LATE MARTIN CHAPMAN, K.C.

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 21 March 1924, Page 5

LATE MARTIN CHAPMAN, K.C.

SENIOR LEADER OF THE BAR IN NEW ZEALAND TRIBUTES FROM BENCH AND BAR A tribute to the full and cultured life lived by the late Mr. Martin Chapman, K.C., and the important part played by him in his profession at a period when New Zealand needed the wisest brains to guide its legal destinies, was paid by tho Bench and Bar of New Zealand at tho Supremo Court yesterday morning. The Court was crowded with members of the Wellington Bar and representatives of most other New Zealand centres. Upon the bench were His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), Mr. Justice Chapman, Mr. Justice Sim, Mr. Justice Stringer, Mr. Justice Salmond, and Mr. Justice Adams. The Lower Court was represented by Air. AV. G. Riddell, S.M. Sir Frederick and Miss Chapman were also present. The Attorney-General (Sir Francis Bell) said that the lato Mr. Martin Chapman, K.C., had won the recognition and warm appreciation of tho profession throughout New Zealand. His life had synchronised with tho brief history of this Dominion. Only a few years after the first settlement he was born in Karori, where lived his father, one of the first justices of the Supreme Court here, holding office again after a long interval of useful and considerable public service in Australia. Barn the son of a Judge, bearing his Christian name, ho went to England, and to the Continent abroad, wHereTie completed his education. “He studied at the Bar in England,” said Sir Francis Bell, “and was called to the Inner Temple in 1871. Then he came out ±o his native land, New Zealand, and began to carry on the work of his Uto. The early reports of tliis Court before tho foundation of the law reports, contained constant references to his name, as one of the counsel engaged, a proof that he early secured the confidence, of the older members of the profession, a proof more generally recognised by compeers of the Bar than by the general public. The distinctive mark of his early days was the confidence bestowed in him by the Government, Bench, and Bar. of his ability to be the legal secretary of the great Judicial Commission of 1881, the result of which was the Supremo Court Act of 1882. There are few in the country wlio appreciate the revolutionary change that was made by that Act. 1 think that since the death of Mr. Chapman, His Honour Mr. Justice Chapman is the only surviving member of that Commission.. When tho first appointment of His Majesty's counsel was made in New Zea.and, as a matter of course Mr. Chapman was amongst the first seven appointed But it is not quite so well known that tho seniority of the Court, after the death of Mr. Joint, resulted m his bolding tho first patent of presidency, and .then being actually the leader of the Bar in New Zealand. From that time until his death he was tho actual senior leader of the Bar in New Zealand. “1 Mil say,” concluded Sir Francis Bell ‘'that those of us who lived with him and worked with him held him in honour always and deep in our respect. Honoured by his brethren, respected and liked by the citizens of the city in which he made his lifework. he was spared in his declining years to follow the pursuits he desired, and it seems fitting that bis inevitable end should come to him in The peace that was so strong a contrast to his early, life. AV a all feci a profound and sincere sense of loss ‘ of friendship and fellowship, which I am sure is shared by all associates of early days. It may be some solace to his relatives to know that those who knew him best outside the family circle, his brethren of the law, nave tried to pay a tribute to him who rose to the first place amongst us without making an enemy, and who dies without any but friends amongst those he has left.”

His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) agreed warmly with all that tho Attorney-General had said. He would like to see brought before young men in the law the recognition of the qualities of the man whose loss was sustained by members of the Bar in the death of the late Mr. Chapman. AA’hen the late Mr. Chapnwn was born the total population of New Zealand was 13,000. There was no Otago, no Canterbury, and though there were an Auckland, AVellington, Ngw Plymouth, and Nelson, they were very lightly populated. He had a great advantage—an advantage not recognised by the world prior to 1859 —he had heredity. His father was a man of great ability and excellence, associated in law with some of the greatest inen of the day, and he had a great mother. AVith this heredity he started in life. He had known him first some 59 years ago. He was then in Dunedin, and what had struck him was that he did everything well. After some years in Dunedin he went to England. After being called -to the Bar in 1871 he came to New Zealand in 1875. His ability was recognised in England, not only as a lawyer, but as a business man, by sending him on missions to Iceland and Canada. He was a great scholar of languages, mathematics, and astronomy, also a musician, a man of culture, a. botanist, and horticulturist. Ho was one of our most distinguished men and a lawyer of great knowledge. He was also a member of tho Municipal Council in AA’ellington, and took a great interest in all kinds of outside things. AVhat message had such a life He would ask the young men studying their profession to study his life as an inspiration. He was a man of wide interests and culture, and yet passed through life with the greatest ctenefit to his clients and the public. “I wish to convey to all his relatives, in Victoria as well as in New Zealand, our great regard for his memory. AVe hope that his life may ho a guidance and a light in the time to come te the young people of New Zealand. Ho was what one might call of the reserved, the English type, not pushing himself forward, not demonstrative. but anxious to give assistance wherever it was asked.”