OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 194, 11 September 1888, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

ODD NOTES BY A LOOKER ON. Ye Looker-on sees ye most of ye game. Sydney, August 29. THE COAL-MINKBS’ STRIKE. The strike of the northern miners is now an accomplished fact. The points in disput. were so obscure and so wrapped up in matters of petty dignity and that outsiders cannot even now see what there is to justify the chief actors. Up to the lasi moment, it seemed so incredible that men claiming to be sane could act in so wanton and reckless a manner that it was hoped tha the trouble would be averted, or at least postponed. But all these hopes have provet futile. The existing depression is beiny intensified in all directions by the discharge of hands, and by the curtailment of industrial activities. If the stubborn wrong headedness of the contending parties affected only themselves it would be bad enough- But there is not a capital in all Australasia which will not be injured by it. Coal lumpers, wharf laborers, and seamen are being dismissed. Ships are being laid up, factories are closing their doors or working short time, and it seems very doubtful whether the primary requirements of civilised life -lighting and motive power—will continue to be met. Poverty is becoming an unwelcome guest in many homes where nothing has been done to invite it, in homes too, where owners have no strike pay to fall back upon. Viewed from the standpoints of the public good, we are beginning to see that the strike is a crime, all the more serious, because the law can take no cognisance of it. The fact that the xnontending parties stubbornly refuse to taaegard it in this light doesn’t at all alleviate disastrous consequences of their suicidal Hction. We implore Parliament to assist us ■against diseases and to protect us from r animal and vegetable pests which are beyond the reach of legislation ; but it seems certain that before long its aid will be invoked in matters which really come within its province. The coal supply of Australasia is too important a factor of prosperity to be left to the mercy of a few wrong headed individuals who are liable at any moment to have their vision obscured by avarice, by petty pique, or personal ambition. The only bright side of the question is the increased impetus that is being everywhere given to the production of coal, and the removal of groundless prejudices. Many a user who has lived all his life under the impression that only Newcastle coal would serve his purpose finds that he can get on almost as well with the Illawarra, Queensland or Lithgow article. The strikers are certainly taking the most effective steps to break down the monopoly which rendered a strike formidable. Meanwhile mediators are still busy and hopeful. I fancy the chief obstacle to the success of their benevolent labors is the desire to enjoy a holiday at the expense of the Union. GREAT LIBEL ACTION. The great libel action Dibbs v. Daily Telegraph is engrossing the attention of those who are out of the reach of the coal trouble. It will be remembered that Mr Dibbs, when oolonial Treasurer, was charged with converting a surplus into a deficit by the " short and easy method ” of altering the figures. The Daily Telegraph, fortified by the evidence of Mr Thompson, late chief accountant at the Treasury, accused him of criminal concealment, and challenged him to take proceedings against them for libel. This he has now done, and lays his damages at £25,000. The defendants put in a plea that their statement was true and for the public good, and paid 40s into court as full satisfaction for any undue warmth of language into which they might have been betrayed. The first plea, however, was struck out by the court. It seems that in the present state of the law one can only plead justification successfully if he is able to prove the literal and exact truth of every expression made use of. For instance, one of the articles complained of begins“ Every newspaper in the country is ringing with Mr Dibbs’s etc." Now, to get a verdict on the score of justification, it would be necessary not only to prove that the plaintiff had been guilty of criminal concealment of the finances, but that every newspaper in the colony had literally been ringing with it—which is of course impracticable. Anv one familiar with the ordinary forms of journalistic rhetoric will see from this why it is next to impossible for any newspaper to clear itself by pleading ” the public good ” in reply to a libel action. Mr Dibbs was under cross-examination the greater part of Tuesday, and his admissions throw a great deal of light on that important question“ With how little wisdom a country can be governed.” The line of examination taken by plaintiff's counsel seems to point to the imputation of private pique as the motive for writing the articles. The case will probably occupy the greater part of the week.

THOSE BOWDY LEGISLATORS. Another important trial which caused much comment was Haynes v. Fletcher. The latter gentleman seized Mr Haynes by the throat whilst he was in the middle of a speech in the Assembly, so the Premier says, “ like a dog would shake a cat,” the excuse being the offensiveness of the language employed by Mr Haynes, who rather prides himself on his powers of satire and sarcasm. The latter claimed £5OOO damages. Mr Fletcher thought £5 ample amends. The jury decided that Mr Fletcher was nearer the mark than Mr Haynes and gave him the verdict accordingly, thereby considerably shocking the good folks who had hoped for a condign vindication of Parliamentary decency. One is forcibly reminded L of a noted American assault case story, % wherein the weapons and missiles employed ’ by the combatants were brought into Court. It was shown that the defendant had used a dead cat, a shot gun, a maul, a clothes prop, a buzz saw, and a pitchfork. The plaintiff on the other band had called in the services of a fence rail, a meat axe, a ladder, a bed post, and a sapling. The jury, as soon as they were able to take in the facts, promptly returned a verdict that they would have given a dollar apiece to see the fight. They must have been aoucins to the Haynes-Fletcher Solons. At any rate their finding had about as much pertinence to the facts

LAW AND LAWYERS. Law and lawyers have been very much to the fore during the week. There is yet another case that deserves comment. I refer to the Sydney Newspaper Publishing Company v. Muir, decided by the full Court on Monday. Plaintiffs published a Bunday newspaper. It had been decided by the Court below that they could not recover their advertising account from the defendant, because the performance of their contract involved an illegal act —namely, the publishing of a newspaper On Sunday. Against this decision the plaintiffs appeal, but the Full Court upheld it. The Chief Justice, in awarding the victory to the defendant, ascribed bis defence as •• unrighteous, dishonest, and discreditable." It is worth making a note that the Chief Justice, from his place on the bench declares that the administration of law instead of justice has at last reached such a pitch as entirely to frustrate the object for which it was instituted. RETRIBUTION. The immense impetus which was given to company-promoting by the silver “ boom ” is Sinning to bear its legitimate fruits. The ds of unscrupulous people were turned by the immense sums which were diverted from the pockets cf the credulous and greedy public to those of the still more greedy promoters, ••first robbers " and ”go-betweens." A new and easy short cut to wealth had been found, and it soon became crowded. All the available cash was soon absorbed in the hundreds of enterprises which were undertaken. But from that day to this scarcely anything has been returned from them, nor is there any sound reason for hoping that anything will be. Calls continue to be made with exasperating regularity, often going into the pockets of men who have done worse than nothing to earn them. Worse than all, now tne glamor is passing away it is found that the representations on which many of these companies were formed were shamelessly and impudently misleading. They enriched sharpers and impoverished subscribers, and divested to unwholesome gambling funds which should have been productively employed. It is not o be wondered at, therefore, that in all quarsrs there is talk of winding up, of liquidation, Ind in some eases of criminal proceedings for

fraudulent practices. Now as in the days of the fable, there are a “ hundred bad ” ways of citing rich, and they mostly end in poverty. There is some hope, now this is being so plainly demonstrated, that there may be a return to the good old way of steady, welllirected and productive industry. an impostor’s luck. A Persian named Johann Ibrahim, who -tyled himself a Boman Catholic priest, and said he was collecting money for a chnrch in his own country, was sent to gaol for six months the other day as an impostor. Some five hundred pounds were found on his per. on, and moreover letters purporting to be written by high Eastern dignitaiies. The ecclesiastical authorities here, however, disowned him, and it was chiefly on their evidence that he was convicted. Against that conviction he appealed on Tuesday, as being against the weight if evidence. His appeal was sustained, he was set at liberty, and his money will be returned to him.