Old Legal Records

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1077, 15 September 1930, Page 8

Old Legal Records

Profession in Parchment PRESERVED religiously in the archives of the Supreme Court are' two volumes, outwardly drab, the bindings dishevelled from the handling of generations. They are the rolls of barristers and solicitors entering Mie profession at Auckland.

To one not of the profession, the rolls are excessively formal doeur ments. There is a minimum of preliminary announcement of the imposing list of names. The only explanation, indeed, finds a place at the top of the first page of parchment in each volume; it says simply: “Roll of per sous admitted aud enrolled as bar risters (solicitors) of the Supreme Court of New Zealand pursuant to the provisions of the Law Practitioners Act, 1861.” Nothing more than that and then the recording begins. A dull procedure, it seems. But there is something eloquent In any list of names, and extraordinary dignity in the faithful record of legal men. Ever since 1861, official bauds have entered the -names of barristers and solicitors admitted in these parchments, and the date of enrolment, and then the law practitioners have, with due dacorum, signed the entry. The parchments are not unrelieved documents. The names speak for themselves. Every now and then, an important name rises above its fellows. The first name on either parchment Is that of Sir Frederick Whitaker, who was enrolled with Mr. Thomas Outhwaite on November 12, 1861. The following day, Mr. Thomas Russell, who was a partner of the legal firm of Whitaker and Russell, and Mr. Edward Watkins, were enrolled. So the foundations for tremendous lists of names were laid. Great careers have come the way of many of those entered on the rolls, but not all have won their prominence in public life—one finds the names of Rhodes Scholars and well-known sporting men aud athletes freely intermingled with those of knights, members of Parliament, Judges of the Supreme Court and magistrates. One notes that Sir Maurice O’Rorke. who became Speaker of the House of Representatives, was enrolled in May, IS6S, and Mr. Justice Cooper in the month following. Mr. Justice Reed was enrolled in June. ISB7. The Hon. Sir Apirana Turupa Ngata, the present Minister of Native Affairs, entered the profession in March, 1597, and there is a coincidence in the enrolment on the same day—February 26, 1906—0 f two present members of Parliament, Mr. W. P. Endean and Mr. W. J. Broadfoot. Mr. IT. G. R. Mason. M.P., was enrolled in 1923. Colonel S. S. Allen, Administrator of Western Samoa, was enrolled in 1906. Sir James Parr was entered in May, 1890, and Mr. Justice Blair in December, 1904. Mr. Frederick Earl. K.C., was entered iu 1SS0; Judge Smith, of the Native Land Court, in ISBI, and Judge MacCormick, who is on the Native Land Court Bench today, iu 1887

Among the barristers and solicitors admitted at Auckland who became stipendiary magistrates, one reads the names of Mr. H. E. Kenny (1864), Mr. K. W. Dyer (1881), Dr. Alexander McArthur (1887), Mr. W. H. Woodward (1907), Mr. F. H. Levien (1911). Mr. C. R. Orr-Walker (1896), Mr. Wyvern Wilson (1901), and Mr. G. N. Morris (1922). Mr. Orr-Walker is an ex-Chief Judge of the High Court of Western Samoa, and Mr. Woodward has also occupied that position. There are many familiar names among those recorded iu the eafly years of the parchments. Some persist today in the titles of Auckland legal firms. Mr. F. M. P. Brookfield was one of the 11 enrolled in 1861, and Mr. William Leary and Mr. Theophilus Kissling were admitted in 1864. The Hon. T. Shaiier Weston, M.L.C., was enrolled in 1564, and other -well-known names are those of Mr. F. A. Whitaker and Mr. W. H. Kissling (1868), Mr. W. 11. Armstrong (1872), Mr. F. M. Brookfield (1876), Mr. Samuel Hesketh (1878), Mr. C. F. Buddie and Mr. Peter Oliphant (1881), Mr. Walter Dignan and Mr. G. A. Gribbin (1884). Mr. J. A. Tole (1872) was Crown Prosecutor for many years and Mr. H. A. Cornford, who was admitted in the same year, was Crown Prosecutor at Napier. At rare intervals through the parchments one reads words penned in red ink across a name. They signify that a name has been struck off the roll. Only a few words, but they tell of the termination of careers. In the early days, members of ‘he legal profession were closely concerned with colonisation and administration. Mr. Justice Conolly, who, at the death of Mr. Justice Gillies, succeeded to the Supreme Court, was Minister of Justice in Sir Frederick Whitaker’s Government of ISS2-S3 and in the Atkinson Ministry. Mr. Thomas Outhwaite, senior, was practising as a solicitor in Paris when he left in IS4I to become the first Registrar of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Shortly after he took office, Maketu, a Maori, was hanged for murder on the site of what is now the intersection of Queen and Victoria Streets. Not long after, another Maori was tried for murder, but 100 natives, brandishing spears and axes, rescued their fellow while the Court sat petrified! Mr. Justice Cooper experienced hardshyis in the Nonconformist settlement of Port Albert. An ex-Judge of the Native Land Court, Mr. H. A. H. Monro, was a member of a family which was compelled to leave Hokianga on the outbreak of the natives under Hone Heke in 1545. TANGAROA.