THE BENCHAND THE BAR.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 55, 29 July 1875, Page 6

THE BENCHAND THE BAR.

. . ..Judge Johnston, the new broom which Mr Yogel has kindly presented to us,, seems,, as far as I. gather from ; the. newspapers, ; to be ,a careful, well meaning and judicious judge. The. re- ; port of his address to the grand jury I found interesting and instructive, reading, [ dp not know, and the Judge seemed shy about ..saying, who was to: blame for the preparation of fourteen sets, of depositions, of which three only were drawn up in the right form. It seems a trifle disgraceful, that it should be necessary to find tault in this niarinerj especially as according to the judge, the details of the .Acts might have been mastered by an intelligent school boy of twelve years old, in the course of an hour. People who are paid salaries by the country to fill a legal office, ought surely to take the trouble to make themselves . acquainted with the laws and Acts of Parliament. No doubt, as he said, the Judge did not like to find fault, but what appears to outsiders, gross carelessness of this sort, is well worthy of a public rebuke. I observe there, has been a little misunderstanding between the Bench and the Bar since Judgs Johnston's installation, but I trust it is not lasting. Mr Barton being a clever man, has been used to have somewhat of his own way in Court, and apparently the new Judge thought a little judicious snubbing would agree with Mr Barton's constitution, but the worthy counsellor seems to have been rather restive during the administration of the dose. Well, it is advisable, or rather necessary, to observe certain formalities in a Court of Justice, and certainly, " I submit, is a more proper way to put it to the Court than it is my opinion." Though the reports of these little altercations between the Bench and the Bar whe a they appear in the newspapers, are very nice reading and entertaining yet as the Courts do not ostensibly sit for the amusement of the outside public but for rather more important purposes, perhaps it would be as well that these skirmishes, both in the Supreme and Magistrate's Courts should be avoided as much as possible. It is neither pleasant to see a Judge brow-beaten by counsel, nor the Bar nagged at by the Judge. A proper deportment seems to be strongly insisted upon by the presiding genius of a Magistrate's Court in Dunedin, a shrug of'the shoulders being offensive as v posture making," that I would suggest it might be as well that members of the Bar, likely to practice in that Court, should be subjected to a short course of drill by an army sergeant.