Obituary Sir Alfred Nbrth

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 3

Obituary Sir Alfred Nbrth

PA Wellington A former president of the Court, of Appeal. Sir Alfred North, died in Auckland on Monday night, aged 80. Sir Alfred was born in Christchurch and attended Canterbury University College where he graduated master of laws with honours. He practised in Christchurch, Taranaki, and Auckland before taking silk in 1947. He was appointed to the Supreme Court Bench on October 26, 1951. In 1958 Sir Alfred was appointed a judge of the newly established Court of Appeal. He received hisknighthood in 1959. After the retirement of Sir Kenneth Gresson in 1963, Sir Alfred became president of the Court of Appeal. He retired in ,1971. He was the first president of the New’ Zealand Press Council. On his retirement in 1978, he praised New Zealand daily newspapers as an “in-

strument of integrity that was conscious of its public role and public duty 'and strove to fulfil them with honesty and independence.” At the end of 1976 he was appointed to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into an alleged breach of confidentiality of the police file on a Labour member of Parliament, Mr Colin Moyle.

A tribute to Sir Alfred was paid .at yesterday s sitting of the Court of Appeal by the acting' president, Mr Justice Cooke.

He said Sir Alfred was a man whose influence' on the Court was unexcelled, powerful and abiding. He was a giant among judges and a dear friend. The Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) said Sir Alfred was a distinguished jurist and a particularly good lawyer. The Labour Party also paid tribute to Sir Alfred. ' “He was one of the towering figures of the law during the whole of my years of active practice at the bar, and he will.be regarded as one of the truly outstanding judges in New Zealand’s legal history,” said Mr F. D. O’Flynn, Q.C., Labour’s, Shadow Minister of Justice.

Sir Alfred is survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.