SIR WILLIAM SIM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19194, 10 June 1924, Page 3

SIR WILLIAM SIM.

HIS RECENT HONOUR. CONGRATULATIONS OF THE BAR. Practically the whole of the members of the Dunedin bar gathered in the Supreme Court yesterday forenoon to do honour to Mr Justice Sim upon the occasion of bis recent knighthood. The magisterial bench was represented by Messrs J. R. Bartholomew and H. W. Bundle, S.M.’s, and members of the Supremo Court staff were also present. Mr A. A. Finch, president of the Otago I .aw Society, said that they, as members of the legal profession of the Otago district, wished to tender to his Honor their sincere and hearty congratulations on the honour which his Majesty the King had been graciously pleased to confer upon him in recognition of his long and arduous services in maintaining justice, law, and order, and the preservation of the King’s peace in the dominion of New Zealand. In the nature of things it might be unseemly for them to express as warmly as they otherwise would their feelings in this matter; yet because of tbs long and distinguished career which he had had among them as advocate and counsel before his elevation to the bench they thought they might presume to say, because of the many lasting friendships which his Honor had made among them, that although this dignity was conferred on his Honor direct, .nd, through him. on the dominion generally, they took a special and personal interest in this distinction, and considered that it reflected honourably upon them as well they trusted that ho would long he spared to enjoy this distinction, and, as in ( h ■ past, to carry on the duties and maintain (he dignity of his high office. Mr Saul' Solomon, K.C.. said that a great deal of what he would like to have said had already been said, but perhaps he might be allowed to add a few sentences. Knighthood had in New Zealand now been recognised as the reward for distinguished service to the bench. They might perhaps say that it was the judicial Victoria Cross granted for service. In Ill's opinion this was a most excellent rule, a far better one than, he understood, obtained in England, where this distinction was conferred upon a judge on his appointment. Hern the recipient of the honour had the gratification of knowing that he had earned the distinction, and it must certainly make for the integrity and the efficiency of the bench, of which the bar was so intensely proud, lie claimed that no man at' the bar could speak with greater knowledge of his Honor than he, for it was now ovei 40 years since they each set out to practice. Since that time ho had met his Honor almost continuously, either as his assistant or as his opponent or us the judge befon* whom it had been his duty and his pleasure to plead. Speaking from that experience he said unhesitatingly—and he believed all his friends would unanimously agree with him—that the bar of New Zealand had provided no member of the bench more worthy of his Majesty’s reward than his Honor. No one could fail to be impressed with is thoroughness, his fairness, his unswerving devotion to duty, which had been a shining example to barristers young and old, and which served to maintain to tho utmost those two characteristics that were essential to the high traditions of their profession, mutual esteem, and confidence. Many of them had been bom and reared under the parental indulgence of his Honor s illustrious and beloved j -redecessor, and they had sometimes felt his Honor’s hand press heavily upon their shoulders with regard to procedure and kindred horrors. At first some of them in those circumstances had said, “I wish I had him at the bar again,” imt later they had, at first grudgingly, perhaps, but later cheerfully, admitted that like that other delicious corrective, castor oil, his Honor had done them good and made them better. Hiey claimed the honour conferred upon him as their honour, and if fate should not decree tor him a different destiny thev prayed that he might long continue to shed upon them, the bar of Dunedin, some slight fraction of his lustre. His Honor, in responding, thanked them very much for coming there to congratulate him on' the honour conferred upon him. He thanked them sincerely for their congratulations. and Mr Finch and Mr Solomon especially for their kind words. The honour had. of course, a personal aspect, but its main value, he. thought, lav in the fact that it was a recognition of the importance of the judicial office. In England. when anyone was appointed a judge of the .court, he was knighted immediately and as a matter of course. In the overseas dominions tips practice did not prevail. The Chief Justice was usually created a knight on his appointment, but the other judges, except in rare cases, were not knighted. In New Zealand in recent years the bench appeared to have fared very well in the matter of honours, but in previous years the position was different. When in 1875 the then Attorney-Genral, Mr James Prendergast. was appointed Chief Justice he was knighted, but after that no honour was conferred on any judge until the year 1911, when Mr Justice Williams, to the great, delight of the whole of the dominion, was created a knight after 36 years’ service on the bench. Recently, however, the bench had fared much better, because during the last six vears no fewer than five knighthoods had been conferred on indges of the Supreme Court; and in addition to that the Chief Justice had been made a Privy Councillor. He was appointed Chief Justice in 1899. and he was a K.C.M.G., but he acquired that title as a politician, and not as a judge, So that in reckoning the question of honours no judge had chained any honour from 1875 till the year 1911. In recent years tho Government had been very generous in recommendations to his Majesty, and in this respect the New Zealand judges had eertainlv come off very much better than the Australian judges. He thanked them again for coming there to congratulate him and for all the kind things they had said about bim.