THE JUDGES

Southland Times, Issue 19101, 20 November 1923, Page 6

THE JUDGES

APPOINTMENTS FROM BAR. CRITICS OF GOVERNMENT POLICY. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S REPLY. (Special to the Times). WELLINGTON, November 19. “ ‘Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,’ is no longer appropriate for an inscription on the doors of the chambers of a puisne judge.” The Attorney-General (Sir Francis Bell) thus tersely concluded his reply to the criticism directed at the statement of Government policy recently issued by him to the representatives of the Law Society seeking the appointment of Judges and the Chief Justice from the ranks of practising barristers. A southern legal critic took exception to Sir Francis Bell’s statement of policy. The recipients of these offices in i the past had, this writer said, always been practising members of the Bar. The Chief Justice had also been taken from the ranks of the practising Bar in New Zealand without exception and during 200 years in England (with one exception, Lord Trevethin).

“My comment on this article,” said Sir Francis Bell to your representative to-day, is that the writer is under a misapprehension. There have been only four Chief Justices of New Zealand—two (Sir William Martion and Sir George Arney) were chosen by the English Government from the English Bar and came to New Zealand to take up the office. The third, Sir James Prendergast, was a member of the Civil Service at the time of his appointment, holding the then salaried and permanent office of Attorney-General. The fourth and present Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) had been Prime Minister and Attorney-General, but at the time of his appointment, he was not a member of Parliament and held no office under the Crown. He is the only member of the New Zealand practising Bar who has held the office. The writer carefully abstains from reference from the recent English precedents to which I referred in my reply to the Wellington Law Society, namely that the Master of the Rolls who presides in the one division of the Court of Appeal in England, has been generally a puisne Judge promoted to that office and that the Lords Justices of Appeal and the Law Lords are also generally chosen from the puisne judges. He also avoids the New Zealand precedents cited by me of the great advancement of two New Zealand Judges to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, on the recommendation of the .New Zealand Government and on the Knighthood conferred on their recommendation. Another instance is the appointment of a Judge to represent New Zealand at Washington. The principle now recognised in England and New Zealand is that a barrister who accepts a Judgeship can be trusted not to truckle to a Government and that no Government dare attempt to influence a Judge.”