OUR JUDGES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4020, 6 January 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

OUR JUDGES.

The following article appears in the Timaru Hci'jlJ of the Ist inst. We think it will noi require ;t vast amount of uiscriminatiou to recognise the writer. I want a Judex —an uncommon want, "When every telegram appoints a new one, Till, after cloying the Gazette with cant, Tlio country ie.inis tliat he i. not the true one. Of such as these 1 should not care to vaunt; I'll therefore take our ancient friend Tons Gillies: We all have heard him, in the Parliament, Sent to the devil ore ho even ill is. The iirst ttaiiza of "Don Juan" hears a very pretty parody in touching on the last announced changes on the Supreme Court Bench. Evor since it was first made known that fche administration of justice was to be conducted on a different basis from that which had previously existed, all sorts of tumours, denials of rumours, mistaken impressions—even dc-liberate falsehoods—have found their way into the presumedly inspired utterances of the Pre-s Telegraph Ageuey ; or have gained expression in moro or less authoritative ways. .Before all this babble began, the state of affairs was this. The Chief Justice, Sir George Alf.-ed Arney, resident in Auckland, presided over the Supreme Court iv that place, and made xJQriodipaL visits to New Plymouth. Crime is uot of common occurrence in queer, simple Taranaki: but still it happens now and then that a man there wants rather badly to be hanged, or done something to ; aud on such occasions, wind and weather and surf permitting:, the Chief Justice was in the habit of looking in and giving, in tremulous accent?, the lightest sentences the law allowed. It is a matter for wonder how a man like Sir George Arney ever had anything to do witli the lav/ at all, or why ho should have cared to caso his lot among circumstances so repellant to his taste and so painful to his feelings. The Church seems a more suitable Held for him ; he would have made an unexceptionable bishop. On the Bench ho seems to think of nothing so much as the inconvenience to which lie lias to put the prisoners : aud it is safe to say that the bad pre-eminence in crime enjoyed by Auckland is largely attributed to the mistaken leniency of the Chief Justice. While there is nothing more disgusting ov indecent than for a Jud^e to bully a criminal, or display cither triumph or satisfaction in giving sentence, there are also few objects moie revolting to good sense than a Judge giving way to mawkish sentiment at the very moment when dignified immobility is most of all essential. We have nosjiupathy with that tenderness of heart which leads the highest officer of justice to be agitated and show signs of snivelling when condemning a murderer to death. Another peculiarity of Sir Georgo Arney was his extreme unwillingness to believe that rich men, or men in a superior rank of society, could do anything very bad ; and on one occasion at least, this curious prejudice led him to forget his duty to society. A man had committed a gross and impudent breach of the law, in opon defiance of the commands of the .Supreme Court; and tho public looked for au exemplary punishment. But the Chief Justice admitted that he could not find it in hia heart to send "a gentleman" to gaol, and fined fcho prisoner LSO — a penalty scarcely as severe as ordering him to take no sugar in his tea lor a week would have beep. Had Sir George Arney heen in Chief Justice G-ascoyao's pj:j-c,e when Prince Harry struck him, instead of sending the royal cub to prison, he would have ptid him q. courtly compliment, and gone the length, perhaps, of requesting au a2 >(Jl°iiy- Such was Chief Justice Sir 'George Arney ; graceful, wellbred, and amiable; the suavest, bestmanneretl man in New Zealand, without one exception'; a careful, conscientious judge tco ;*but not the soit'of man to further the ends of justice generally, or to benefit such a society ai lie was'called upoji to deil with, We haye taken tlie trouble to delineate his leading features at some length, becauso he now retires from the Bench to which he h s certainly been long an ornament, and we shall probably hear no more of hini in Nev Zealand. Mr Justice Johnston has hitherto ' occupied the Supreme Conrt Bench at Wellington, making periodical visit 3to Napier. He is an able Judge, who stands no nonsense from anybody. A noisy, fidgetty, restless, talkative Judge; who calls a spade a spade, and frets and perspires terribly, when anyone offends him; who m.iko3 the most blatant barrator behave himself, snd keeps criminate ia terror ; who

cares no more for social status than foi" the nired enthusiasm of counsel, and rather likes making an example of a "gentleman" who disgraces his gentility, than otherwise. His great faults are that he noes nofc appreciate the marvellous force of quiet self-respect and self-constraint, and that he addresses eyes and voice too much to the public who happen to be iv Court. Lord Bacon said, "A popular judge is a hateful thing." . He should rather have said, "A judge who teeks popularity." Judge Johnston is certainly nob a popular Judge; he is impartially and wholesomely, severe, and scatters csnsnre too broadcast to be liked ; but his manner, at all events, gives the impression of seeking popularity. Mr Justice Richmond, whose district comprised Nelson and Westland, was infinitely superior in every respect to all hi 3 brother Judges. He combined all the best parts of Sir George Arney's courtliness,'with all Judge Johnston's strength of mind ; and he added to the highest qualifications of both a knowledge of the law and a breadth of intellect such as neither could lay chum to. Raised to the Bench almost fortuitously, after a long and varied political career, Mr Richmond proved to be adapted to his high position .in a singular degree. A nervou-, modest, sensitive, philosophical man, he has yet been a calm, seif-pcssessed, exhaustive, unanswerable, perfectly satisfac-tory-judge ; whose only disadvantage was his physical weakness. As the rest of his i body dwindled, hi 3 head and his heart seemed to gain in power. Mr Gresson, the judge of the Supreme Court in Canterbury judicial district, was called upon to stop a gap, as it were, to fill a position for which he was sadly unfit, in those halcyon days, when there were really hardly any lawyers in the colony. He is best described by negatives. He was not a convincing judge ; his legal knowledge did nofc impress the bar with deference ; his judgments in civil causes did not satisfy litigants ; his sentences to criminals were not deterrent or consistent; he was not too merciful where mercy is a virtue, nor too severe where mercy is a vice. His faults as a judge were scarcely redeemed by tlio universal regard and altajhment which his good qualilk-s as a private man commanded. Judge Gresson would probably have been tlie least eminent judge in New Zealand, if Judge Chapman had retired some years ago ; but as things stand, he must bo he'd to have shared that doubtful honour lately with the learned gentleman who presided over the Otago judicial district. The least eminent judge in New Zealand, however, was far better than the best in many other countries, and the Colony will havo little cause for complaint if it never ha 3 le3s desirable occupants of its Supreme Bench, than those who have sat there hitherto. There never haa been a single charge of partiality brought against one of them, save that which wa3 tlm subject of Parliamentary enquiry last session, and even that can hardly be said to have been so fully established as to prejudice the spotless character of our judges as a class. As regards the most recent announcements aa to new arrangements on the judicial Bench, we may say at once that we" do not believe them, or at least that we' should be glad to know by what authority they have been matle. Mr Gillies is about tlie lasfc person who might have been expected to be made a judge or appointed to any other honourable or lucrative post, so long a? Afr Vogel had the direction of affiits. There was no member of the Legislature so bibtc-rly opposed to thy present Premier as Mr Gi'lifij ; not one who heaped bitterness and sarcasm aud untiisgivsetl contempt so freely on the mushroom statesman ; certainly not one who met wifch so hearty a reciprocation of abuse frnm lh« Premier as he did. Even Mr Reader Wood, with his reckless, cutting irony, could seldom make Mr Vogel angry to the leugth of committing himself; for the latter, goodiempered by nature, and placable to a degree in politics, left e^er a ioophole if he could for reconciliation. Bufc between him and his colleague ia the representation of Auckland City, there was internecine war. What, in private life would be deemed flat falsehoods, in politics, of courso, are hei I mere phrases, or passing expressions of feeling ; bufc still, if there is any truth in man, or any meaning at all in spoken language, Mr Vogel has suah an opinion of Mr Gillies that he wonld as soon make Mr Bunny a Jiidgciis mrike him one. The present Ministry, however, do such marvellous things that we should hardly be surprised to see tbat legal luminaryfcven on the Bench. What possible qualification for a judgeship Mr Gillies can have, beyond being a nr.sty, nagging, persistent political opponent who is~ well out < f Parliament, we are at a less- to understand. He Wis novor a distinguished lawyer, and until very recently, has long been out of practice altogether. He is, however, an honest man, ami a clover man, and if his appoininieui; had boon made on those groundi, inst eld of for purposes of political axpediency, there would have been no objVctiou to it. If it is true that an oiler of a judgeship has been made fco Mr Higginbothani, we are b.iv.nd to say that the members of the New Zealand bar have a right to consider themselves insulted ; but the public have probably good reason to be satisfied. Mr Higginbotham is a man of a very high character, and would mako a iftuph bcfcfc-.:r judge than almost any practising lawyer in this colony who would be'ready to accept such an off-ir. We only know of three who arc fit for the Bench ; and of those one is too busy, and another too rich, we hope, to care aboufc undertaking the duties of a Judg-. The third is thoroughly well suited, in all respects, for that position, and wo think the Government would have done well to offer it to him, before they hawked it elsewhere. The subject of these, judicial appointments cannot but be regarded as serious, when it is remembered that the tone of the administration of justice in this Colony ch-ponds very much on the action of the Ministry at this -juncture ; and ifc is certainly time for the public to watch that action critically whon a Minister of the Crown is found so void of decency or common sense as to vaunt before a mob his power of gratifying a prejudice against one who has long been looked on as .likely fco be elevated to the Supreme Court Bench. Wo know of no more scandalous forgetfulncßs of the fitness of things, than thafc displayed by Mr Reynolds "in bragging to his unwashed constituents thafc so long as he was Minister of Justice, Mr Ward should never have a promise of succeeding Mr Chapman. The report that tbe latter has consented to retire on condition of the Minister's coarse pledge being redeeme', wo know to bo untrue. We arc convinced thafc no proposition has yet been made to Judge Chapman on the subject ; still more so that no such blundering breach of decorum as to attempt to restrict the choice of his successor, has bceu committed by that gentleman, or wonld be tolerated by the Government. Mr Reynolds on the hustings may easily outrage good sense or offend against propriety. Judge Chapman is not likely, in retiring, to do either.