CO129-213 - Governor Sir Bowen - 1883 [12] — Page 55

54

official documents copies of in some of Departments the the knowledge of the Publie came into and possession of a local newspaper, the Defendant in the recent trial. Your Crdship is a aware that there are only twelve (12) Englishmen out at the eighty-nine (89) persons employed recons the clerical staff of this Colony.

I have the honoustube,

My Lord.

Hour Lordship's host obedient

Humble Pervat

5. Bowen

G 11359 11676 17468 The Daily Press.

HONGKONA, NOVEMBER 29TH, 1883.

SUPREME COURT.

November 29th.

CRIMINAL SESSIONS.

Baron TH HON. SIR GROBON PHILLIPPO, CHIEF JUSTIOR AND A SPECIAL JURY.

LIBEL

Robert Fraser-Smith, printer and publisher of the Hongkong Telegraph, was charged with publishing a false and defamatory libel on John Mo Neil Price, Surveyor-General of Hongkong. The article on which the charge was brought, and the inuendoes, were as follow:-

In Saturday's Gasette appear several Government notifications inviting tenders for certain local works uf some magnitade. The reclamation of Cauaoway Bay and the construction of s son wall, swing bridge, basin, and slips for launches, de, at the Kowlood Police Station, are undertakings of special import ance to the community, and will antall a very heavy expenditure of pablie fands. Why, then, does the custom prevail in the Colonial Secretary's office of confining the advertisements inviting public tenders for these works to the semi-privacy of the columns of the Government Gazette, a publication which is waldom seen outside the Government officos?

Surely it is to the public interest to give these matters all the publicity possible! And it is evidently to the private interest of some person meaning thereby the said John MoNeil Pricolor persons to keep them secret are sas circumstances will allow. Why this should be the case we will not even venture to hazard an opinion; but it may interest Governor Bowen and Mr. W. H. Marsh to know that the tongue of public roport does not scruple to assert that these contracts kept dark," ark, manipulated and stranged to anit the devices certain officiele meaning thereby smong others the asid John McNeil Price who for the prosent shall be nameless. All contracts for publio works should be extensively advertised in the newspapers, both foreign and Chinese, and an indepoudont and reliable board of trustworthy heads of departments should be appointed to decide all ten- ders on their merita, without interference or advice from the chief of the particular department meaning thereby the the said John McNai! Price] under whose anapies the works are to be carried out. We are quite sure that the honourable the Surveyor-Gono (and would, it rea requested to do so) give.

rai Hi zor a deal of valuable information on this! *nbject. Mr. Price is is reported to be a determined of the jabbery which is said to prevail o opponent extensively 's department. The subordinate members alinded to do not ot scruple to retaliate by as. serting sub rost that the honorable member likes to all the good things" to his own cheek thereby that jobbery and corruption did Surveyor.Generate enbordinate members of the mote in fact prevall very extensively amongst the subor- dicate members of the Surreyor-General's depart ment, and that any opposition the said John McNeil Price might oppose to it was solely for of benefiting the purpose himself and of deceiving the public, and that the said John MoNeil Price was guilty of corrup›- tion and malvorsstion is his said office of Surveyor- General and was commonly believed and reported amongst his own subordinates of being so guilty.]

The defence put in was a simple plea of not guilty.

Mr. Francis, instructed by Messrs. Brereton, Wotton, and Deacon, appeared for the prosecu. tion. The defendant conduated his own case,

The jurors were Messrs. E. Burnie, L. Fase, D. Musto, C. T. Kuhlmann, B. B. D. Sayle, E. L. Wondia, and W. 8. Young.

On Mr. Sayle's name being osited Mr. Francis naked that Mr. Sayle might stand aside.

The defendant-Has the learned counsel the right to challenge, my lord?

His Lordship-Not without showing cause. Mr. Francis-I don't propose to show cause. It has been constantly done bere. On the last cosasion the defendant exercised the right.

Defendant-I exercised no right.

Mr. Francis-I simply suggested it. I with- draw it.

Mr. Sayle then took his place in the box.

Mr. Francis, in opening the case, said that by the charge and plea of not guilty only two issues were seriously raised, namely, the nature of the paragraph, was it defamatory or was it not? and the other, was it published maliciously or on a lawful and justifiable vocation? He proposed to pat before them three classes of evidenes with reference to these two points. First, he would ask them to consider with him. line what by line the paragraph itself, effect it would have upon their own minds reading it for the first time, and what was the natural effect and tendency of the language used. He would ask them to say that the direct, simple, natural meaning of the language used was to injure and defame Mr. Price as muob as it was in the power of any man to do so, that nothing more defamatory ovuld be sail of him considering who he was aud the posi tion he occupied. With reference to the ques-; tion of malice two considerations arose one which was more purely a guastion of law, and that was whether or not, from the defamatory nature of the paragraph, they were not bound to infer malice? But in addition to that he proposed to show that this attack on Mr. Price's reputation did not stand alone, but was only one of a series extending over a very long period; that Mr. Price had been attack- ed by the defendant at all times, in all places, in all characters and capacities, as a mer. ber of the Government, as Surveyor-General, as a private individual; that Mr. Price had been exposed to ridicule, to contempt, to censures of every description, and that corrupt and vile motives had been imputed to him at every hand's turn. He would ask them to infer from the perusal of these articles, and the con- sideration of these facts, that the defendant was not actuated by any feeling of public spirit and genuine desire to anbserve only the public in- terest, but that he was animated by some personal spite, personal ill-will, whatever its origin, with reference to Mr. Price and all bis aotipas, The learned counsel then read the paragraph in question, commenting on it in detail, and contending that the natural and only in. ference to be drawn from it was that Mr. Price was guilty of corruption, that he was not fit to be entrusted with any share in the allotment of tendars for public works, and that he was interest- ed in keeping the advertisements for tendera dark in order that only bis own friends, who would deal liberally with him, might secure the con- tracts. As to the meaning of the word jobbery, he referred to a dictionary, in which the mean. ing was given as "unfair means employed to secure some private end," and it was with this meaning, he contended, that the word was used by the defendant in reference to Mr. Price and the department of which he was the head. The paragraph conveyed the plain inference that the tenders were manipulated for Mr. Price's interest, and that if he was a deter.. mined opponent of all jobbery amongst the subordinates in his department it was only for the purpose of securing for himself all the benefit that was to he derived from that jobbery. The learned counsel then dwelt upon the injury such a libel was oal- culated to do to the subject of it. If a single one of these obarges, if ous single instance of bri- hery and corruption as Surveyor-General could be proved against Mr. Price, what would be bis position and his future? There would follow immediate expulsion from the Government ser. vice, inability ever again to hold office under the Crown, universal opprobrium and disgrace. Then in his professional capacity outside the public service could be expect to compete suo- cessfully with other sarveyors and architects and nivil engineers whose characters were un- blemished by such charges? What 'man having a building contract would entrust it to a man expelled from the public service for bribery and corruption, for making use of his position to fill his own pocket? If any one of these charges was true, and proved to be true, Mr. Price's career and whole futuro life must be utterly and irretrievably ruined. And quite apart from the truth or falsehood of these charges, what must be the natural effect of the publication and dissemination of auch stale. ments in Hongkong and elsewhere where the paper might circulate? Those who knew Mr. Price personally know that he was incapable of committing such offences as those charged against him, that he was above corruption, that his character stoed high and deservedly high. But it was not every one in the Colony who had the privilege of Mr. Price's acquaintance and who was able to say of his own knowledge that such charges were false and baseless. Mr. Price was unknown to many, amangat whom the paper circulated, and what opinion must strangers have of him and the public service in this Colony when they read such paragraphs as this? Were such paragraphs likely, or were they not, to injure Mr.