LAW DEGREES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 26, 31 January 1907, Page 4

LAW DEGREES.

DISCtJSSIOS AT THE tJJfIVBRSITY SENATE. fBI"TK,KBAnr,~-*B«9 AtfSOCfATUM.f CHEISITjHTJBCH, 20th January. Speaking afc the meeting of the Dni' Wrsiiy Senate "to-day Mr. Lottfs Cohfln said that the tendency of the Senate 188 to see that law degrees should only htt given after a creditable examination, afld he thought the people of the colony ought to applaod the efforts of the Senate in making the standards high for practitioners at the bar. it was a safeguard to the public. In all technical degrees granted by the Univer-" sifcy the Senate required a good standard of efficiency; he thought they ttonld also demand from legal practt' tioners a good standard of efficiency, «6t only in the principles of law, but »lso in culture. The point he wanted to make was- this : That the efforts of ■the University — to whom had been en- j trusted the college examinations by the judges of tho Supreme Court— were really nullified by the law which enabled a solicitor, after practising for five years, to become ipso facto a barrister of the Supreme Court. That teamed m its operation to stultify any efforts to raise the qualifications for the bar". Could it b« said that a solicitor practising as such in the colony attained those qualifications which should be required of a. barrister ? Tho time had arrived wheH We should in this colony have men of experience and culture .a$ barristers. If tho Senate agreed with him in this matter he thought they ought to make representations to the Minister of - Justice with the view of having the law repealed which enabled solicitors practising for five years to become ipso facto barristers. The Chancellor (Sir Robert Stortt) said he thought the statute referred to by Mr. Cohen was a very vicioue one, and it had a bad effect on the lo* gal profession. 'He could not understand now Parliament could insist on 6thoH professions having a high- standard/ and yet -pass into few such a ttatute as that alluded to by Mr. 'Cohen*. Bafristcis were now getting into the profession by what he might call a back door. He was very, soffy stfeH a rtatote should have been pasted, because he believed It Would Wave a very bad effect on the legal- profession irt the future. Subsequently Mr, Cohen gave notlc* to move: "The Senate of the New Zealand University respectfully requests tho Hon. the minister oi Jti»tico to bring in a bill next session lo repeal the Law Practitioners Act Amendment Act, 1888."