New Supreme Court Judge.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 252, 26 January 1889, Page 2

New Supreme Court Judge.

Mb John Edward Denniston, who has just reoeivsd tho appointment of Supreme Court Judge for Canterbury district, was born at Bishopton, near Glasgow, in 1845, He was educated partly at Glasgow and Greenock Acadsmies and at the Boarding school of Blair Lodge, near Falkirk, after which h* completed his *duoatlon at the Glasgow University. Mr Deuni.ton’s career in all hie school days was a brilliant one, and in his last year at Greenock Academy ho was gold medalist as best scholar tn classics and mathematics. At Glasgow University he gained a valuable scholarship open to all students from the populous counties of Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire. At college he commenced to study for the bar, but was interrupted by his leaving for New Zealand In company with hfe father (Mr Thomas Denniston, of Invercargill) and brothers. In 1862, on his arrival in the colony, he entered the Civil Service, joining the Post Office Department first in Invercargill and afterwards in Christchurch, but after a few months’ work he left the public service for that of the Bank of New South Wales, in which ho served for upwards of six years. During the latter part of this time he read law steadily, and qualified himself for the post he obtained in the office of Mr Stewart, solicitor, not then vacated by Mr (now Sir) Robert Stout. - On the expiry of hia articles and on being admitted as a solicitor after a | most satisfactory examination, Mr Denniston joined Mr Hutcheson in practice st Wangauni for a few months, but afterwards Mr Stewart in Dunedin, as a partner. Mr Allen Holmes shortly afterwards also joined the firm. On the opening of the Otago University Mr Denniston attended the Latin and mental philosophy classes, becoming a prize man in both. The Southern papers generally favor the appointment. The Christchurch Press says: —“ The new Judge is Mr J. E. Dennniston, of the Dunedin bar. The gentleman just raised to the Judicial Bench has been long known beyond the limits of his own district in which he practised. Among a bar by no means destitu e of able lawyers, he has maintained for himself a high place. The animated scenes in which he ha* not unfrequently borne part have no doubt helped to draw attention to the character of his personal qualifications, and it may he thought to say something for their substantial quality, that after a prolonged. consideration which has evidently been given by the Government to the whole subject, they have not been found ultimately to stand in the way of his present appointment. His judicial qualities have yet to be tried. He will be received here, we may be sure, with all the respect due to his professional standing and with the cordiality which the Christchurch bar and public generally have never failed to show to a new comer charged with important duties which it will henceforward fall upon him to fulfil.”