SIR GEORGE GREY’S LAW PRACTITIONERS BILL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 957, 4 July 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

SIR GEORGE GREY’S LAW PRACTITIONERS BILL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —It is quite true that the lawyers have practically ceased to care whether this Bill becomes law or not. They have a sentimental feeling that the status of their profession should be raised rather than lowered, but they do not fear the Bill for any pecuniary or mercenary reasons. Those who have conuection and practice are as safe from opposition as auctioneers, land agents, or merchants whose business connections are firmly established. The pity is that the matter is not discussed from a public standpoint, and that the public do not insist that every man should be subjected to a very severe tett of capability before he should be accredited to practise on behalf of others. The trifling amount of Latin and Algebra required for the solicitor’s examination will certainly not prove a man capable as a lawyer, but the inability to accomplish such a small task

certainly stamps him as incapable of undertaking any work requiring intelligence and industry. Sir George Grey’s Bill is to provide lazy and ignorant men with a chance of becomiug nominally!] lawyers, because he says it is expensive for a man to acquire the requisite amount of learning for the general knowledge examinations. It is expensive only in work, and the less money spent in the process the better the mental training the student acquires. I am not at all ashamed to say that I have never been to school since I was twelve years old, and that I have earned my own living since that age, yet without any expense at all I acquired by solitary study sufficient Latin, French, mathematics, &c., to pass the barrister’s examination at the age of 23 ; and I am now asked to say that men should be admitted to practise without any test of genoral education, because of the expense ol acquiring learning. It is the general knowledge examination which deters a number of men from attempting to pass into the legal profession, not because of the expense, but because of the honest labour involved. By means of cram books, legal catechisms, and coaching, men may acquire a sufficient modicum of information to pass the legal examination without knowing anything whatever of the science or practice of law ; but mathematics and Latin cannot be learned or crammed in such methods, and the examination in these subjects is a far more convincing test of study, ability, and perseverance than the law examination. That Sir George Grey has an unconquerable animus against lawyers, founded upon some ancient fancied wrong, is shown in every line of his speeches on the subject, and his attempt to .render the profession generally contemptible for ignorance and incapacity is his mode of wreaking his revenge. The profession is now so overcrowded that if every man alive had full liberty to practise, there would be no increa.se in the number actually earning their living by the practise of law, while capable men would be deterred from entering upon a course of sound preparation, simply from a fear of failure amidst over competition At the present time the profession is free to all who will work with even moderate industry ; should it be open to the lazy and incompetent'? is the question asked by the Bill now before the House.—l am, &c., A Lawyer.

A PERTINENT QUESTION. ro THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES, Sir, — I notice in your issue of this day a letter from “ A Lawyer,” in which he advises the public to insist that every man should be subjected to a very severe test of capability before he should be accredited to practice on behalf of others. Will this gentleman be good enough tt> inform us why lawyers without any knowledge of engineering science should be allowed to practice as patent agents by the simple payment of one guinea?—l am, etc., Henry Hughes, Wellington, Ist July.