A VENERABLE INSTITUTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19958, 27 November 1926, Page 21

A VENERABLE INSTITUTION.

COURT OF CHANCERY

A NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCE.

(Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, November 25,

Tho experience of bringing to a virtual settlement after 13 years a legal struggle involving tho legacy of a Russian princess to a lady relative in Now Zealand, for whom he has acted, enabled Mr D. Stewart, a solicitor practising in Richmond, Nelson, to offer on his return from England by tho Arawa to-day a few comments on the ways of the Court of Chancery, a venerable institution that received attention from more than one of the Victorian classics. Although he has practically retired from the profession, Mr Stewart went to England, partly for health reasons and partly to further the interests of his client. The delays of 13 years had prepared him for a procedure somewhat out of the usual order, but the actual experience of the court revealed conditions more strange than he expected. Mr Stewart found there were six judges, each receiving a salary of £SOOO a year, and a number of masters whose efforts throughout tho year, are compensated at the rate of £I6OO each. There were also a number of registrars who Stewart did not count, but he learned that the court had a summer vacation of two ana n-half months, besides other vacations throughout the year. “In my opinion tho judges are much overpaid,” said Mr Stewart, “and I think the work could be done efficiently with half the present personnel.” The particular contribution with which Mr Stewart added to the cares of the court between vacations concerned the London estate of Pripcess Alexa Dulgrouki which remained to her after the successors to Czarist regime had helped themselves to various mine properties. Mr Stewart learned before leaving England that the master who was dealing with the problem had made a report in which ho recommended to the judge to whom it would be passed along that Mr Stewart’s client was entitled to personal effects and half the residuary estate. This would bring the client’s amount ’p to about £IO,OOO, and Mr Stewart believes that judge will most likely bring the 13 years’ battle to a close by agreeing to the recommendation.