WELLINGTON

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1980, 10 May 1875, Page 2

WELLINGTON

. Saturday. Yesterday in banco, all the practising barristers being present, Mr Eobert Hart, senior member of the Bar, was deputed to address his Honor Judge Johnston previous to His departure from the judicial district over which he has presided for so many years. In the course of his address Mr Hart said, on behalf of the members of the Bar, that they looked. forward to the prospect of his' appearing again before them on the occasions of the sitting of the Court of Appeal, to which they anticipated his Honor would, bring tha same earnest desire to ascertain right, and direct that which is just, which had characterised his administration of the law during the many years he had presided over the Supreme Court in the district, Mr Hart also said : I must not omit to notice the obligation conferred -Upon the Bar by your Honor by-your exertions and assistance in giving a beneficial and elevated direction to tho employment of their leisure, and by your constant kindness and hospitality. His Honor, in the course of his reply, said : I assure you it is a source of great gratification to me to find my efforts to perform my official duties with a single mind and purpose have been appreciated by the members of the profession who have practised before me, and I feel this-gratification all the more because I am aware that, on some occasions, I may have been led, in the anxious discharge of my duty, into a certain impetuosity in expression or in manner towards the profession, which may have caused some annoyance at the time. If it be so, I am. glad to know that, in any failing in this respect, I have the forgiveness of any gentleman who may have at the time been annoyed. The kind words addressed to me by Mr Hart, on behalf of the Bar, are a more gratifying tribute than the most flattering eulogy from some other quarters. They show that my labours have not been in vain, and it is a great consolation to me at a time, not without its troubles, to find that the profession recognises the work I have done.