A NEW ZEALAND JUDGE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 147, 22 June 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

A NEW ZEALAND JUDGE

Books In Review

JN the first hundred years of a country's existence the writing of memoir and biography is often neglected", and it is only now that New Zealanders are beginning to wake up to the fact that they have citizens in their own community whose lives and savings arc worthy of record. Mr. J. G. Denniston, a master at Wanganui College, makes a worthy contribution to v our biographical literature in his life of his father, Mr. Justice Denniston, under - the title of "A New Zealand Judge" (Reed). Born in Scotland in the early '40's, John Edward Denniston came out to New Zealand as a child, and settled with his father in Otago. Entering the Post Office, he later joined the Bank of New South Wales in Wcstland, and while on duty in the gold-mining country decided that a bank-clerk's life' could not .satisfy his ambitious soul, and began to read haw. Though he had considerable native ability and the natural industry and tenacity of the Scot, all these were fully taxed in his early assault 011 Stephens' Commentaries in those primitive surroundings. "Find some chapters of Stephens very stiff," he remarked in his diary a fortnight after beginning on that author. (One is reminded of Mr. Keep's remark as he passed his hand across his brow over Tidd's Practice—"Oh, what a writer Mr. Tidd is, Mr. Copperfield.") In ISC9, however, young Denniston was moved back to- Duncdin, and in 1871, with the coming of the first professors to Otago University, lie received a fresh encouragement to study. He left the bank and joined (as a clerk) a legal firm. Soon he was admitted to the bar, and practised, first at Wanganui, then at Dunedin. He was noted for his vigorous 1 style. He "hit out in all directions."

In one notable case he was only just restrained from assaulting the opposing counsel, and, on the "Otago Daily Times" publishing a version of the incident, sued that paper for libel —and lost I His remarkable talents, however, led him to be appointed a judge at the extraordinarily early ago of .43, in spite of his late entry into the practice of law. He was a judge for thirty years, the whole of which time he was resident in Christchurch. On the Bench ho early set himself to chcck his quick temper, and his Court became notable for its dignity. His quickness in appreciation of counsel's cases, however, frequently resulted in arguments developing into a dialogue between advocate and judge. It is related that a distinguished counsel, realising how little of his argument had been left by the judge's questions, amused the Court of Appeal by exclaiming, "And now, your- Honours, I have finished: but before I sit down, may I enquire, in the immortal words of Sam Weller, 'Would any other genTman like to ask me anything?'" On his retirement, Mr. Justice Denniston was knighted. After retiring, in 1918, he rendered one last service to his country before his death, in presiding over the Commission which toured the Dominion to inquire into the causes of the great influenza epidemic of that year. Many touching tributes were paid to him on his death, but the words of Sir Walter Stringer when sworn in as a judge at Christchurch can stand for all —"A judge before whom I have practised for a quarter of a century with ever-increasing respect for his high ability, love of justice and i»»ir play, and ecorn of all things base and mean."