The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1907. EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13336, 12 July 1907, Page 4

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, JULY 12, 1907. EVERY MAN HIS OWN LAWYER.

Tsi our parliamentary column will bo found the announcement that- Mr.lk-brge Laurenson yesterday moved the second reading of his Law Practitioners Amendment Bill "■without comment." "11l- Laurenson -x----hibita a, wise. discretion for once; for at. the paragraphisfc is fond of saying, "comment is unnecessary."- But the fact that .39 members of the House voted for this extraordinary measure (,loe:s challenge comment- of the most .aliphatic kind. The object- of the Bill is to enable "any citize:. of good repute" to appear in the Magistrates Court to plead the "action, suit .or cau'.e "of any other citizen. And for lUb fatuous measure. 39 wissaoves went i o t!ie "Ayes" lobby! There is probabK not due of tin* 39 who, if he had a chiuiii':;, to build, would engage a wharf lumper to do it, or if ho had a watch to m-nrl would send it to the nearest'* blacksmit'i's forge. Yet they would all entrust " any N "citizen of'good moral repute" with the difficult and intricate, work of pleading "a cause, action or suit." In Mr Laurenso.is opinion, apparently.. intelligence- or spee.ii knowledge does not count. He is Himself a worthy and prosperous business mar in Lyttelton who poses a.-; our foremo?' authority on land legislation ; no doubt 1.0 fesls himself equally competent to undertake- tha duties of a barrister. Perhaps - "he is ; ha is admittedly a mail of part < - many part-?—in politics. . But it is nut every citizen of " good moral repute " •-. possesses 'Either Mr Laurenson's transceij.denfc gifts of oratory and perfect mastery of every subject under the sun from the humour of Sydney Smith to the art of boxing tha compass. We are sorry for the Magistrates shou.'this absurd measure evc-r"' becom? '■ law. Even skilled lawyer.'! are not- able at oik-.-to detect irrelevancy in testimony, or to apply on the spot the highly tec-llnica doctrines that, form the basis of the law of evident-. If Mr Laurenson's lay lawyers are turned loose on our Court?, w 1 fear to think of what " the law's delays " will stretch to, or to what interminab' j jargon and confounding of truth our Magistrates will be condemned to listen. With the assistance of trained counsel to preset the facts on either side. Magistrates occ i sionally make mistakes; with a couple r.f cocksure laymen displaying their ignorance in wordy combat, we fear the Appellate Court will be kept pretty busy reversi Magistrate's decisions. The only clw who will welcome the measure will be the legal profession. They will earn f.ii fees in set-ting right the' blunders of Mr Laur-;-nson'.s " lay lawyers," and in moving the higher Courts to reverse magistervi decisions. This " close corporation," a Mr Fisher calls it, will doubtless add t''e nam? of George Laurenson to the list ;;f toasts at law - dinners in. Die future, for the 'same reason that they never omit- : he toast of " The man who makes his owe. will"—the best friend the profession knows. The argument used in the debate that the work of the Arbitration Couii is much I better. done when lawyers do not appear | is one to which we fear neither Mr Jus vice Sim nor his predecessors will give asse ;t. Wlien a trade dispute is once before lii> Court, it is true, lawyers are not. requir-d . but for this reason, that the matters to be settled are matters, not of law, but o r "logs." Wages in the tailoring'or brie > making trades can only be settled by the ' evidence of tailors or brickniakers—though these are, sad to say, occasionally stupi.l and long-winded enough. Hut simple a the procedure under tile Arbitration Ac! is, every sitting of the Court- shows hov difiicult it- is for laymen to handle :l. Again and again disputes have to in- d\-; missed for want of jurisdiction.- hecau •• the Union secretaries —as a rule very intelligent men—have not understood or- m.i attended to tha sjmple r-cquire:nnu.s - ' the procedure. Mr Fisher complain--;! ( that the law is a "close corporation." t It requires in New Zealand no period of i apprenticeship—as do:s bricklaying oi watchmaking: the educational test *:£ ] mand'ed is matriculation —an examinat.-n j within the competence of any liftli form ! hoy from a decent, secondary school. Ve. ] says Mr Fisher, it- is a "close corpora 1 tion." We have happily com-;, to a. full realisation of the necessity of a sound j practical and theoretical training for c.-ir ] chemius and our dentists. No one but l a fool would entrust, the illness of a, vain- J able, horse to any but a. qualiiied veterinary J surgeon. Yvt our lawsuits, which de

mand at least as much (-.kill in the ha;.! ling as "dental curies" in our childrn or "glanders'" in our hacks, those priii:;.

cia.ns would t-iil nisi, in ";my citizen of gr;od moral Ti'i ill I " It is 1: i; liter of ooanmn knowledge that many men with u :im i l knowlcdgo cif law ara quit.;' incompet l . i' pleaders ; Mr So and So wo hear is a. vert iiiifi lawyers, " lmf, 1111 good in Cotnr. ' Yet (licfid 3D legislators would turn loo.'.; on our Cimrls men wlio posses. 1 - - , pcrha;- < not. oven a, passable board school education. to say nothing of a knowledge of law. 'lhn key to this cry of Mr Laurenson is the famous Tiivlor-Seddon libel caw. -Mr Taylor, a, man of distinguished inU'llee!.'!. t ability, conducted his own case; his fiisnt* and henchmen, Messrs Laurenson and Fisher, fondly hope they could do the likt. '1 lie association of both with ihe laughab l • " voucher incident. " docs not, encourage u•: to share, their confidence in their capaci'.y for sifting evidence.