SIR WILLIAM SIM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3888, 18 September 1928, Page 51

SIR WILLIAM SIM.

DUNEDIN INCIDENT RECALLED. “ DID NOT SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY.” In the course of an appreciation of Mr Justice Sim, contributed to the Wellington Evening Post, Sir John Findlay writes: — In a recent press tribute to his memory we were told that Sir William Sim did not suffer fools gladly, and it must be admitted that this was especially true when the fool was in wig and grown, adding irresponsibility to garrulity. Our friendship began nearly 50 years ago, when he and I were fellow-students in Dunedin, and, strangely enough, it was his native impatience of blatant brainlessness that provided the episode from which our intimacy commenced. This i took place, not in classroom or social hall, but in a crowded University Debating Society meeting, when the burning question of that day (whether women should be admitted to the medical school) was being heatedly discussed.' B, a bulky theological student, delivered in stentorian tones and with the most violent gestures a speech denouncing those present who were supporting tlie affirmative, including Mr Sim and myself. B based his argument for the exclusion of women upon their Scriptural derivation from Adam’s rib. “ That,” he shouted, “ was I our guide from God as to the women’s true place in life; —that nearest man’s heart, in docile reliance on him, and not in professional or other vocational comI petition, with him.” B took his full time in full blast, and when he sat down one W. A. Sim rose and asked in that crisp but quiet style of his: “Mr Chairman, may I ask when Mr B was appointed buffoon to this society? ” Very rude of Mr Sim, but summing up B in his speech in a word. A motion for the expulsion from the society of William Alexander Sim was at once moved by a medical student. I seconded the motion, and proceeded to show how utterly unwarranted was the epithet by sketching what a buffoon really was, in the best likeness I could draw of B, and his ranting. When I finished another theological student sprang to his feet, and in suppressed anger solemnly accused the meeting that my speech was not in sincere support of the motion, but was intended to be contemptuous and ironical. Thereupon the audience exploded in laughter and the motion was never put. _ That night Sim and I, for the first time, walked, home together to our respective lodgings, and thus commenced acomradeship that lasted unbrokenly and uncloudedly until death closed it.