CANTERBURY LAW AND LAWYERS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9763, 26 June 1897, Page 8

CANTERBURY LAW AND LAWYERS.

»-. A JUBILEE RETROSPECT. [By R. W. Ferkday.3 In the early days of the Province but few representatives of the legal profession prac tised in Christchurch, though there were among the first settlers several who had received a legal education. The majority of them turned their attention to a country life, and went in for agriculture or sheep farming. The love of adventure which had led them to cast in their lot with the founders of the Province was too strong to allow them to sit daily in an office.

Amongst the first men who practiced in Canterbury were Mr Pritchard(who returned to England), Mr J. C. Porter, who subsequently had a run in the Kowai district, and who, by the way, gave the name to Porter's Pass on the West Coast road, he eventually followed his profession at Kaiapoi 5 Mr Dampier, Mr Wormald (of Lyttel. ton), Mr T. S. Duncan, afterwards Crown Prosecutor, who on his arrival in the Province had a dairy farm at Decanter Bay, Banks' Peninsula; Messrs W. B. Johnstone, C. M. Wyatt, E. F. B. Harston and C. Hodgson, they were all practising during the " fifties."

At the commencement of the Province sittings of the Supreme Court were held occasionally by a visiting Judge, Judge Stevens being, I believe, the first. The Hon. H. B. Gresson was the first Judge appointed to the Canterbury District, and filled the office until his retirement in 1877, when he was succeeded by the late Mr Justice Johnston. During the period Mr Justice Gresson occupied the bench the changes in the Province and profession ware many. Old practitioners will remember attending Chambers at his Honour's residence in Gloucester street, and also the Supreme Court Office, a small room attached to the old Resident Magistrate's Court, Oxford terrace, presided over by the late Mr C. A. Calvert, the Registrar, and his Deputy, the late Mr R. Davis. The criminal and civil sittings were held in the old Town Hall, a building long numbered with the past. In the year 1862 there was some difference of opinion as to the right of solicitors who also practised as banisters to wear the wig. Men who had been called to the English bar claimed the privilege belonged to them solely. At that date the principal Court work was done by those who had been English solicitors, and they naturally objected ( to youngsters recently called to the English Bar being allowed the distinction of the wig. When, in 1862, there was to be, according to the good old Canterbury plan, a procession in honour of the Prince of Wales's marriage, some wag drew up a mock "order of the procession." Amongst other items was this—"Barristers with wigs but without briefs," "solicitors without wigs but with briefs." Eventually the right for all practising as barristers to wear wigs was conceded. , In 1864 the following were practising in Christchurch :—Messrs S. D. Bamford, W. P. Cowlishaw, A. C. Cottrell, T. S. Duncan, D'Oyley, R. W. Fereday, F. J. Garrick, P. Hanmer, J. C. Helmore, H. B. Johnstone, T. I. Joynt, W. S. Moorhouse, Macfarlane, G. W. Nalder, O. W. Oakes, H. Sewell, Fras. Slater, W. T. L. Travers and W. H. Wynn-Williams. In those days, though the offices were not so pretentious as at the present date, the amount of business done was proportionately far in excess of that of to-day. Looking back one can recall the offices of some of the leading members of the profession. Mr T. S. Duncan occupied a small building on a portion of Mr W. Wilson's nursery ground in Manchester street; Travers and Hanmer, in a modest stone building in Gloucester street, near the site of the present Rink Stables, carried on I a flourishing practice; Mr Fras. Slater's I office In Lichfield street, from outward appearances, was the last place one would expect to find a lawyer located in, while Mr Joynt, in a very small building adjoining, was laying the foundation of the large business he eventually carried pn. The times' have changed since then with our modern offices, telephones, &c, but vast as is the difference between the old and pi-esent habitation of our lawyers, still greater is it as regards the profession itself. Under the new order of things, where is the old professional feeling that existed •in former days ? Gone, I fear, with the patriotism of our former legislators, and the grand spirit that animated the founders of the Canterbury province.

The Canterbury District Law Society was one of:the first Law Societies, if not the first, formed in the colony. It was instituted at a meeting held on the Sth October, 1868, the following being present:—Mr T. S. Duncan (in the chair), Mr W. S. Moorhouse, Mr-JVC. Porter, Dr. Foster, Messrs F. Slater, J. D. Bamford, G. W. Nalder, A. C. Cottrell, J. S. Williams, Wynn-Williams, R. W. Fereday, L. Harper, T. W. Nottidge, W. P. Cowlishaw, D'Oyley and T. I. Joynt.

Mr T. S. Duncan was elected the first President, and retaiued the office till his death on the 22nd December, 1884. At the close of the meeting it was decided the profession should dine together at Morton's Hotel on the following Friday. This was the first of a series of dinners, now, alas ! like many other good customs, numbered with the past. Their annual dinner did much to improve good feeling amongst members of the profession. Smith (let us say) had been roughly handled in Court by Brown, or had his costs taxed severely by Jones, and for months there had- been a coolness between them, the breaoh growing wider. But when they met at the annual dinner in social intercourse Smith found both Brown and Jones at bottom really good fellows ; the old grievances were forgotten, and a better feeling established in,;the future. Yes, the dinners did good. Can we forget the keen enjoyment of the late Mr Justice Johnston at the annual dinner, how he entered into the fun! his kindness and geniality! How he put the youngest members at their ease, with tbe result that when next they appeared before the Judge in Court they did so with confidence, knowing that he was not the awful being they had imagined, but a kind-hearted old JSnglish genfclf-man.' This alone was worth the dinners of the past. The annual cricket match was also a former institution and helped to maintain a good feeling amongst the members of the profession. These were the " old days" which one looks upon with regret. The men of to-day entering the profession, as the majority do, without previous service of articles, are ignorant of the grand old traditions of the profession which, under the old order, youngsters, imbibed unknowingly whilst serving their time. This is a loss, not only to the profession, but to the public, for the tone of a profession is necessarily lowered in a community when it loses the sense of " professional etiquette," which (thongh it has perhaps at times been somewhat strained) was founded upon -those, principles which should govern the conduct of every honourable man.

Looking back I can see much to regret. Looking around mc to-day there is little to admire. And the future, who can foretell ? -.admit, however, and glory in the admission, that I am a Conservative oi Conservatives. >