THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1929. THE CHIEF JUSTICESHIP.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20705, 1 May 1929, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1929. THE CHIEF JUSTICESHIP.

The appointment, which has now been announced, of Mr Michael Myers to the office of Chief Justice has been generally expected. From the day when the Dominion, was shocked to learn .of the death of Sir Charles Skerrett, the name of Mr Myers has been on the lips of members of the legal profession as that of the most probable successor of that distinguished judge, if not indeed as his inevitable successor. It has almost been a matter of surprise that there was the apparent hesitation on the part of the Government to make a fresh appointment that was suggested by the delay of several weeks which has occurred in the filling of the vacancy on the Bench. Mr Myers has for several years past occupied an incontestably high position in the New Zealand Bar, and it will be agreed by those most competent to express an opinion on the subject that there is none among his contemporaries whose general qualifications can be regarded as superior to his. A man of vexy acute intellect, he has been engaged in many of the most important causes that have been ai’gued in the Dominion, and he has also had an exceptional experience for a New Zealand barrister in the argument of appeals that have been carried to the Privy Council. He has added tp his intellectual qualifications a capacity for hard work and sustained effort that have contributed in marked degi'ee to the eminence hi has attained at the Bar. He has been perhaps somewhat too impatient of qualities of mind that have not been comparable to his own, and he has been rather critical—rather unfortunately critical, it may be said, in the light of subsequent events—of some of the appointments that have been made to the Bench. His successful career at the Bar, however, and the proofs he has afforded of his possession of the judicial temperament, leave no room for the fear that he will not add fresh lustre to that with which the position of Chief Jiistiee has been surrounded in the past.