JUDGES AND THEIR LABOUR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6270, 25 July 1907, Page 5

JUDGES AND THEIR LABOUR.

The return of his Honor Sir Robert Stout, C.J., to his seat upon the Court of Appeal Bench has been the subject of many verbal and written congratulations to the learned Judge, who has been laid a.'ide for several weeks by a trying illness. The general impression in legal circles is that his Honor, knowing the numerical inadequacy of the judicial bench, and also well knowing that there is always an accumulation of business before the Courts, has, in his endeavour to overtake. the work, overtaxed his physical strength, great os his powers of endurance are. It is wall known that Sir Robert never spares himself when there is work to be done, and for that matter does not always spare others. This is a course of procedure rarely adopted by Judges in other States.' The writer called one Saturday afternoon at tho chambers of the late Mr Justice Harding, in Brisbane, Queensland. His Honor was engaged writing a judgment, and his associate, Mr O'Hara Wood (now a prominent barrister in Melbourne) said the Judge would not bo disturbed by anyone. Just then Mr Tilley, a leading member of the profession, came in, with a request that Mr Justice Harding would take an extremely important application. Mr Wood, with soma hesitancy, entered his Honor’s room, leaving the door ajar and preferred Mr Liliey’s request. "Tell him to go to blazes," roared the Judge. "I'll not sit to hear anything to-day for anybody." And yet that same Judge was practically a martyr to duty. While hearing a case in open Court ho was suddenly taken ill. With'assistance, he reached his chambers and there, lying on a lounge, he continued and 'concluded the hearing of the case. Almost immediately after he had delivered judgment he turned over on the lounge, with his face to the wall, and—died. The late Sir Charles Lilley, who was Chief Justice of Queensland, strongly objected to being overworked. One Friday evening when the Court was about to adjourn as usual until Monday morning, a barrister earnestly pleaded with his Honor that ha would continue the case on the day (Saturday), as enormous expense might bo involved if it were deferred until the Monday. Sir Charles, in the dignified tone for which he was Bated, coldly replied: "The Supreme Court never under any circumstances sits on Saturdays; District Courts, alone, follow that objectionable practice." . Similarly, the late Air Justice Windayer, of New South Wales, who was in all respects an energetic man, saw nothing to be gained by the overtiring of his mental pr physical powers. Sitting in divorce one day in Sydney he had got through a remarkable number of undefended cases. Bach case on an average ■jrag found to occupy just nine and a'half minutes, When it was about 3 o’clock—an hour short of the usual time for adjourning—his Honor shut his book with a bang. A barrister besought him to take another “short case." "No, I won't," brusquely his Honor replied. "I’ve done enough work to-day, and I’ll do nothing more but go home," and he went.