There are about 50 genera of foliose lichens in New Zealand. Their appearance is that of a flat continuous thallus, attached to the substratum by some form of holdfast. The genus Sticta and the genus Parmelia are the largest, both in number of species and in size of plant body. There are over 50 species in each of these genera. Stictae are found mainly in the Southern Hemisphere. Among the larger species are S. coronata, S. flavicens, S. impressa, S. fovelata, and S. polychrita, all distinguished by pits on the lower surface.

Parmelias, somewhat similar in appearance, are black on the under surface. The genus Piltigera, found on damp earth, is represented in New Zealand by nine species. Like the four species of Nephroma, found on rocks and tree trunks, most of these are dark green on the upper surface and white below. Umbilicaria, eight species, are black and very small. Collema and Leptogium become gelatinous when damp. The large yellow-orange Xanthoria is found on trees and rocks near the sea.

Lichens are small unusual plants found on rocks, soils, tree trunks, on leaves, fences, and paths. They are of slow growth, are long lived, and are found all over the world, from polar regions to the equator, and from sea level to mountain tops. They are able to withstand extremes of temperature and long periods of drought. These small plants do not have roots, stems, or leaves but appear as spreading crusts, leaf-like mats, or hanging threads, mainly grey or yellow-orange in colour.

A lichen is a composite plant consisting of two organisms living together for mutual benefit. A particular species of fungus lives in symbiotic association with a particular species of alga to form a distinct plant body. When a cross section of a lichen is examined under a microscope, a layer of green or blue-green algae is seen beneath the tangled formation of colourless fungal hyphae. The fungus forms the protective layers which shelter the alga while it carries on photosynthesis and makes food for both partners.

Reproduction may be from fragments of the plant body containing both the fungus and the alga, as in Sticta and Parmelia. Spore capsules, either apothecia or perithecia, are formed by most fungi, and from these are ejected fungal spores which, however, must combine with the particular alga to form a new plant. In some species, such as Cladonia, algal cells become surrounded by fungal hyphae and form powdery masses (soredia) on the surface of the plant. These are distributed by wind and rain.

Many lichens are cosmopolitan and may not be restricted to any particular substratum or habitat. Many are endemic to New Zealand; there are over 1,250 species belonging to 150 genera already known, and it is probable there are many more to be identified.

Lichens may be classified, according to their form, into three main groups as foliose, fruticose, and crustose, with many intermediate forms.

Despite much controversy, New Zealand has as yet no national library. Most of the functions appropriate to such an institution are carried out by the three State libraries in Wellington – the General Assembly Library, the National Library Service and, to a lesser extent, the Alexander Turnbull Library. The oldest of these, the General Assembly Library, is the library of the House of Representatives and the library of New Zealand copyright deposit. The library was established as the result of a recommendation of a Select Committee of the General Assembly in 1856. It was for a period administered jointly with the Auckland Provincial Council Library, separation becoming effective with the removal of the capital from Auckland to Wellington in 1865. By 1872 it contained 8,333 volumes and continued to develop normally until restricted by the economic setbacks of the 1880s. A lengthy campaign for a building was finally successful, the present pseudo-Gothic building being completed in 1898 – to date, the latest state library building so far erected by the Government for any library under its direct control. By 1925 the collection had grown to 110,000 vol. and by 1965 to 316,000.

Perhaps the most notable of its early librarians was James Collier (1883–90) who, before coming to New Zealand, was research assistant to the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Following Collier's retirement, H. L. James was appointed to the staff and, although he was never appointed chief librarian, his influence during his 34 years of service was significant. G. H. Scholefield (1927–48) brought both research experience and newspaper background to the position and added considerably to the already extensive newspaper holdings. In addition to a broad general coverage, the library has special strength in economics and political science and, as the New Zealand centre for international exchange, has the largest holdings of Commonwealth official papers. It also has the private papers of several New Zealand statesmen. The library publishes the annual Copyright Publications and periodic bibliographies of periodicals and newspapers.

Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull, son of a Wellington merchant, in little more than 25 years of strenuous and wide-ranging collecting built up the largest private collection yet formed in New Zealand. On his death in 1918 he bequeathed his library to the Crown as the “nucleus of a New Zealand national collection”. At that time the library, which has continued to be housed, in part, in Turnbull's private home, comprised about 45,000 volumes including many thousands of pamphlets, manuscripts, engravings, and water colours.

Turnbull's main interests were in English literature, particularly the seventeenth century, and the Pacific and New Zealand. In the latter field he had built up a splendid collection, particularly strong in discovery, island languages, and pamphlet material. Administration was taken over by the Department of Internal Affairs, the chief librarian of the General Assembly Library being for a time “advisory director” and the first librarian being J. C. Andersen (1919–34). The library was opened to the public in June 1920. Funds for systematic acquisition on the scale of Turnbull's buying were not available nor, for a number of years, was it possible to maintain the Pacific collection. Since the mid-1930s, however, the library has been able to continue and sustain purchase in the main fields of interest, aided by valuable private bequests. Among the latter may be mentioned the library and papers of W. B. D. Mantell, the library of Sir Joseph Kinsey, and the family papers of Sir Donald McLean and Sir D. D. Maclean. It is in the field of manuscripts that donations and acquisitions have been outstanding, the collections today being the most valuable and extensive outside the National Archives.

The third State library, the National Library Service (1945), was formed from the Country Library Service (1938), now one of the four divisions of the Service. The Service had its inception in the various proposals put forward immediately after the Munn-Barr survey (1934) to restore or provide an alternative to the former subsidy to public libraries. A small group of New Zealand librarians, the “Carnegie library group” which consisted of some of the New Zealanders known to the corporation, put forward proposals for a national library service including the supply of books instead of a cash subsidy. The practicability of the scheme was to be demonstrated in a selected area and G. T. Alley who, since 1930, had been maintaining under the auspices of Canterbury University College in association with the W.E.A. a rural mobile library service in Canterbury, undertook a survey of the possibility of a rural library system in Taranaki. The findings of the survey were issued early in 1937 and later in the year plans for a scheme of assistance to small country libraries were crystallised. These were developed by the Labour Government of the day whose Minister of Education, Peter Fraser, was particularly sympathetic to library needs, the Service being opened in 1938. Loans of books were made to local authority libraries which had agreed to provide a free, rate-supported service. Loans were at first made to the smaller public libraries, but the maximum population level entitled to participate has been raised periodically so that now only the major cities – whose stock in any case should match that of the Country Library Service – do not benefit. A persistent campaign of persuasion and example, in which both the New Zealand Library Association and the Service collaborated, led to the acceptance of the principle of free service. At the same time the principle that the smaller libraries should buy only what can be worn out, and borrow what is in more limited demand, has removed much of the threat of dead stock.

In addition to bulk loans, loan collections on special subjects and an individual request service are provided. Books are distributed also to small independent library groups in counties. In 1961, 880 of such groups were in operation. Loans are also provided for camps, lighthouses, Tb sanatoria, and certain hospitals. In 1963–64, over 230,000 volumes were on regular loan and a further 130,000 had been supplied as loan collections and requests.

The Country Library Service, almost from its inception, was involved in various forms of co-operative library activity to meet unanticipated needs. Among these were much of the work for the war library service, the assuring of library book supplies through the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports, the establishment of the Union Catalogue of books, and participation in a new programme of library training. For these reasons and to meet post-war needs, it was an almost implicit development that a National Library Service should have evolved in 1945–46 to include, in addition to the Country Library Service, a library school and a National Library Centre. Library training had been commenced by the association in 1941 and in the following year the general training course was instituted. However, to provide a full-time post-graduate course of nine months' duration, the Library School was opened in 1946. From its inception until November 1964, 341 students have graduated. Since 1952 the associations' training course has been completed in the school.

The National Library Centre was established in 1946 to coordinate and extend the cooperative use of books and periodicals, and to provide aids to their rapid location. The Centre maintains the Union Catalogue (1941), now containing about 600,000 cards, which gives the whereabouts of books in the major New Zealand libraries. It also keeps up to date and publishes the Union List of Serials, the Index to New Zealand Periodicals (1941) and Current National Bibliography (1950), and the retrospective bibliography of New Zealand books and pamphlets, the first section of which is now appearing in checklist form. The Centre also assists in the operation of the national scheme of inter-library lending, using as a basis the headquarters collection of the Service. Provision for cooperative purchase and consultation in the purchase of expensive works, together with responsibility for the association's book coverage programme are also functions of the Centre. The Library Resources Committee (1941) of the Association is the national planning body on policy. The activities of the School Library Service have been outlined.

The need for a national library to coordinate and develop the appropriate services of the three State libraries, as well as to provide a suitable physical centre for their existence, has been proposed for many years and endorsed by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1958. In 1963 the Government announced its decision to establish a national library by the integration of the three State libraries with safeguards where necessary for the preservation of separate identity. G. T. Alley was appointed National Librarian in 1964. The Libraries Association of New Zealand was established, largely on the initiative of Mark Cohen, in 1910 when it held its first conference. In 1935 the association was reconstituted as the New Zealand Library Association, and much of the development of the past 25 years have been due to its influence. While it is true that the 1934 survey of New Zealand libraries by Ralph Munn of Pittsburgh and John Barr of Auckland was due rather to individuals and the Carnegie Corporation, the “jubilee” survey of library resources by A. D. Osborn, then of the Fisher Library, Sydney (1959), was financed by the corporation at the association's request. Despite the bolder policies of the recent past, New Zealand, by overseas standards, has still a very limited range of titles for reference and research needs, a situation which, at the very least, should not be allowed to deteriorate.

by Austin Graham Bagnall, M.A., A.L.A., Librarian, National Library Centre, Wellington.

• Census of Libraries 1959, New Zealand Dept. of Statistics
• Report, New Zealand National Library Committee (1958)
• Special Libraries and Collections – a New Zealand Directory, New Zealand Library Association (1959)
• New Zealand Libraries – a Survey, Munn, R., and Barr, J. (1934)
• New Zealand Library Resources, Osborn, A. D. (1960)
• New Zealand Library Association, 1910–1960, McEldowney, W. J. (1962).

The table opposite shows the largest special libraries in New Zealand. Special libraries within New Zealand are still centred largely round research institutions and societies, professional associations, and museums as well as the university special schools. The modest degree of industrial expansion within New Zealand has not yet been matched by a corresponding development of library and information services, although the clear need for such if the country is to keep abreast of development has been stressed many times. By overseas standards there are no more than half a dozen smallish libraries attached to commercial and industrial organisations. A technical and commercial library service to industry through the public library system and certain special libraries has been planned and discussed but not so far introduced.

The Department of Agriculture, in addition to its head office library, includes those of the Wallaceville Animal Research Centre (1898; 10,000 vol.); Ruakura Agricultural Research Centre (1945; 8,000 vol.); and Rukuhia Soil Fertility Station. Other departmental collections of varying research and administrative function are maintained by the Health Department, the Army, the Ministry of Works, Forest Service, and Education Departments, with smaller libraries in other Departments.

The Royal Society of New Zealand (1867; 20,000 vol.) has been able to build up a valuable series of periodicals and other serials largely through exchanges. The Cawthron Institute (1920; 6,000 vol.) also has significant and unique holdings. Again, the sets in the Polynesian Society library (1892; 5,000 vol.) include important ethnological material not available elsewhere in the country.

New Zealand library buildings show stronger links with the past than any other aspect of service. Until some 10 years ago buildings were largely a once worthy but increasingly embarrassing Victorian – occasionally Georgian – heritage. However, a long overdue programme of replacement is getting under way. In the public library sphere, a number of interesting war memorial buildings have been designed. Notable among these are New Plymouth, Lower Hutt, Hastings, Papatoetoe, and Takaka. With Takaka, Wairoa is an interesting example of attractive and functional small library design. Plans for the first stage of the Auckland Public Library have been completed as also have plans for extensions at Dunedin.

University libraries, as mentioned, have survived by extension into class rooms. Construction of combined arts and library blocks in Victoria and Otago universities is now completed. The George Forbes Memorial Library at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, was opened in 1960.

Recognition of the university library as the core of teaching and research has so long been a part of university development in the western world that its acceptance in New Zealand might have been assumed from the establishment of the colleges. It must be said, however, that university libraries have lagged seriously – at least until the recent past. In the four universities of Auckland, Victoria (Wellington), Canterbury (Christchurch), and Otago (Dunedin) the duties of librarian were first undertaken by the registrars. Apart from the wider obligation of meeting some research needs, the universities at no time have been able to meet student needs adequately. Until recently the small appropriations for book purchases were carved up between departments, so that even the existence of a slice for general and bibliographical works was the subject for debate. Relief came with the award of Carnegie Travelling Fellowships to certain university librarians in the early 1930s, with associated conditional grants of funds for purchases over a term of years. Following strong recommendations in both the reports of the Committee on New Zealand Universities (1959) and the New Zealand library resources survey by A. D. Osborn (1960), improvements in both book funds, and salary and staffing provision have been made. Despite the more generous provision of the last few years, book collections are still about 200,000 and less at each of the four universities. The extent to which any one university can expect to become a research collection – other than in a few fields of local or restricted bibliographical significance – has been the subject of debate. Fated by geography and history to maintain four universities – with two new provincial universities now entering the library lists even on a restricted basis – New Zealand may have compromised its chances of establishing one splendidly endowed university library of international research range.

Auckland University College was founded in 1883 but, until the move into the old parliamentary buildings in 1890, it was without library accommodation. Auckland's averages of book expenditure from its inception are not untypical. From 1884 to 1903 the average was £78; from 1904 to 1923, £278; and from 1924 to 1939, £1,014. The first full-time staff member was appointed in 1917. The present main library (185,375 volumes in 1964) was occupied on the completion of the university building in 1926.

At Victoria the collection gradually evolved from a modest £100 establishment grant in 1899, through a miscellaneous number of books housed in cupboards in the Girls' High School, to a permanent home and a collection of 7,000 volumes by 1910 (165,879 in 1964).

Canterbury (1873) did not make any provision for library purposes until 1916 when the architecturally tasteful but quite inadequate building in the centre of the quadrangle was erected. In the same year also a part-time librarian was appointed. Relief in library accommodation has followed the current New Zealand pattern of absorption of lecture rooms. The library's most significant donation (1935) has been the Macmillan Brown bequest of 15,000 volumes. In 1964 the library held 181,120 volumes.

Awareness of the key role of a library in a university might naturally have been expected of the Scottish settlement of Otago but the stages of development and crisis parallel those elsewhere. Expenditure in the two years following establishment (1869) totalled £246 for 528 volumes, but during the 1880s was less than that of Auckland. Separate accommodation was provided in 1873 when the registrar accepted the additional duties of librarian. The first full-time librarian was appointed in 1914. In 1964 the library's holdings were 183,940 volumes. The Otago Medical School library (35,000 volumes) and also the dental library, were separately constituted in 1909. The medical library, earlier the responsibility of the Medical Association, moved to the King St. site in 1917. It includes the Monro collection of early anatomical and medical books. The University of Otago's greatest library bequest, however, has been the collection of T. M. Hocken. In 1906 Hocken, a noted Dunedin doctor, book collector, and historian, offered his collection to the city of Dunedin. After discussion and negotiation, it was decided to build a Hocken wing to the Otago Museum, which was completed in 1910. In addition to a comprehensive collection of New Zealand books and pamphlets, its most valuable contents are the extensive manuscript acquisitions made by Hocken. These include much of the Church Missionary Society correspondence of Marsden and his associates. The range of the library has been strengthened in recent years by its recognition as a regional repository for State and local government archives, and by the acquisition of significant material from some private sources.

On a much smaller scale, the New Zealand collection of H. M. Fildes at the Victoria University of Wellington represents nevertheless a valuable nucleus. On traditional departmental lines, the engineering schools at Canterbury and Auckland have growing collections while that of the school of architecture at Auckland is of national significance in its subject.

The maintenance of adequate children's libraries is part of the accepted responsibility of public libraries. It is, however, in school libraries that many children first encounter a selection of what becomes to some the exciting world of books. School libraries for many years were confined to a few of the larger post-primary schools. In many cases their maintenance was – and still is – the devoted responsibility of the English department. Sometimes special bequests and donations add to the range of choice. In recent years the need has become apparent for broadly based collections, interesting and attractive in themselves and useful as an adjunct to the work of all departments. While accommodation and stock have greatly improved, particularly in some new schools, the library has frequently been ignored in the competition for funds, and establishment grants have not been adequate. So far, too, there has been no official recognition of the need for trained teacher-librarians. While some teachers' colleges have been able to give trainees an opportunity of seeing what can be done with books, the current crisis in post-primary staffing has had its effect on such work.

The Dunedin Public Library, in conjunction with the Otago Education Board, in 1938 commenced a service to city and country schools which other boards have attempted to follow. Increasingly, however, the School Library Service has in part compensated for the inadequacies of local development. Originating in 1942 as a section of the Country Library Service, it became a separate division of the National Library Service in 1949. Bulk exchanges of books are provided to all primary, intermediate, and district high schools. A request service is also available through which individual titles can be borrowed both by these schools and by post-primary schools. For the year 1961–62, £95,500 was provided for book purchases by the School Library Service.

Although 1,738,752 books were supplied to schools in 1964, the number of books available within any one school is necessarily limited. The Service also gives valuable assistance by the compilation of lists of books for purchasing and for borrowing, a comprehensive series of graded lists having been maintained for some years.

The circumstances leading to the foundation of the four public libraries in the main centres may be mentioned briefly. In Auckland the library, the first in a New Zealand town, was opened in 1880 following an arrangement whereby the Mechanics' Institute transferred its site, building, and collection to the City Council. The library opened with a collection of 6,000 volumes. Two years later, Sir George Grey advised the Council that he intended to donate his substantial collection and in 1887 a new building was opened in which the Grey collection of early printed books, general literature, and later, valuable manuscript, was the principal feature. The first printed catalogue appeared shortly afterwards. Later, significant collections have been donated by Henry Shaw and F. W. Reed.

In Wellington a revived Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute persisted from 1849 for over 30 years but was obliged to close on account of financial difficulties. W. H. Levin's offer of £1,000 for books, provided the Council found a central site and erected part at least of a free library, stimulated interest with city and private support. A building was opened in 1893 which served as the headquarters of the city service until its replacement by the present building in 1935.

The unique Christchurch pattern was of university control of the public library. The Christchurch Mechanics' Institute, which became the Christchurch Literary Institute, had opened a library in 1859. Fourteen years of increasing financial difficulty led to a brief period of joint administration by the Provincial Government and Canterbury College from 1873 until the assumption of full responsibility by the university in 1878. The long depression of the 1880s was in the offing, and reliance upon university administration at a time when the university was itself embarrassed was not a happy solution. After many years of intermittent discussion and negotiation, the transfer to the Christchurch City Council was effected in 1948.

In Dunedin, the Athenaeum has survived as a private subscription library to the present day. The Dunedin Public Library and, indeed, the free library movement within New Zealand, owes its genesis to the faith and energy of the Dunedin journalist and editor, Mark Cohen. The lengthy agitation for an adequate free public library in the city, ably led by Cohen, reached a successful climax in 1908 with the opening of the Carnegie Library. The standards of service built up in Dunedin, particularly in the 1930s and 1940s, have provided at once an encouragement and a foil for development elsewhere.

Throughout the rest of the country, smaller local authorities followed the pattern of the centres. Quite small towns such as Carterton developed in the 1880s collections of astonishing range and standard, while the neatly printed catalogues of the collections of libraries on sheep stations such as Brancepeth show how far enthusiasm led in the decades following. Dwindling interest and patronage, however, led to stagnation until the stimulus of the changed approach of the 1940s. Today, the public library system of the country – 214 libraries were maintained by local authorities in 1964 – is based upon a range of rate-supported libraries, receiving, except for the five city libraries, assistance from the Country Library Service, with about four exceptions operating on the free and rental system. The total stock of the public libraries in 1964 amounted to 2,891,321 books with 628,995 registered borrowers. The fact that this total represents only a sixth of the population stems from the situation that, while most boroughs outside metropolitan areas maintain libraries, only a few counties have done so, service in these areas being through the Country Library Service. The uneven distribution both of local authority service and of financial support has led to proposals for regional library service involving State subsidy in cash to a corresponding local authority contribution. A pilot scheme proposed in 1960 for the Manawatu, Rangitikei, and Wairarapa failed because it was not sufficiently supported by the authorities in the area. However, whatever the future course of development may be, recognition of the fact that public library service has an informational and educational basis, as well as a recreational responsibility, is implicit in any continuing partnership of State and local authorities contribution.

From the foundation of the first planned settlement in 1840, many New Zealanders have regarded books and libraries as a necessary part of living. In Wellington the Port Nicholson Mechanics' Institute, Public School, and Library was established in 1841, and a similar institution opened its doors in Auckland in the following year. Other towns, as established, followed suit and, by a chequered series of negotiations, many of the early athenaeums merged into the local authority libraries of the second half of the century. An Act of 1869, introduced by Maurice O'Rorke, which empowered authorities to establish public libraries, provided that admission should be free. Governing bodies could levy a library rate of 1d. in the pound – raised to 2d. in 1938 and 3d. in 1946. Although no libraries were immediately established in terms of this legislation, the failure of the statute to provide specifically for the free lending of books in the spirit of the English Act of 1850 as confirmed by later legislation, restricted the future of library service to a subscription basis for many years.

An 1875 statute gave local authorities the power to lend books and make bylaws, and two years later provision was made by the Public Libraries Subsidies Act for the payment of a government subsidy. In the later years of the provincial governments, several, notably Auckland, Otago, and Nelson, had made grants to public libraries. Following abolition of the provinces in 1876, the responsibility was accepted nationally and was continued with varying effectiveness, with a maximum of £6,000 per annum, until 1929 when £3,000 was provided. Distribution was through education boards. The Libraries and Mechanics Institutes Act of 1908 consolidated legislation to that period.

Consistent with the departure from the overseas recognition of free service, the 1877 Act specified that no person should borrow books from a public library, qualifying for subsidy, unless a minimum subscription of 5s. per annum were paid. A fillip to library building came from Andrew Carnegie about the turn of the century, who, as part of his worldwide policy, made grants to a number of authorities for the erection of Carnegie library buildings. A condition of such grants was that service, and not merely admission, should be free; but despite the care with which Carnegie's trustees laid down these terms, only three or four of the 18 libraries which benefited, provided a free service. The New Zealand departure from overseas pattern of local authority, at once responsible for education as well as for libraries, had left its mark.

The 1934 report of the Munn-Barr survey of New Zealand libraries showed the critical effects both of economic depression and of the subscription system upon public libraries throughout the country, and it strongly recommended a wholly free service. But the adoption of the English pattern would have been a very difficult step for most authorities in the immediately ensuing years, quite apart from the question of its desirability. Instead, the American practice of establishing small rental collections was introduced but considerably extended. By this principle the worth-while material of permanent interest and value and, in many cases, of more limited issue appeal, is provided free, while titles of predominantly current interest and high demand with correspondingly high earning power are charged for on a rental basis. When introduced in the early 1940s, rental classification was confined to popular fiction but has been gradually extended to cover much popular non-fiction. The steady extension of this policy, together with the assistance which most libraries serving populations below 50,000 now receive from the Country Library Service, has enabled a much wider range of stock to be provided than under the old subscription system. Although the inevitable difficulties of classifying books in accordance with the principle has led to some criticism, the soundly based thesis that public funds should not be spent on the free provision of ephemeral books has released the New Zealand public library operations from one overseas limitation.

New Zealand libraries may be considered in the categories characteristic of most western countries – namely, public, university, school, special, and national or state libraries, each with an individual range of basic stock to meet specific requirements of service. Development during the 120 years of organised settlement has been slow and, although there are impressive pockets of strength, New Zealand's isolation and fluctuating economic fortunes are clearly reflected in its book collections.

The official and unofficial records of the law in New Zealand contain an extraordinary variety of actions both for libel and for slander. A selection of them has been made to illustrate some of the grounds upon which cases have been decided in circumstances that establish the accepted law in different aspects of the subject.

Mr Justice Stephen

The Bryce-Rusden Case

One of the most celebrated libel cases in New Zealand was heard in London before Baron Huddleston in 1886. John Bryce, Minister of Native Affairs in the Hall, Whitaker, and Atkinson Ministries from 1879 to 1884, sued one, Rusden, for defamatory statements contained in his book, A History of New Zealand, which was published in 1883. Rusden in his history harked back to an incident in the Taranaki Maori Wars, alleging that in 1868 the plaintiff, then a lieutenant in command of the Kai Iwi Troopers, encountered Maori women and children outside a pa hunting pigs. Lieutenant Bryce and Sergeant Maxwell, said the historian, “dashed upon them and cut them down gleefully and with ease”. The occurrence took place at the investment of a stockade at Taurangaika, near Wanganui and, according to Rusden, earned for Bryce the name of Kohuru, which to the Maoris meant “the murderer”. Two passages in the book commented on the plaintiff's conduct in this engagement. The defendant admitted writing and publishing the passages, but denied having done so falsely or maliciously, and entered further pleas of justification and privilege. Rusden claimed to have written what he did on the authority of a note from Bishop Hadfield which was forwarded to him by the Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, when he inquired about the authenticity of the story. He conceded that he had erred in not stating that Bryce and his sergeant were accompanied by troopers, but his counsel submitted that as an historian he was justified in what he had written, considering his authorities.

Baron Huddleston, in his summing up, said the main issue for the special jury was: Were the passages fair and bona fide comment on Bryce in his public capacity about a matter of public interest. Asked by a juryman whether Rusden's bona fide belief in the truth of what he had written could be taken into consideration when dealing with damages, the Judge, quoting Blackburn, J., said, “It may mitigate the amount of the damages, but cannot disentitle the plaintiff to damages”. The jury returned a verdict of £5,000 damages for Bryce, and His Honour refused an application for a stay of execution on the ground that the damages were excessive, because in his view the evidence suggested nothing of the sort. Bryce, however, accepted only £2531, which covered his expenses, for full payment would have ruined Rusden.

A Legal Anomaly

In Wellington in 1901 this question of an indictment for criminal libel came up for determination, and the complaint was quashed by the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, not from any lack of virtue in the writ but because the charge was brought under the Criminal Code Act of 1893 which contained no provision for criminal libel. Thomas Henry Mabin had written a letter defaming an insurance agent, Osmond Russell Bendall, which the plaintiff alleged was calculated to “injure and vilify” him. There was no doubt about the character of the libel but as, at that time, defamatory libel was a common-law offence, and not a statutory offence, it was not a crime in New Zealand. In effect, Bendall's traducer went scot-free because of a legal anomaly. The Chief Justice reserved for the opinion of the Court of Appeal the question whether any person could be indicted for criminal libel in New Zealand and the Court (Sir Robert Stout, and Williams, Conolly, Edwards, and Cooper, JJ.) decided that the indictment did not disclose an offence that could be tried in New Zealand, notwithstanding the English statute, Lord Campbell's Libel Act 1843. The anomaly was vigorously deplored by all the members of the Court, and before the year was out the Criminal Code Amendment Act of 1901 was passed to rectify the matter.

An Offensive Cartoon

The stormy political scene of 1911–12 provided the background for a celebrated libel action in which W. F. Massey, the Leader of the Reform Opposition to Sir Joseph Ward's Liberal Government, proceeded against the New Zealand Times, Wellington. Massey claimed that a cartoon published by the newspaper was a personal libel on himself, implying that he was a liar and that he had been guilty of a mean and disreputable act. It all arose from a cartoon depicting a donkey, with the name “Ananias”, being hitched to a cart by a figure which all too obviously represented the familiar ample proportions of Massey. Across the seat of the figure's trousers was inscribed “Their idea of a politician”. The cart was labelled, “We are the party”, and its load consisted of bundles branded, “Defamation”, “Expense”, “Mud”, “Private Calumny”, and “Tammany”. Seated on top of the load was an old crone with the name of “Scandal-Mongerer”, and the caption to it all read: “Hitch Your Waggon to a Star … Emerson”. “Hitch Your Waggon to a Lie … Dr Findlay's version”. (Dr Findlay was the Attorney-General and in the Legislative Council had so parodied Emerson's tag.) The short and interesting point at issue in this case was whether an attack by cartoon in such circumstances was comment on the conduct of a political party or a personal attack on its leader. In the Supreme Court the jury found for the newspaper and said the cartoon was political purely and simply, and not libellous. Massey took his troubles to the Court of Appeal, the members of which were unable to agree. Two were for the appeal and two against. The Supreme Court judgment therefore stood. But Massey refused to be comforted and appeared before the Privy Council in London. Lord Atkinson, delivering the judgment of their Lordships, said that the cartoon was a bona fide comment, made without malice on a matter of public interest, and that on the evidence a jury of reasonable men could honestly regard it as such. The appeal was therefore dismissed.

Fictions Circulated

The principle that “tale-bearers are as bad as talemakers” was established in 1926 by Mr Justice Herdman at Auckland when a Gallipoli veteran, one Fox, was awarded £1,000 damages against W. Goodfellow, chairman of the New Zealand Cooperative Dairy Co. Ltd. The two disputants fell foul of each other over Dairy Board and Dairy Co. policy, and Goodfellow was found to have circulated fictions about the plaintiff's war record, even going to the length of saying that Fox had been “reported twice as a spy”. This was a case in which the jury was asked to decide upon the question of malice. It returned a verdict of defamation with malice and, although the plaintiff had made no definite claim for special damage, he was awarded sums totalling £1,000 on three counts of malicious slander.

Qualified Privilege

In 1931 Dr Richards, of Christchurch, found himself at issue with the Sun Newspapers Ltd. on the subject of a Court case. He had sued the Temperance and General Insurance Co. for £1,000 on account of references made by the insurance company's nurse to his treatment of a patient. In the course of the hearing the Judge ruled that there was qualified privilege and said: “It would be a monstrous thing if such a nurse, when she said the health of a patient was suffering through the neglect of a medical man, could not express her opinion without rendering herself liable for slander”. The case was not concluded when the paper went to press, but the Sun said the action had failed. On the strength of its heading “Slander Action Fails”, the newspaper was sued by Dr Richards. What had happened was that the Judge, while ruling that there was qualified privilege between the nurse and the doctor, later found that there was an element of malice, which destroyed the defence of privilege. Dr Richards was awarded a token verdict of £25 damages against the nurse and as a result had to succeed against the newspaper.

A Prospectus Challenged

When in 1932 a Wellington company promoter, H. N. Gooch, was engaged in the flotation of a new enterprise incorporated outside New Zealand, his prospectus attracted the attention of the fiery editor of the New Zealand Financial Times, Howard Elliott. The outcome was a libel claim against the paper by Gooch for £5,000. This was later reduced to £1,000 and the Court awarded the plaintiff 40 shillings. Here the defendant invoked the rolled plea – that is to say, he claimed that the offending words were true in substance and fact, and where they were expressions of opinion they were fair comment, published in good faith and without malice for the benefit of the public. Holding that there were minor errors of fact, the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, gave judgment for the plaintiff for £2, but he said that, apart from those discrepancies, the article in question deserved not condemnation but commendation, because it had led to litigation that called attention to the fact that it was possible to issue in New Zealand a prospectus of a company incorporated elsewhere that did not afford the New Zealand public the protection they enjoyed in the case of New Zealand companies.

Newspapers and Defamation

A cabled news item issued by Reuters from Hong Kong in 1952 to the New Zealand Press Association, and published in New Zealand by 12 newspaper members of the Association, resulted in libel actions against a total of 13 defendants by James Moncrieff Hood, master mariner of Nelson, who claimed an aggregate of £10,750 for defamation. He was awarded £1,250 against the Press Association, and the 12 newspapers were ordered to pay him a total of £1,427 10s. The news item complained of implied that Captain Hood, master of the Panamanian freighter, Capella, trading in the Far East, was sympathetic to Communist China and was prepared to commit barratry by surrendering his ship to a mutinous crew regardless of his duty to his owners – in short, that he failed in his duty as master of the ship. The incident arose out of the interception of the Capella by a Nationalist Chinese warship. The defence pleaded publication in good faith and without malice and denied that the published matter had the several meanings attributed to it by the plaintiff. An apology had been published in every paper and a sum of £500 had been offered the plaintiff. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff. In his summing up the Chief Justice, Sir Humphrey O'Leary, emphasised that there was undoubted evidence that Captain Hood had suffered injury to character, credit, and reputation in his profession as a master mariner. He also upheld the principle of individual and separate liability of all defendants in respect of identical libels published in several places simultaneously.

A Notable Victory

The largest damages ever awarded in a New Zealand libel suit were secured by the Hon. P. N. Holloway, Minister of Industries and Commerce in the Labour Government of 1959. The defendant was New Zealand Truth Ltd., a national weekly newspaper which was found by the jury to have been guilty of imputing to the Minister a willingness to act dishonourably in the matter of the issue of import licences to named individuals. Their verdict was that defamation had been proved. The claim was for £15,000 and the jury awarded the Minister £11,000. The case went to the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council on the question of privilege, a point which the trial Judge, Mr Justice Hutchison, reserved for argument after the verdict. His ruling, that a newspaper cannot claim privilege if it publishes a defamatory statement of fact about an individual merely because the general topic developed in the article is a matter of public interest, was upheld on appeal in New Zealand, and then in London.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.