KING’S COUNSEL NOT PROFESSION

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 11 June 1932, Page 14

KING’S COUNSEL NOT PROFESSION

Titular Rank Conferred by the Crown

decision that a member of the Bar does not set up a new profession when he becomes a King's Counsel was given by Mr Justice Rowlatt in the King’s Bench Division, London, when he heard two income tax appeals (says the London “Daily Telegraph”). He gave judgment for the Crown in an appeal from decisions of the general commissioners of income tax for tho Inner Temple that Mr Reginald iPowell Groom Johnson and Mr Bruce Thomas began a new profession when they be2ame King’s Counsel. The Attorney-General, Sir Thomas fnskip, K.C., for the Crown, said that ;he effect of the Commissioners’ decision was that the two King’s Counsel vere assessed on the actual earnings of -heir new profession in the year of as.essment instead of being assessed on

the footing of fees earned while they were junior members of the Bar. Mr Justice IKowlatt, giving judgment, stated that he could not agree with the decision of the Commissioners. Barristers, whether they practised in London or the country, did not practice a separate profession.

“A barrister goes wherever he is called on to go, ’ ’ said Mr Justice ffiowlatt, ‘‘and his work is not local in the sense that many other professions are local.” Originally a K.C. held an office, and until recently he had a salary, as retainer for the Crown, said tho Judge. lie could not appear against the Crown without a liconse. That was now obsolete, and what was done was that the 'Sovereign conferred a titular rank on the barristers concerned.

That- th© bath is not a doadiy poril to health is one of the things the republic is seeking to teach its people. Under the medical note of the day—- “ The Bath as a Daily Practice to Cleanliness”—the newspaper “La Voz” goe-s fraiikly after those Spaniards who believe that a bath a month or maybe none at all is the best guarantee of happiness and a long life. “The bath,” says “La Voz,” is a'grand old institution. The Greeks and the Romans all used baths, but under Christianity, which demanded austerity and depi-ecated beauty, it declined. The results were the uncleanly habits with which we are unhappily still imbued. Curious statistics recently made in Paris cited an average of 2.75 baths a year per inhabitant. It is to be doubted if the average is so low in Madrid.”

I For many years the glass-bottomed boats plying the clear water of Berj niuda have enabled thousands of American visitors to catch a glimpse of the wonderful submarine world there. Now light-steel diving helmets enable visitors to walk in the marine garden. The waters a short distance from the shore exhibit an exotic and glittering array of marine life. Brilliantly coloured fisli dart about, seemingly unafraid of the strange invaders of their domain. Sponges and other stationaav marine animals, as well as exotic plants of many shapes and colours, make up a garden calculated to thrill the submarine bathers. Bathers report that except for a slight buzzing in the ears l as 1 the bather first 'submerges, t}ie novel method of submarine exploration is delightful. 1

It lias been revealed that the German Army authorities have perfected a micro-camera for use by pigeons. This camera, which weighs oiity 40 grams, is strapped to the bird, and ;an automatic release attached to it is so timed that when over specified territory photographs are taken, Ihe ‘ wearing’’ of the camera entails no discomfort to the pigeon. Successful uso ox it has already been made, on survey work, photographs being taken on the bud’s homeward flight. The employment of the pigeon as a “photographer J is a great advance on its use as a carrier. Germany still maintains pigeon patrols, and at Spandau are stationed huge mobile motor lofts. During the Great War the Germans Iliad -over 21,000 carrier pigeons on the frontier strongholds These were a,ll Trained to recognise them own' mobile lofts.