On Christmas evening Mr Frederick T. Wimble publicly horsewhipped the editor of the Cairns Chronicle. This 'disgraceful fracas' took place in Abbot Street and was in response to an attack on Mr Wimble's social and private life in the paper's column, 'On Dit'. The writer acknowledges the need to criticise public men, but condemns the intrusion into their private lives, declaring this is not in the public interest.