LEAVING THE BENCH

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 52, 2 March 1921, Page 7

LEAVING THE BENCH

RETIREMENT OF MR. JUSTICE CHAPMAN

A LEGAL FAREWELL

SOME IMPRESSIVE ADDRESSES.

The retirement of Mr. Justice Chapman from the Supreme Court Bench. was marked this niorning^by a " cereironious farewell-at the Supreme Court, where many members of the legal profession gathered to express their sentiments regarding his services and the termination of his active judicial career. The gathering, including many members of the public, filled 'he Ck>urt completely, and the scene as their Honours the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), Mr. Justice Chapman, and Mr. Justice Hosking took their seats on the Bench was most impressive. ■'■■•:. Mr. 0. P. Skerrett, K.C., said the membei-fi of the legal profession practising in, Wellington, had gathered together to express their appreciation of the great services rendered by his Honour Mr. Justice Chapman in the administration: pi justice, and their great regret that in. the plenitude .of his powers he should: retire from the judgment seat, from which he hadadmmisteied justice in its true sense —not only without fear,; favour, or partiality, but with that meticulous, care'which the adequate administration of. pur system of law required. The, speaker, as the representative ; of the profession in New 2Jealand, wished to. join with, the Wellington members in. doing well-deserved honour, to that learned Judge,' n-n'd.tp assure him that in his retirement he carried with .him .'the esiaem. of the Bar for his conduct pf the afajrs of the great office which, he had pecupied. They had come to pay no. conventional compliment—neither tha members of the Bar who had assembled in such numbers nor himself as the', accredited representative of the profession throughout New Zealand. They were there to say what they felt. Jtis Bqnour had been on the Bjench nearly 18 years. Members of the Bar in nearly, every oity ot circuit town in New Zealand had appeared before, him or had been connected with litigation be.fora him. Through all this period his. iudgv ments had .earned the confidence of * tha public and of the profession j the administration of justice had been rur on "oiled bearings," and the mutual respect between Bench and Bar so essential to its effective working had never been interrupted. It would not h* out of place, continued Mr- Skerrett, to, refer to the •wovk of Judges jn the administrationi justice. Eulogies of juries were common; the place of the Judges who wevs in control of an nnvitiated system of justice was too. certain, too sure, to attract even a, passing attention. Nevertheless fchey were to-day the true guardjai\s of "ipc-edom and liberty. They administered a system, which was not a. congeries of singlel instances, but a broadl system, dependent on principle requiring to be administered, not only '"■ by, trained minds, but by men of high character, with great caution and intense applioaiioTi. To say that the Judge regarded n«ith.ei' wealth nor poverty in tha litigant was a trui&m. But what was equally true, though not as well appreciated, was that tiro unpopular litigant and the unpopular cause couldi come, .or tt brought, before the seat o£ justice in the sure- conviction that right would not be denied either.the litieanfc or th« cause. It was these ideals which; had" ever animated his Honour's judicial work. It was these purposes which' he had always k°pt in view; and h* hadi succeeded to ths complete satisfaction of the Nervy Zealand Bar. It was no mean guerdon to have secured, as his Honour' ad done, their entire approval. This was neither the time nor the place for reference to the quality of his Honour's work as a lawyer. His judgments formed no Email part of the New Zealand* Law Reports; and his Honour and his admirers could afford to let them speak for themselves. ■■ j HUMANITY AND KINDLINESS. Jdr. Justice Chapman a^ gi veil f>i his best (continued Mr- Skerrett). He had' never spared himself in his judicial \york; and though at times jaded and worn with overwork he had varely rfiowni impatience, even with a zealous but i)ofc over-iwiae advocate, What appealed to them with attractive force was his humanity and kindliness. A greater lawyer than he, lacking his kindliness and tolerance, would never have been, so great a Judge. His humanity permeated his every judicial act; and was felt hy all who came into contact with him- It was the arresting qualify which gave him the confidence of suitors and of the Bar, and which gave a for.c© |o his judicial acts which no mere learning could have done. He had recognised that if the profession was to maintain the standard, it must be recruited from' the younger men who ought to be given every chance to attain proficiency. He had recognised that though to-day plight be the day of older men of the profession, the future was the heritage of the young. In the past, N«w Zeahind' had been fortunate- in its Judges—men of high character, of great learning, andof devotion to the administration of justice. Mr. Justice Chapman's own> father was one of those administrators of justice, whose memory the members of the Bar revered. They would say to his Honour that he might doff his judicial robes and step off the judgment seat with the consciousness that he hadmaintained the standard of his great' predecessors and had done his- duty. His Honour left the Bench in the plenitude of his powers, and it was a satisfaction to them that his> great attainments would be used in a legal work of great' general importance. Their lasfc word to the Judge before whom they had practised so long and before whom" they would-have been content to continue to practise, was "good-bye and God bles» you." SENTIMENTS OP LOCAL BAR, Mr. H. F' O'Leary, President of the Wellington Branch of the L%aw Society, said he desired to support and endorse the words of farewell and the eulogy of Mr. Skerrett. He spoke on hehalf of the practitioners of the Wellington; district, and especially' of the city, who had been in closer touch, and had had. more intimate professional relations .with the Judge than those elsewhere in New Zealand, for since 1908 he had been stationed in Wellington.' It was a matter of genuine regret to .them all that the law of the land made it imperative that Mr. Justice Chapman should retire; and particularly a matter of regret seeing that his faculties and abilities were in no way impaired, and that he could continue to discharge his duties with even greater success for many years to come. The Bar had learned to know his work as a Judge, hnd admired his calm, dispassionate administration, in which he had combined wide knowledge of the law with a great knowledge of business and of mankind. They had always been impressed by his conduct of cases in which controversial facts were in issue, his sternness where sternness was required, his kindness when the occasion dem.an.cjed. His scrupulous fairness aha] impartiality had led those who had experienced it to the conclusion that in such. cases he was the pattern.-'of judicial /excellence. The younger nwntojrf.pf: the

profession especially had always recognised his patience and toleration of junior members of the Bar, when they did not provide aa counsel all the help the Bench was entitled to expect. Mr. O'Leary said the profession, trusted that his Honour would find pleasure and comfort throughout the years of his retirement. He was not going to be idle; and their sincere wish iwas that he would have continued good health to carry on ■whatever work he undertook, and to enjoy his leisure. There would always remain with them the recollection of him as an able, an impartial, and a : just Judge. J THE CHIEF JUSTICE'S EULOGY. His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir ■Robert Stout) said the fact that only ■three Judges were present was entirely due /to the business of the country. Otherwise the rest of their colleagues would all have been present. They who had been Judges knew better the power and ability of a Judge, through meeting him continually in consultation, than, others could; and he knew what the feelings of the members of the Bench were. They had had as a colleague one , ever courteous, ever kindly,* ever brotherly, who spared no time in order that the duties cast upon them as Judges should be properly performed. Judges could not be expected always to agree; fcut when there were disagreements they found that Mr. Justice Chapman was always considerate and anxious to see "that his view was correct and willing to test it; It had been a pleasure to be associated with him. His fellows on the Bench knew ,what the members of the Bar perhaps did not, the trouble he took to arrive at a just conclusion. They knew his ability and knowledge_and his scholarship, which extended beyond the Jaw" and legal literature and made him a well-informed man on perhaps all the subjects which' had come before them: He .was leaving to go into what might be called private life; and he went with the kindest feeling and best wishes of his colleagues./ They hoped he would be long- spared to perform a citizens' duties. They could rely upon him to do •what he would on behalf of the country, to make it greater and better than it had been in the past. MR. JUSTICE CHAPMAN'S THANKS. Mr. Justice Chapman said that if he had been asked merely to say a few words and bid them good-bye, he would have done so in an interesting way; but the laudatory and kind' expressions that he had heard had made it difficult to reply. He hoped he deserved a fair share of what had been said. One thing he felt he did deserve, the recognition that he had always tried to do his best for the younger members of the Bar in the interests of the profession generally, and ultimately in the interests of suitors, because, after all, whatever the interests of the Bar might be, those of the suitors were paramount. He had always been anxious that every young man of abiliity, ambition, and energy should have due encouragement, one reason being that he recalled the encouragement he had himself received from the older members of the Bench, when' he came to argue a case in the Court of Appeal before he had even handled a Magistrate's Court case. On that occasion he, had appeared before the Chief Justice, Sir George Arney, Mr. Justice Johnston, Mr. Justice Richmond, and Mr. Justice Grcsson —men whose names would remain honoured by the Bar of this Dominion as long as there remained a scrap of the literature recording their doings. A great deal of the personal education of the Bar in New Zealand and its relations to the Bench was due to what they had'heard from the men of those times; and he had always felt inclined to single out Mr. Justice Johnston as the Judge who was the most careful in indoctrinating the Bar with their ideal of their relationship to the Bench. The relations between the Bench and the Bar in this country had always been excellent. There was only a single instance in which a barrister found his way "to the hill" through being too emphatic in Court. The relations of the Bench and the Bar and of the Bar within itself were a matter tending to the conservation of the supreme interests of the clients; and that was a matter which he thought had been adequately and amply attended to, not /only in this city but throughout the Dominion.

INCIDENTS OF A LONG CAREER. His Honour said he was closing a long career. It had been so- long that few remained'of his first contemporaries. On the first occasion on which he appeared in Court in a "fighting case," not yet forgotten in Dunedin, Sir Robert Stout was on the other side—"as he generally was When I appeared in Court." There were other survivors of that regime; but most of those seniors who used to come to Wellington to attend the Appeal Courts —Mr. George Cook, Mr. Macassey, Mr. James Smith, Mr. Barton —had passed away. It was a long time ago; for in: two months he would have ccmpleted the fiftieth year since he was called to the Bar. During that time he had had a. fair share of what was going, and even as an "inefficient junior" had his full share of very heavy cases. There vai one in which the verdict was taken on the nineteenth, day; another in which they closed,down on the thirtieth day and left it to the Judge to work out the consequences; one in which, he had sa* on the Bench and bado farewell to the parties—including the one in the dock—on the forty-eighth day.

His Honour, said he wished to refer to.,the treatment he had received from his colleagues on the Bench. He had been uniformly treated with the greatest courtesy and consideration. The difficulties^ which, the'members of the Bar had to face ultimately became the problems of the. Bench, especially in the Court .of. Appeal; and in dealing with these problems he had always had the greatest assistance. He made special reference to Mr. Justice Edwards, who had been of,as much help to him as any Judge on the Bench, and always endea,voured. with patient care to assist him to the full.

His Honour said he was closing his career with regret, but without any sense of! depression. He was lea.ving ii> good' bodily health, without having, in the past twenty years, lost a single day at work trrrpugh illness, though he hadi, on a, few occasions, to content himself 1 with, half a day. That was no merit to himself; it was an endowment; and he had had the care of his family, wibhout which, perhaps, things might have been different. His Honour then bado his hearere a formal good-bye, and steping, down from the Bench, shook hands with all the members of the legal profeseion, Court officers, and several of the public