MR JUSTICE CHAPMAN

Otago Witness, Issue 3495, 8 March 1921, Page 7

MR JUSTICE CHAPMAN

A FAREWELL CEREMONY. EULOGY FROM BENCH AND BAR. (From Oor Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, March 2. The high esteem in which Mr Justice Chapman is held in legal circles was exemplified by the tributes to his ability and character in the Supreme Court here today. The court was filled with members of the bar and the publio. Mr O. p, Skerrett, K. 0., as the representative of the legal profession in New Zealand, in the course of an earnest address, said that during the 18 years Mr Justice Chapman had been on the bench his judgments had earned the confidence of the and _of the profession. Indeed, his administration of justice had been" run on oiled bearings; his judgments formed no small part .of the New Zealand law reports, and his Honor and his admirers could afford to let them speak for themselves. 'He was leaving the bench in the plenitude of his powers, and it was a satisfaction that his great attainments would be used in legal work of great importance. Air H. O’Leary (president of the Wellington branch of the Law Society) expressed the regret of the Wellington bar that Mr Justice Chapman’s retirement was imperative, especially seeing that his faculties were in no wa.y impaired. They had all admired his calm, dispassionate administration. He had combined wide knowledge of the law with a great knowledge of business and of mankind. They had always been impressed by his conduct of cases in which controversial facts were in issue.. lli3 sternness where sternness was required, his kindness when the occasion demanded, his scrupulous fairness and impartiality had led those who had experienced it to the conclusion that in such cases he was th© pattern of judicial excellence. The Chief Justice paid the retiring judge a warm tribute. He said judges could not be expected always to agree, but when there were disagreements, they found that Mr Justice Chapman was always considerate and anxious to see that his view was correct, and willing to test it. It had been a pleasure to be associated with him. His fellows on the benoh knew what the members of the bar perhaps did not, the trouble he took to arrive at a just conclusion. They knew his ability and knowledge, and his scholarship, which extended beyond the law and legal literature, and made him a well-informed man on perhaps all the subjects which had come before them. He was leaving to go into what might be called private life, and he went with the kindest feeling and best wishes ot his colleagues. They hoped he would be long spared to perform a citizen’s duties. They could rely upon him to do what he would on behalf of the country to make it greater and better than it had been in the past. Air Justice Chapman, referring to a tribute by Air O’Leary as to his kindliness to the junior members of the bar, said ho felt he did deserve that recognition, because he had always tried to do his best for the younger members of the bar in the interests -,of the profession generally, and ultimately to the interests of suitors, because, after all, whatever the interests of the bar might be, those of the suitors were paramount. He had always been anxious that every young man of ability, ambition, and energy should have due encouragement, one reason being that he recalled the encouragement h© had himself received from the older members of the bench when he came to argue a case in the Court of Appeal before he had even handled a Alagistrate’s Court case. On that ocoasion he had appeared before the Chief Justice, Sir George Arney, Air . Justice Johnston, Air Justice Richmond, and Air Justice Gresson, men whose names would remain honoured by the bar of this dominion as long a 3 there remained a scrap of tho literature recording their doings. A great deal of tho personal education of the bar in New Zealand and its relations to the bench was due to what they had heard from the men cf those times, and he had always felt inclined to single out Air Justice Johnston as the judge who was the most careful in doctrinating the bar with their ideal of their relationship to the bench. The relations between the bench and the bar in this country had always been excellent. There was only a single instance in which a barrister found his way “to the hill” through being too emphatic in court. The relations of the bench and the bar, and of the bar within itself, were a matter tending to the demonstration of the supreme interests of the clients, and that /was a matter which be thought had been adequately and amply attended to. not only in this city, but throughout the dominion. INCIDENTS OF A LONG CAREER. His Honor said he was closing a long career. It had been so long that few remained of his first eo,ntemporaries. On tiiß first occasion on which he appeared in court in a “fighting case (not yet forgotten in Dunedin), Sir Robt. Stout was on the other side, as he generally was when I appeared in court.’’ There were other survivors of that regime, but most of those seniors who used to oome to Wellington to attend the Appeal Courts —Mr George Cook, Air Alacassey, Air James Smith, Air Barton—had passed away, it wag a long time ago, for in two months he would have completed the fiftieth year since he was called to the bar. During that time he had had a fair share of what was going, and even as an “inefficicfet junior” had his full share of very heavy cases. There was one in which the verdict was taken on the nineteenth day, another in which they closed down on the thirtieth and left it to the judge to work out the consequenqes, and one in which he had sat on the bencli and bade farewell to the parties, including the one in the dock, on the forty-eighth day. His Honor made a special reference to Air Justice Edwards, who had been of as much help to him as any judge on the bin;<ni. lie was closing his career with region, but without any sense of depression. lie was leaving in good bodily health, without having in the past 20 years lost a single day at work through illness, though he had on a few occasions to content himself with half a day. That was no merit to himself; it was an endowment, and be had had the care of his family, without which, perhaps, things might hcv« been different. Stepping from the bench, hi 3 Honor shook hands with the members of the bar and court officials, and also with friends and acquaintances among the public present.