FOUND DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 97, 27 April 1933, Page 7

FOUND DEAD.

BACHELOR JUDGE.

INFLUENZA SEQUEL.

Justice McCardie Commits

Suicide.

SHOT WITH SPORTING GUN,

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, April 26,

Mr. Justice McCardie, well-known as the "bachelor .judge," was found dead in his London house with a wound in the head.

A servant heard a shot and rushed into the room and found Judge McCardie lying on the floor. He was convalescing after two severe attacks of influenza, from which he was still suffering the after effects.

It was later established that Mr. Justice McCardie was shot with a sporting gun held between his knees. A piece of string was attached to the trigger, the other end being held in the judge's hand.

He had occupied his suite in Queen Anne's Mansions, St. James, for 25 years. His housemaid heard a shot at 4.30 in the afternoon and found her master crumpled in a chair bleeding from a wound in the head.

Judge McCardie recently said: "I am depressed after the effects of influenza," but a member of the hotel staff said that ho seemed in his usual, charming, happy mood at lunch time.

The deceased judge was a keen sportsman and kept several guns in his rooms. The body was removed to Westminster mortuary, and an inquest will be held on April 28.

Mr. Justice McCardie became famous even beyond his own country as "the bachelor judge." After a brilliant university career he was called to the Bar in 1894, and his progress was remarkably rapid. Recognised as one of the most astute lawyers of tho. day, he built up a practice of unusual dimensions. Eloquent when eloquence was needed, he never wasted words. He had a keen sense of humour and a gift for making piquant phrases. In 3916 he was appointed a judge of the High Court, being one of the few men to receive that honour without having first become a K.C. At the same time he was knighted. His popularity at the Bar continued on the Bench.

The fact that he was unmarried gave special interest to his comments and decisions in matrimonial eases. He was seen at his best in breach of promise suits or other actions in which human interest predominated. He knew all the intricacies of the law and he also knew the world. "Husbands," he once said in giving a decision, "are placed under burdens from which wives are free." The law in regard to them, he continued, was fraught with inconsistency and injustice. Wives possessed powers and privileges wholly denied to husbands. He once described a bachelor as "a man who looks before he leaps, and, having looked, does not leap at all." On another occasion he asked, without receiving an answer from the array of counsel before him, "Is there any such thing as an ordinary woman?" His dicta in women's dress disputes became famous. One was that "tho object of fashion is to promote turnover,, and health is a secondary consideration."

GERM OF SECESSION.

South Australia Resentful of

Commonwealth.

PREMIER'S ADMISSION.

(Received 9.30 a.m.)

ADELAIDE, this day.

The Premier, Mr. L. L. Butler, speaking at Owen, said that if the people of South Australia had the opportunity of expressing their opinion on the question of secession from the Federation, they would do as the people of West Australia had done. .

He said he was sorry to have to make such a statement, but he interpreted the feeling of the people of South Australia as one of grave and bitter resentment against the treatment meted out to them by the Commonwealth Govern-

"Any action taken by my Government, however, will be to save the Federation and not to smash it," said Mr. Butler.