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Press and Personal Record.

Last month we mentioned that Mr E. A. Haggen, of the Woodville Examiner, had been committed for trial on a charge of libelling one William Syms, of Woodville, pharmaceutical chemist and justice of the peace. The case was heard before the Chief Justice on the 6th and 7th September, and resulted in Mr Haggen being lined £50, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. We can give only a very brief outline of the case, which was of considerable interest and importance. The article on which the action was based was of a most damaging kind. It appeared on the 27th April, and accused the complainant of having attempted to procure abortion in the case of a young woman resident at Woodville, whereby she had nearly lost her life; and hinted that he had previously seduced her. It went on to state that the police had taken the affair in hand; but that owing to pressure brought to bear by the government they had hushed it up. It concluded with the statement that a petition would be got up to remove the offender from the bench, as it was a scandal that such a person should hold a public position. The article was set out in full in the indictment. Mr Edwards appeared for the prosecution, and Mr S. Baker for the defence. A special plea of a peculiar kind had been put in for the defence, and Mr Edwards objected to it as irregular. Mr Baker said that it simply amounted to a plea of not guilty. It turned out that the plea was practically one of privilege, and that Mr Haggen had come prepared with witnesses to prove that the article was inserted in good faith, and that he had good grounds for believing it to be true. His Honor would not allow the plea of privilege, and as the accused had not chosen to plead justification, refused to accept the evidence tendered by Mr Baker, on the ground that it was irrelevant. The whole of the first day was taken up by a struggle on the part of Mr Haggen's counsel to put in evidence which the Court would not receive, and finally his Honor instructed the jury that they had no other course than to bring in a verdict of guilty, which they did. Mr Baker then obtained leave to file certain affidavits in mitigation of sentence; his Honor, however, remarking that the affidavits might possibly aggravate the libel.—On the 7th Mr Haggen was brought up for sentence. His Honor said that if the affidavits were correct, there had been a gross miscarriage, of justice. The case was a very difficult one to deal with. He was surprised, after reading the affidavit of a medical man, that no prosecution had been set on foot. If that information had really been given to the police, it was astonishing that nothing was done. Mr Edwards said that he had come fully prepared to meet the charge. Mr Haggen had not dared to justify what he had written; he knew he had no grounds for it. He was a professional libeller—there were bushels of libels in this very paper. If he (Mr E.) could have gone into the matter, he had bushels of affidavits to file. He would prove that the woman was hysterical; that the symptoms attributed to malpractice were the natural results of her disease; that Syms was qualified to treat the case and that his treatment was proper; and further that it was common for women suffering from this special complaint to make false charges against their medical attendants. He pressed for an exemplary sentence. His Honor said that it was much to the credit of newspapers that prosecutions of this character were remarkably rare. It showed that they understood their business. This case brought out very clearly the absolute necessity there was for the treatment of the dissemination of libel as a criminal offence, inasmuch as it tended to disturb the peace of a community, or might do so. It appeared from this article that some woman had stated that the prosecutor had had improper relations with her, and that instruments had been used and means taken for the purpose of procuring abortion. It was stated that this matter had been brought to the knowledge of a medical man, and from appearances he was of opinion that the charge was correct; that the local police were informed of the matter, but they had abstained from instituting a prosecution; that the Minister of Justice had been communicated with and that he had apparently neither given directions for proceedings to be instituted nor had he thought the matter such that it reflected upon the prosecutor as a justice of the peace. The Act under which Mr Syms was registered as a pharmaceutical chemist gave power to remove him for improper conduct, but there had been no suggestion that anything of the sort had been done. It did not depend entirely upon the police or the Minister of Justice whether or not a prosecution was instituted; but an individual who believed that a crime had been committed could take proceedings. If Mr Haggen believed that a crime had been committed, nothing would have been easier than for him to have gone to the nearest magistrate and laid an information, bring forward his witnesses and procure the committal of the person for the crime he was alleged to have committed. The law did not hold a person responsible for making a mistake, so long as he could show that he had reasonable grounds for setting the law in motion. But instead of that an article was published in a newspaper. A minister of religion had referred to it from the pulpit, not in direct terms, but sufficiently direct to be an attack upon the prosecutor. Reference had also been made to the matter in other issues of the paper. All this showed that there had been a great disturbance by the dissemination of this libel. It had been said that Mr Haggen had been actuated by a sense of duty, but for the reasons he (his Honor) had given, he felt sure that it was not so. No person of ordinary understanding could have felt that it was his duty to reiterate charges in the public press when the ordinary course of justice was open to him. It must be apparent to anybody possessing common sense that there were reasons why the law was not set in force. The case was one that in the interests of the public at large ought to be dealt with severely. Mr Haggen was not a criminal in the ordinary sense, and the punishment would be felt by him much more than by persons of the criminal class. The sentence of the Court was that he should pay a fine of fifty pounds, and undergo imprisonment in the Wellington jail for a term of two months, and remain there until the fine was paid. He must also give security that he would be of good behaviour and keep the peace towards her Majesty the Queen and all her subjects, especially Mr Syms, for a term of one year from the expiration of the term of imprisonment, the security to be his own recognizance of £100 and one surety of £50. An order was made that the prisoner should be treated as a first-class misdemeanant.

On Sunday, 18th inst., about 1.20 a.m., a fire broke out in the office of the Standard, Palmerston North. It was subdued in about twenty minutes after its discovery, but the whole contents of the paper store room, where it originated, besides two presses and a quantity of job plant in the adjoining room, were destroyed. Mr Pirani, the proprietor, estimates the loss at about £100.

The Churchman is the name of a new venture lately undertaken in Wellington. While there is no intention on the part of the promoters to exclude articles of general interest, they do not aim at making it a popular paper. « It is the outcome of the desire of a few earnest church workers to promulgate catholic teaching. The promoters hope to make it a colonial paper, containing the best thoughts of the best churchmen in New Zealand. » An uphill task is before them.

Mr Kenworthy, editor of the Hawera Star, met with a very painful accident in the early part of the month. He was kicked by a horse on the left leg, which was badly fractured above the knee, besides being severely bruised from the knee-cap to the thigh. A fragment of bone pierced the flesh, and he lost a good deal of blood from the wound. No one was near, and his calls for help were unheard or unnoticed for nearly three hours, when he was found by a child, who soon brought assistance, and he was conveyed to the cottage hospital, where he received all attention. To add to his misfortunes, through lying so long in the damp grass of a paddock, he sustained a severe chill, followed by rheumatic pains, a sore chest, and a cough that badly shook the injured limb. By latest accounts he was doing well, and his wound was healed, but the cough was still troublesome.

There are some clever young writers among the students in Canterbury College, and there is nothing wonderful in the fact that they contemplate the publication of a New Zealand magazine. The scheme, as embodied in the preliminary circular, is not fully worked out as to details, and criticism and suggestion are invited. Previous craft of this kind, launched in the colony, have one and all suffered shipwreck, and there are rocks ahead of the present venture. It is intended, and quite naturally, to give prominence to University notes, but they will not be conducive to its acceptance by the general public, The promised feature of « the New Journalism » will, in many cases, be a sufficient condemnation. That cant term, as generally used, means personal criticism, in bad taste and worse English. Then there is the financial rock. In the face of the carefully-prepared estimates, we have no hesitation in saying that no high-class magazine in this country, retailed at sixpence, can possibly pay, even as a private venture, and under company management the cost would necessarily be greater. The cumbrous machinery of a joint-stock concern is appropriate in cases where large interests are involved; but a literary company with £500 capital is out of all proportion. When the hungry State has exacted its fees and dues, and all the unavoidable preliminary expenses are provided for, there will be very little left to pay the printer—to say nothing of the contributors.

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Mr John Ballance, Premier, and principal proprietor of the Wanganui Herald, is dangerously ill.

The N. Z. Freemason has suddenly travelled about a thousand miles northward. It now reaches us with an Auckland imprint: Arthur Cleave & Co., Vulcan Lane.

« It is high time that this question was really faced and threshed out on its merits according to our lights. » So writes a contributor to a contemporary.

The Dunedin Tablet of 23rd inst. published as a supplement a lithographed portrait of Dr. Luck, Romanist Bishop of Auckland. It is an excellent piece of work, and is in marked contrast to many of the so-called portraits published in the colonial press.

The Wakatipu Mail having come down heavily on the Lake County Press for a mistake in figures, the latter retorts by quoting the advertisement of a furniture sale in 1992, at which luncheon will be provided. ؟Where is the newspaper-man who can afford to throw a stone at his neighbor in the matter of typographical errors?

The War Cry has come out in a complete dress of new type, and is greatly improved in appearance thereby. Mr T. E. Fraser is to be congratulated on the way in which he turns out the two papers with the biggest circulations in New Zealand—the Prohibitionist and the War Cry.

The Woodville Examiner hands have struck on account of their wages being in arrear. The company has found it necessary to retrench in various directions, and it is announced that on account of the enforced absence of the managing director, the paper will be issued only thrice weekly.

A murder was lately committed in Wellington by an American seaman, and the Wellington Times published sketch portraits of the accused and of another sailor charged with inciting him to the act. The Catholic Times says that the portraits are « atrociously hideous and atrociously unlike, » and that the morning paper « cought to be prosecuted for a criminal libel of the most virulent type. »

The Dunedin correspondent of the Tuapeka Times gives a pretty full account of a meeting lately held in Dunedin for the purpose of discussing the necessity of establishing a « liberal » paper in that city. He says: The attendance was small, and the speechmaking was done by lawyers. Sir Robert Stout led off with an oration; followed by Mr R. L. Stanford, a many-sided man, judging by the variety of his life, and one who must have had some experiences of the financial uncertainties of liberal journalism, having been in the editorial chair of the Herald when that organ went under. Dr Fitchett followed Mr Stanford, and was equally eloquent, and so was Mr J. A. Miller, who successfully engineered the big strike to destruction. But Show much to the purpose is all this? One speaker declared, in appealing tones, that unless something was done before Friday evening the Globe would give up whatever life it had in it, and then, he affirmed, liberalism would be in a fine fix. Mr J. A. Miller said it made his blood boil to hear working men speak contemptuously of the Globe as a rag. But working men are shrewd enough to understand the injury which that paper, in combination with men of the J. A. Miller stamp, has done them. Besides, working men, like other men, like to get value for their money.

We lately mentioned that an advertisement refused by a returning officer to a particular newspaper had been directly authorized by the Premier. In the House on the 6th inst. the subject was brought up by Mr Allen, and some singular facts came to light. The amount involved was the not very large sum of £1 10s or £1 17s 6d, the former being the original claim, the latter the actual amount paid. The editor of the Clutha Free Press telegraphed to the returning officer: « According to Premier's instructions, send advertisement polling-booths Bruce election. » The newspaper being outside the district, and the Premier having nothing to do with the arrangements, the officer took no notice. Subsequently he received a voucher from the Press for £1 10s, which he also ignored. The remainder of the registrar's story is best given in his own words. « On the 18th May I was at Balclutha, and I met Mr Joseph on the bridge, and he asked me if I was going to pass the account, and I told him I was not. He replied that he would get it passed in spite of me, and that he would send it to 'hon. John' (Mr McKenzie) who would make it hot for me. A week afterwards I received my dismissal through the 'hon. John,' because the Colonial Secretary was in Sydney, and could not act in person. » [Mr Joseph has published a letter, denying that he used the alleged threat.] The manner of the payment, it may be remarked, was quite illegal. The solicitude displayed by the cabinet towards editors of the Right Color is noteworthy. In order that thirty pieces of silver may find their way into the pocket of a supporter, two ministers interfere in the conduct of an election, and a public servant is dismissed.

The Auckland Herald says that people do not recognize that a man may know enough to be a Minister of the Crown, and yet not know enough to edit a newspaper.

On the 30th August, Mr Hubert Mitchell, sub-editor of the Oamaru Mail, was married to Miss Isabel Morton, eldest daughter of the late Lewis Morton, of Oamaru. The Rev. A. Gilford officiated, and sisters of the bride and bridegroom acted as bridesmaids.

The Woodville Examiner proof-reader appears to have struck with the rest of the hands. The last issue states that the Harvard apple, a new variety, has been occupying the attention of the « American Phrenological Society, »

Referring to the Bruce advertising scandal, the Tuapeka Times says: « We wrote to Mr Nelson ourselves for the authority he refused to give the Clutha Free Press, but he refused to grant permission to us to insert the advertisements asked for, though the Tuapeka Times circulates extensively over a large area of the Bruce electorate. Yet we didn't represent the matter to the Premier or threaten to make it sultry for the official, because we believed he was acting in the public interests, and had a perfect right to the exercise of his own judgment. The interference of the Premier in such a matter was nothing short of scandalous. »

Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H.R. and ex-journalist, played it rather low in the House when he made a long speech in abuse of the Wairarapa journal against which he once ran an opposition organ. The talk about « Tory » organs, controlled by « squatters, » to « grind down labor, » is as familiar as the fact that those who use it generally pay the lowest wages, but Mr Hogg made explicit charges as well. The Times, he said, having made false statements concerning certain men employed on relief works, refused to insert a « fairly polite letter, » signed by forty of those men, which was afterwards published by Mr Hogg. The Times, replying, offers to print the document in facsimile. The signatures were obtained by a man in Mr Hogg's service; great part of them were in the same clerkly hand; and some of the men who really did sign declared that they had been misled as to the nature of the « fairly polite » document, which by the way, accused the Times of publishing « malicious falsehoods. »

The gush of the concert reporter of the Auckland Star is sending the London musical journals into fits. Readers in the north clip and send home tit-bits for the delectation of the English public. Here is a recent example: « Travellers who have gone into raptures over the natural advantages of Auckland have assured us that our broad Hauraki Gulf rivals the Bay of Naples in beauty, that our skies are Etrurian in their blueness, that our breezes are like those satiny zephyrs that fan the waters of the Mediterranean, and our islands like the gems that are set upon its breast; and our ardent admirer, Mr Froude, foresaw the time when such a land with such a climate would be the birthplace of poets and of singers worthy to proclaim its praise. Although the sacer vates has not yet arrived to fulfil Mr Froude's prophecy, and our Catalinis and our Marios are yet unborn, we have made one important step towards their arrival. We have learned the musical accents in which they will speak, and when the Italy of the North sends forth her sons and daughters of melody, in no part of the globe may they count on a warmer reception than in Auckland, the Milan of the south. »

The Minister of Lands has as great an aversion to editors as Fad-ladeen had to poets; and like his illustrious prototype, has publicly recommended the kurbash as the proper discipline for those literary heretics whose political doxy does not correspond with his own. It is almost a pity that his Act to Legalize the Horsewhipping of Certain Editors, which he was anxious to pass through all its stages in one day, was never printed—it would have been as great a prize to collectors as the Washers and Manglers Bill. In the House he lately declared that he had great difficulty in disabusing the minds of some of the members of the idea that the newspapers govern the colony. The press will probably accept this as an involuntary compliment. It would be a poor newspaper indeed that possessed less moral influence than the vain and truculent minister, who cannot even rule his temper. That he is dimly conscious of the awful muddle he is making in his own department may be inferred from a circular just issued to all the Land Offices, prohibiting the officers from giving information to the press, and requesting them to be guarded in their conversation lest departmental matters should leak out and get into the newspapers. It is scarcely necessary to add that the document had not been circulated many hours before the reporters found out all about it. The « hon. John » seems a little out of place in a British colony, holding such pronounced views as he does on the efficacy of press censorship, with the knout in the background. He should find a more congenial sphere in an empire where Democracy is so triumphant and Liberalism so advanced that these institutions are part of the recognized machinery of the State.

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Mr Haggen seems to have the entire sympathy of the Woodvillains, who are subscribing to pay his fine and costs.

« I think, sir, I can discover the cloven hoof of the serpent in this motion, » was the metaphor with which Mr Fish lately startled the House of Representatives.

The Gisborne Standard has again succumbed. We are sorry to say that Mr E. P. Smyrk, who was encouraged to take up the burden by the local Liberals, who badly wanted an organ, has received such grudging support that he comes out a very heavy loser.

The publisher of the Northern Advocate announces that he has secured the printing of the Whangarei County Council at 100 per cent, less than the rates charged by the up-country printing-offices! Not only does he thus, according to his own showing, do the local work gratis, but he generously offers « to take the printing of all the northern county councils at the same schedule rates. » Perhaps his rival may outdo even these liberal terms. He may offer a bonus to the local bodies for the privilege of doing their work.

Apropos of journalists and Scripture, the Wairarapa Standard says that it read a late article in the Masterton Timet with pain and sorrow. « 'The journalistic Saul,' we are told, 'and the pastoral Jonathan were a lovely example of fraternal affection,' and so on. Alas for our friend the editor, the relation between the original Saul and Jonathan was that of father and son, and was not, moreover, very cordial. We offer our condolences to the editor on his want of acquaintance with Holy Writ. ؟May we, at the same time, suggest to him that it is inadvisable to make quotations from books which one has not read? »

At the Trades Hall on Saturday evening, 20th August, the annual meeting of the Wellington Typographical Society was held, the President (Mr E. Thornton) occupying the chair. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Mr J. Rigg; Vice-President, Mr H. C. Jones; Secretary, Mr W. McGirr. The annual report presented by the Board of Management was, upon the whole, of a satisfactory nature; but regret was expressed at having to record as the principal feature of the greater part of the term the great depression in the printing trade. The report further stated that this depression still continued, and one result had been the throwing out of employment of several members of the association who were looked upon as regular hands at their respective establishments. The balance-sheet showed that the receipts from all sources during the last half-year amounted to £399 13s 8d, and the expenditure to £360 18s 1d, leaving a credit balance of £29 15s 7d. Votes of thanks were passed to Messrs Sandford, W. Hutchison, and Earn-shaw, mm.h.r., for their interest in the prosperity of the Craft in Wellington.

The liabilites of Trischler and Co., colonial publishers, are set down at £15,000. A composition of 7s 6d in the pound is offered.

The great fire at St. John's, Newfoundland, in July, made such a clean sweep of the printing-offices that there was not enough type, ink, or paper remaining in the city to print a single poster.

Das Echo, of Berlin, has marked its jubilee by discarding the gothic type for roman. It is said to be the first of the dailies that has made the innovation, though the use of roman type in scientific and technical publications has been gradually extending for a good many years.

The time-honored subject of jest—the office towel—is the latest conquest in the march of reform. New York has an « Apron, Towel, and Printers' Supply Company, » that supplies clean towels weekly at the price of five cents each to business establishments, and clean aprons at the same price. The towels and aprons are the property of the company.

A merchant in Frankfort-on-the-Main has just been prosecuted for profanity. He had issued an advertisment, beginning with the words « Let there be light, and there was light. » The Court sentenced him to a fine of £5. Those who are annoyed by the profane headings and quotations in quack advertisements which disfigure so many colonial newspapers will be inclined to think that in some respects things are managed better in Germany.

A Scarborough clergyman found in a paper an utterly unfounded statement to the effect that his consort had presented him with triplets. He immediately caused inquiry to be made as to the source of the story, and he found it was as follows: His married daughter and her children had arrived at his house on a visit. The event had been described by one neighbor to another as an « addition of three to the minister's family. » By the natural law of evolution that was transformed into a case of triplets; and a local correspondent getting hold of the story, sent it in that form to the papers.

In the Westminster County Court recently an action was brought by a lady named Kendal against the proprietor of Flashes, to recover a silk dress or its value. The evidence of the plaintiff showed that on March 28th an advertisement appeared of tea at 2s per ℔, and the plaintiff bought 6℔, for which she paid 12s. The person who sent in the largest number of coupons was to have a new silk dress. Plaintiff was told by defendant's manager that Mrs Kendal had sent the most coupons, as no one else sent in any at all. The dress was never given. His Honor gave a verdict for the plaintiff for £5 damages and costs.

At the late general election, at Eccles, Lancashire, a candidate was rather disconcerted by a very simple mistake. Reporters know that where a candidate addresses two or three meetings in one evening, he often makes the same speech serve; in which case it is a waste of time to follow him from place to place. To make sure on this occasion they passed up from the reporter's table the polite inquiry, « ؟May we assume that you will be delivering the same address at the other meetings? » The chairman carefully put the note aside, and at the close of the speech handed it with the other questions to the candidate, who when he came to the query waxed very indignant until a prompt explanation passed up from the pressmen set matters right again.

The Governor of the Bahamas lately received a deputation which protested against the action of the Chief Justice in imprisoning the editor of the Nassau Guardian for criticising his judicial conduct, and ordered that gentleman's immediate release, thus averting what promised to develop into a most serious crisis. Even as it was, all business had practically been at a standstill for two days on account of the affair. The editor's release was made the occasion for a public demonstration of sympathy. The affair has caused a greater sensation throughout the islands than any event in their recent history. The Chief Justice summoned the jailer for contempt of Court in releasing the editor on the Governor's warrant. The Court met and all was ready for the case to begin, an immense crowd being assembled both inside and outside the building, when the Judge announced that he would proceed no further with the matter. It is understood, however, that the Chief Justice is going to England to lay the affair before the proper authorities.

In the Queen's Bench Court, London, in July, an action for damages for breach of copyright, Godfrey v. Bradley, was heard before Mr Justice Wright, and it illustrates a danger to which the most careful publishers are subject. The plaintiff's case was that his late wife, Mrs Mary Rose Godfrey, and himself some years ago wrote, a novel called « Loyal, » and it was published by Messrs Tinsley in three volumes. In 1888 there was published in a series of the London Journal a tale called « A Mad Marriage. » In this tale the main part of the plot of « Loyal » was incorporated. There were many phrases which were similar, and a number of expressions that were identical with those which had been used in « Loyal. » Evidence of literary « experts » was called on both sides, and was conflicting. Mr Johnson said that he formerly owned the London Journal. In 1873 or 1874 « A Mad Marriage » was first published there. He had that tale direct from Mrs Fleming, the authoress, a Canadian lady, who lived in New York. It was published simultaneously in the London Journal and in the New York Weekly. It ran through about twenty-five numbers, and witness paid for it £12 a number, or £275 in all. He had heard no complaint from anybody. Mr Justice Wright, after a long argument, gave judgment. He said that it was obvious that the defendant in the case was an innocent party; but no one who found a succession of similar passages and the exact similarity of language, both in description and in conversation, used as to corresponding characters in corresponding situations could possibly doubt that the writer of « A Mad Marriage » had before her the novel « Loyal. » He thought that no action should have been brought in respect of mere similarity of language; but he was quite satisfied that the main plot of « Loyal » had been incorporated into « A Mad Marriage, » and that it was worked out with many of the same incidents, and to a considerable extent in the same way. He came to the conclusion that « A Mad Marriage » would never have had the form it had if « Loyal » had not been written. Then, as to the relief to be given, the defendant was not guilty of anything but an extremely pardonable want of care; and it did not appear that the plaintiff had suffered any real damage. The defendant would be at liberty to go on selling the copies of his publication that were complained of, and that were already printed, but he must not print any more of them. Under all the circumstances, he gave judgment for the plaintiff for £50 with costs.

To use « adhesion » in the sense of « adherence » is a common error. The words are not synonomous.