His paper is being dishonored throughout the district. I only wish I bad the value of the paper itself on which the bills are written. Surely as a business mail I ought to know what I am talking about, and what 1 tell you is correct.” In November, 1910, he told Mr D. Howell, Otaki, “He has more dishonored cheques and bills titan any other person in the district, and lam holding them. On June 8, 1911, he told Mr R. R. Martm, Opposition organiser, “It is God Almighty’s, truth, Mr Martin; I had renewed Monckton’s bill f-our times, and he came in to-day, sat in that chair where you are, and begged of me to again renew it, but I declined, and he opt the money somewhere or other to pay it. Monckton has not the money. Evidence was given by S'. Beattie, R. S. Young, J. D. Howell. L. Slcerman, R. R. Martin, Mrs Strawbridge, H. B. Bennett, Jas. Mclntosh, Miss L. M. Selling, C. L. Williams, C. Hortman, and C. A. W. Monckton. The defendant admits some ot the allegations, hut is pleading privileges.

VERDICT FOR PLAINTIFF. DAMAGES ASSESSED AT £670. The jury, after sixty-five minutes’ retirement answered . twenty-eight questions put by the Chief Justice, in favor of the plaintiff, who was awarded £670 damages, out of £1250 claimed. Damages were allotted as follows: JPO-i slander uttered to- Leslie Soron, manager of Dalgety’s, £200; to Rowland Young manager of the Loan and Mercantile Co., £200; to Stanley Beawie, £IOO ■ to John David Howell-, £l5O, to R. R Martin, Opposition organiser, £2O; total, £670, with second day counsel and costs. . Defendant had told all these- people that he held dishonored bills of plaintiff’s, and that he had to have them five times renewed, where, as it was shown, that he held no such, bills, but one bill- of plaintiff’s that of a station manager 1 —tsinjcle dead —which plaintiff: had endorsed. , , , _ ... Plaintiff is the selected Opposition candidate for Otaki, while defendant is his rival on the same side.