LAW AND EDUCATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 4 April 1929, Page 8

LAW AND EDUCATION.

The annual conference of Hie New Zealand Law Society has been given a lead by the Attorney-General to discuss a subject of first importance, that of qualification for admission to the profession. Mr. Sidey said that whenever proposals affecting qualification for enrolment in the register were made the cry of "closo corporation" was invariably raised. This is only too true, and if really drastic, salutary reforms were suggested in the system whereby candidates can qualify as barristers and solicitors that cry would be heard with renewed intensity, despito the demonstrated need for more stringency in the conditions of entry. The Royal Commission on university education, which examined the subject in closo detail in 1025, found the legal course deficient in its general cultural requirements, in its lack of assurance that those qualified arc thoroughly grounded in the elements of their profession, and in lack of insistence on practical training. Practically every, university teacher of law, and the Law Society itself, testified that the existing conditions allowed students fresh from school to race through the course and to qualify with such speed that they could not possibly be equipped to practice, and in so short a time that their powers were not sufficiently matured to ensure any real appreciation of the intricate questions with which they were supposedly equipped to grapple.- As to any alteration in this system justifying the cry of "close corporation," the commissioners said: "In our judgment the true democratic view is that the community should be able to command the services of well-edu-cated specialists as its lawyers, and that their training should be calculated to produce broadly and thor- j oughly trained experts." As in-1

stancing the absurdities made possible on the contention that democracy demanded easy admission to the legal profession, the commission quoted those States of the United States where at one time "every voter was entitled to be admitted to practice in these States merely on proof of good moral character." It recommended that legal education in New Zealand should be brought into line with legal education in other countries and that the prescriptions for general scholarship, legal knowledge and training in legal practice should be added to and made more satisfactory. The urgent call was indicated. Little has been done to meet the position. In view of that the subject is indeed appropriate for consideration by the New Zealand Law Society.