NEW JUDGE APPOINTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18896, 19 December 1924, Page 12

NEW JUDGE APPOINTED.

MR.« OSTLER, OF AUCKLAND.

BEGINS DUTY IN FEBRUARY.

A NOTABLE LEGAL CARhER.

[BV TELECJRAFU. —OWN' COItrtESPOJ'DENT. ] WELLINGTON. Thursday.

The appointment is announced ol Mr. Henry Hubert Ostler, of the law firm of Jackson, Russell, Tanks and Ostler, of Auckland, to the Supreme Court Bench, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the late Sir John Salmond. This new Judge will assume duty on February 1.

Mr. Justice Ostler was Lorn in tho Mackenzie Country, Canterburin 1876. and is a son of Mr. W. H. Ost er, a runholder there. At the age of nine years he was sent to Christ's Hospital, London. Ho returned to New Zealand in 1892, a.ul foi e'.rrht vears was farming in the Levin district. * In 1900 he went to Victoria College, Wellington, where he took his law degree. He was associate to the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stcut, from 1903 to 1907, and for threo years subsequently he was editor of the New Zealand La v. Reports, practising as a barrister in Wellington. Subsequently he appeared as junior with Sir H. D. Bell, K.C., in the Lip To A tan native land case, and cjuickly came into prominence in the Law l.ourts. In 1910 ho was offered the appointment of Crown solicitor and Crown prosecutor by the late Sir John Salmond, who had been appointed Solicitor-General. He held that position until 1915, when he joined the firm of Jackson, Russell, lunks and Ostler, of Auckland, where he has been practising since. Ho went to England last year in connection with the Smallfield case in the Privy Council. Tho suit was one in which Mrs. Sniallneld, whose husband was drowned in the \V aikato River, claimed £10.000 insurance from the National Mutual Lifo Association. The final result was judgment for the widow whom he represented. In 1920, and again last year, Mr. Ostler made two excursions into Central Africa after big game. On the first occasion the party secured e'ight elephants, and on the second eight more, with a large assortment of other game. Mr. Ostler took up 10,000 acres oi land in the Tanganyika Country, and retains an interest in the property where his brother-in-law is now located.

Mr. Ostler was captain of the Levin Football Club, captain of the Horowhenua representative team, a member <>:i tho Wellington representative team, and first captain of the Victoria College Football Club, which he organised. He was a member of tho Wellington Licensing Committee, chairman of the Victoria Collego Council and the Council of Law Reporting, a member of the committee of the Prisoners' Aid Society, and a captain of the Motor Reserve. Shortly before coming to Auckland he was elected a Fellow of the University of New Zealand. Ho was a member of the Senate of the University from 1915 to 1919. For the past three years he has been president of the Auckland Acclimatisation Society. Mr. Ostler married a Miss Duigan, member of a well-knowft Wanganui family. He has three children.