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The Wairarapa Election Sensation,
Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 130, 30 November 1887, Page 2
The Wairarapa Election Sensation, ALLEGED CRIMINAL LIBEL. William Charles Nation, proprietor of the Wairarapa Standard, was charged at the Magistrate's Court to-day, before Mr. Wardell, on the information of Henry Anderson, with having, on the 12th September, unlawfully and maliciously published a certain defamatory libel of and concerning the informant, to wit "Is the employment by Mr. Bunny and Mr. Ballance of a notorious creature like Jock Anderson [meaning thereby the informant] as defender of Christian faith and as a public servant likely to do harm to the cause of Christianity and the public service? Before our readers consider this, let them reflect that this unhappy outcast Anderson [meaning thereby the informant] has constantly violated the code of Christian ethics; that he has been even picked out of the gutter, where his unrestrained vices had cast him, by Mr. Ballance - himself a notorious infidel - that Anderson [meaning the informant] is now a clerk in the Native Department, eating the public bread placed in his mouth by an infidel, and which every infidel taxpayer in the community - ourselves included - assists to pay for. Then let the electors ask themselves whether such a creature (meaning thereby the informant) should dare pose as a defender of that faith which has at least been sanctified by the lives and deaths of myriads of noble men and true, pure women. In any election contest those who participate are bound to essay some uncongenial duties, but there is a depth of degradation to which we are not prepared to sink - that is to enter into any personal controversy with the degraded Henry or Jock Anderson. Let Mr. Bunny and Mr. Ballance use him as their bully if they please, as he has been used before. While fearing neither them nor him, we do fear and object to have our name associated with such a lost creature (meaning thereby the accused)." A second information charged the defendant that he did on the 6th September publish the following article, containing a defamatory libel : - "Jock Anderson (meaning thereby the informant), Ballance's dipsomaniac. . . . . Well, the general public objects to rusty revolvers, razors, bludgeons - a stock of which Jock (meaning thereby the informant) carries concealed on his unhandsome person to assail small men with. Then there is always a fear of spontaneous combustion where he is, and - Here he is! Well, he can't hear what you say, Heaven be thanked. Enter Jock in the historical helmet, green coat, soiled shirt collar, big stick, dirty clay pipe, Maori kit, with a publichouse gin funnel as an ear trumpet . . . During this time Jock (meaning the informant) has seized the whisky jug, and is draining it. Bunny, Forbes, and Armstrong try to prevent him. In the struggle there is an awful flash of light, and Jock (meaning thereby the
informant) is seen to be enveloped in flames. There is also an awful stench. They all stagger back, and when next they look for Jock (meaning thereby the informant) all they can find is the Maori kit and the publichouse funnel. Omnes - Where's Jock (meaning the informant)? Beckett - Gone! Spontaneous combustion. This should be a warning to some of you fellows." Mr. Skerrett appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. Gray for the defendant. On the application of Mr. Gray, an adjournment was granted until Wednesday next on both charges, defendant's verbal promise to appear on that day being accepted by the Court. |