SUPREME COURT BENCH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 12

SUPREME COURT BENCH

APPOINTING NEW JUDGE MR. A. FAIR MENTIONED [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION'] WELLINGTON, Thursday It is generally expected that the vacancy on the Supreme Court Bench occasioned by the retirement of Mr. Justice MacGregor on April 14 will be filled almost immediately. The appointment of Mr. Justice Smith to the Native Affairs Commission has meant that his services will be lost to the Bench for some time, and, with the increase in the work which has fallen on Judges in the last > year as a result of relief legislation, it is considered necessary that the Bench should be kept up to full strength. Although no official announcement has been made, it is widely anticipated that the new Judge will be Mr. ; A. Fair, K.C., the Solicitor-Genera!, it is a coincidence that Mr. Justice MacGregor was also Solicitor-General prior to becoming a judge.

Mr. Fair, who is 49. years of aee, was born at Charleston, near Westport. He was educated at Nelson College and had a brilliant career at Victoria College, attaining the degree of LL.B. at the age of 21, and was immediately admitted to the Bar His first position in practice was that of head >of tho common law department of Chapman, Skerrett, Tripp and Blair. Mr. Fair was on holiday in England when the war broke out, he gained a commission in the Suffolk Regiment, serving in Sinai and Palestine, and being awarded the Military Cross. He resumed practice in Wellington after the war and in 1021 was appointed Crown Solicitor. Two years later he became principal law officer in the" Crown Law pffice, • Wellington, and in 192-5 wns appointed Solicitor-General and made a K.C.