Lord High Chancellor Arrives At Auckland

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29182, 18 April 1960, Page 12

Lord High Chancellor Arrives At Auckland

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, April 17. The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, Viscoiftit Kilmuir, arrived by Tasman Airways from Sydney tonight. He will officially open the eleventh Dominion legal conference in Wellington this week with an address on “Judicial qualities—What constitutes a good Judge and what constitutes a great Judge.” As holder of the Great Seal of Great Britain, Viscount Kilmuir cannot leave Britain without the permission of the Queen and his visit to New Zealand is accounted an honour to the country and the judiciary and legal profession.

To meet him at Whenuapai tonight was an official party consisting of Commander M. C. Ashdown, R.N., Honorary A.D.C. to the Governor-General, Lord Cobham; the Minister of Justice (Mr Mason); Mr Justice Turner; Messrs L. F. Moller and D. S. Beattie, councillors of the Auckland District Law Society; and Mr P. T. Young, representing the president of the New Zealand Law Society.

Asked to comment on a recent suggestion by Mr Justice Turner that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council might consider appointing Commonwealth Judges as members because New Zealand Judges in future might not be prepared to have appeals against their decisions heard by the Judicial Committee, Viscount Kilmuir said the committee had had Commonwealth Judges on the bench.

“I myself when I was at the bar have appeared before two Judges from Canada on the Judicial Committee,” he said. “We are always pleased when somebody from the Commonwealth can join the Judicial Committee.”

To a question whether preliminary hearings in the Magistrate’s Courts should be held in closed Court in case press reports prejudiced the case for the accused. Viscount Kilmuir said that strong arguments could also be adduced on the other side on the principle that justice should be public. As the highest officer of the State, the Lord Chancellor takes precedence immediately after the Royal Family and the Archbishop of Canterbury but before the

Prime Minister. By virtue of his office as a senior member of the Cabinet, he is also Speaker of the House of Lords and the formal medium of communication between the Sovereign and Parliament. Viscount Kilmuir had a brilliant career at the English bar, and as Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, K.C., was deputy-chief prosecutor of the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. His cross-examination and demolition of the arguments of Goering, at a time when the Nazi seemed to be justifying his actions and the Nazi philosophy, has been described by law authorities as a “masterpiece of reasoned cross-examination.” Viscount Kilmuir, who is accompanied by his wife, leaves for Wellington by road tomorrow. After attending the legal conference he will fly to Dunedin and visit Timaru and Christchurch. He will leave for the United States from Auckland on April 28. While in America, he will receive an honorary degree from the University of Chicago.