A VISIT TO THE CHRISTCHURCH LAW COURTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 97

A VISIT TO THE CHRISTCHURCH LAW COURTS.

[CONTEIBDTED.] I sought Art first of all, but found that the gallery was not for the common herd; it was bustling with preparations for a big wedding, and there was apparently no room there for the stranger desirous of having another look at the beautiful dark woman's head by Leighton or other treasures. I therefore instinctively adjourned to the courts, and found them on the whole not a l}ad substitute. The new Mag istrate’s Court is built of stone. As to the interior, it struck me as being art excellent place in which to transact business, even if if did not aspire to any great heights in respect of ornamentation. The old Magistrate’s Court looked dingy, and the Supreme Court (which is pretty old) likewise, the most noteworthy point about the latter being the table round which the chairs of counsel were placed, for it was horseshoe-shaped, possibly as an encouragement to some junior on his blushing first appearance. The place resounded with the hammerings of workmen, but I doubt if their labours would have the effect of making the place look much brighter. It is not so very long that the courts of New Zealand have been in full swing, but the judges have so far well maintained the traditions of the bench, and in this respect compare well with the generality of American judges. There is no doubt that the wig and gown give what is often called “the indescribable something” to legal proceedings, especially when they are worn under the lion and unicorn, with the mottoes “ Honi soit qui mal y pense ” and “ Dieu ©t mon droit,” inscribed underneath. I greatly pity the lawyers _of America for what they have to do without in this respect. They have no visible symbol of the source of justice they strive after, while we here, as in England, have merely to glance at the royal coat of arms above the judge’s seat, and we behold the fountain of justice, which has played in England since Kenry 11, in 1178, established a stationary court in London, being led so to do by the success of his system of sending out judges on circuit —a system ho had inaugurated two years before. The fountain now refreshes Greater England as well. Without law we are indeed miserable. The Law is a stern mistress, but she is a mistress who makes life endurable. She has endeavoured in the courts of England, and with no mean success, to show where reason lies. Her thralls, the judges, have always been chosen from amongst the greatest minds of the land, and we reap the benefit of their struggles to sift the right from tlho wrong. If a judge of 100 years, ago could come to the British courts of the present day he would see that by no means had his life’s work and that of bis juduicial contemporaries been wasted. Our law is pronounced now by those competent to speak to be nearer right reason than' ever in the past, but it has only come to this state as a result of lives given up to it. The - Romans recognised, perhaps more than we do. the dignity of the law. The ambitions of the best, of the youth of the great departed State always lay in that direction. With them it was the profession of professions. This fact has very considerably affected the history of the world. The Code of Justinian, compiled when, the light of the Western Empire had gone out and sent forth to what remained of the Roman world in the year A.D. 534, has ever since had an enormous influence on the actions of the people of Europe, and at the present day forms the basis of the legal systems of France and Germany, and I may mention —it being of some interest to us here —of Scotland. But I have wandered far .from the halls of Justice that stand by the Avon. They are insignificant compared with the palaces of Justice situated near another Strand ; yet they are insignificant only in architectural qualities. In respect of the justice that is dispensed within their walls, they, stand ion an equal footing with their parent, past whose grey stone arches, towers, and pinnacles, the ’buses rumble eastward towards St. Paul’s.