LATE CHIEF JUSTICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20622, 22 July 1930, Page 11

LATE CHIEF JUSTICE.

TRIBUTES PAID IN COURT.

EULOGY OF SIR M. MYERS

GREAT SERVICES TO COUNTRY. There was a very large and representative gathering of the Auckland Bar in the Supreme Court yesterday morning when four Judges were associated with the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, in paying a memorable tribute of respect to tho late Sir Robert Stout. With Sir Michael on the Bench were Sir Walter Stringer, Mr. Justice Frazcr, Mr. Justice Ostler and .Mr. Justice Smith. " After the appreciation of Bench and Bar had been expressed the Court adjourned as a mark of respect. " The death of a great man is not as

a general rule permitted to be the subject of reference in this Court," said the Chief Justice. " That is, speaking generally, permissible only where the greatness of him who has passed away has been achieved by high judicial office or by eminence otherwise in the practice or profession of one branch or another of the law. It, is therefore because of his great service to his country as a judge and as a lawyer that we pay our tribute to the memory of the man whose loss we mourn lodav. But, apart from his distinguished service as a judge and as a lawyer, Sir Robert Stout was a truly great man. whose career should serve as an inspiration and a guiding star to every young man in the community. The Foremost Citizen. " Arriving in New Zealand from his Shetland birthplace thousands of miles across the sea, an unknown youth of 19 years of age, without money, without influence, he gradually by dint of his own great qualities of mind and character, his innate ability, and his indomitable application and pcrscvorance, so gained the respect and confidence of the people of his adopted country as to win the highest positions in their gift in every branch of the body politic. " Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1871, within the short period of seven years, at the age of only 54, he became Attorney-General. Six years afterwards he was Premier and foremost citizen of the colony, as New Zealand then was. In 189 C. upon the resignation of Sir James Prcndergast, he was appointed to the position of Chief Justice,

a, position which lie occupied and adoriio I until his resignation at the end of 1925. when he was 81 years old. So far as J know his is the only instance in the British Empire of the one man having held the highest offices in both the executive and judicial branches of the State. For a parallel case wc have to look to the United States, where the late Mr. Tuft bad a similar record. " But, as if this were not sufficient. Sir Robert for a period of over 20 years held also the highest office in the educational life of the community, that of Chancellor of the New Zealand TJniveisitv. And in 1921 lie was appointed ;i member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the ultimate appellant tribunal of the oversea dominions of the Empire. Characteristic Qualities. " In every one of the great positions that he held he displayed the same characteristic qualities —the same ability, integrity, high-inindedness, courtesy, kindness and untiring industry. Few of you will remember him as a practising barrister. Indeed, as a barrister he seems to have belonged to a past generation, as will be apparent when I tell you that I believe myself to be the youngest man living who appealed against him at the Bar. and I can remember only two such appearances. He was a great advocate and enjoyed a very successful career at the Bar. One of the principal secrets of his success was that be had a fine sense of what the really important issues were in a case and concentrated his attention upon them, and them alone. "But it is as a judge that we all knew him best and it is as a judge that he inspired in every one of us a sincere and lasting affection. A kindlier man never lived, nor a man with a greater passion for justice. Many a young man now at the Bar remembers the encouraging and kindly word from the old chief, as we used to call him. which means so much at the commencement of one's career. A Great Man Gone.

"And now a great man has gone to his eternal rest: in his own 'consciousness and in ours of having lived a long, honourable and intensely useful life. We can but mourn him and remember his life as a guiding lijjlit. Just that and add our repression of sincere and respectful sympathy to Lady Stout and the members of the family, and our hope that they will derive some consolation in their grief from to-day's tributes in the Courts over which the departed one presided for so many years, from Ihe men who knew him best and who held him in deep and reverent affection."

The feelings of the Bar were fittingly expressed by Mr. R. P. Towle. president of the Auckland Law Society. They had gathered, lie said, to pay their last tribute of respect, to the late Chief Justice. They were taking farewell of oiip who was the outstanding personality of this Dominion for a period of 60 years and upward.

It was now 39 years since Sir Robert Stout was admitted to the Bar. He quickly made his mark as an advocate. Just as from the earliest times Englishmen had always lecognised that advocacy was necessary to the administration of justice, so they had recognised that honesty, industry uid fearlessness were true adjuncts of advocacy, without which the world would learn little of the message of truth. The late Chief Justice possessed ail those adjuncts in a marked degree, lie was above all tilings a seeker after truth. When lie became elevated to the position of Chief Justice that attribute, coupled with his great industry and great wisdom, enabled him to carry tlii" duties and responsibilities of bis great oflice with impartiality and with dignity, and in a manner which compelled notonly the respect, but the confidence of lawyer and litigant alike. Help to Young Lawyers.

Mr. Tmvlo recalled Sir Robert's services to the legal profession and the cause of justice in connection with the code of civil procedure, in the coding of the criminal law in loi)3 and in the consolidation of statutes in 1903. While they reflected him us a judge, it was Sir ltohert Stout the man whom they came to regjurd with feelings of alfcction. \\ hile he administered the law with impartiality and with fairness, he at all times showed the utmost kindness, consideration and courtesy to ;ill who came in contact with him. and particularly to (he younger members of the. profession o Lady stout and to the members of the family thev tendered their earnest and icspectful sympathy. The three magistrates in Auckland, aJr. K C. (Htlen. Mr. V. K. Hunt and Mr. W |* McKcau, were present, in the Supreme Court u"'l <>'<> Magistrate's Court, did not. sit until 10.30 a.m. \s a mark of respect to the memory of Sir Tlobert. Stout, the Arbitration Court adjourned for half an hour yesterday morninc. Mr. Justice. Frazer said hat fitting tribute had been paid by speakers in tho Supremo Court and be did not intend to say anything further.