OBITUARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6608, 27 July 1889, Page 3

OBITUARY.

JUDGE GILLIES. We regret having to announce to our readers the sudden death of one who has eat in the Supreme Court for nineteen yearß. The late Judge began his Colonial career in Ofcago in 1852, settling in that Province as one of a band of sturdy, shrewd brothers. Though he had been bred a lawyer, his first essay in the Colony was in agricultural and paßtoral pursuits. But he soon went back to hia old profession, practising it diligently and successfully in the City of Dunedin before the goldfields days. In 1860 he entered Parliament — which sat in those days in Auckland — for the Dunedin country district. In his very first session he took a leading position, speaking often, and always with great ability and the practical shrewdness which distinguished ! him. A man of his persistence of character of course never neglected an opportunity to remind the Government that the resolution of the House for changing its seat remained unobeyed. In all matters connected with the administration of justice he was particularly active. Ho claimed the right to criticise all judicial appointments of the Government, and in this, his first year, he proposed the abolition of the District Courts, a reform still yearned for by many a practitioner and public man. In that year we find Mr Gillies a staunch and most vigorous champion of the Middle Island Land Fund, maintaining that by the compact of 1856, all manner of control over that fund had pttbsed from the General Assembly or Government. In ail things a staunch Provincialiat and anti-cen-traliser, he nevertheless opposed the aubcivision of the Provinces, and on one occasion actually introduced a Bill for the Repeal of the New Provinces Act. In the following year he sat for Bruce in the same Province. In 1862, when the Pox Ministry resigned ou account of the uncertainties of the Ministerial position ■with regard to Native affairs, Mr Gillies occupied for a few weeks the position of Attorney-General in the Domett Ministry. In 1863 the Whitaker-Fox Ministry replaced Mr Domett's Cabinet, wh'Tcn resigned on account of difficulties with its representative in the Upper House. Mr Gillies was Postmaster-General in that Ministry for nearly a year. It was an eventful year of war in Waikato and Taranaki ; the name of Cameron was much heard in the Colony at the time, many valuable lives were loßt, and there was a deal of writing of memorandums. The Ministry resigned during the recess, and the Governor met Parliament with Mr "Wild as Premier, who lost no time in bringing forward his famous policy of self-reliance. Soon after this Mr Gillies retired from Parliament. He entered the House again in 1870, representing a northern constituency, Mongonui. He had in the interval changed his Province for Auckland, and been elected to the Saperintendency — a proof of the commanding ability of his character. When he returned to the House the Public Works policy was in full swing. Mr Gillies, as member for Wan- | ganui, and afterwards for Auckland City J West, attached himself to the Opposition, 1 proving himself a vigilant, strenuous, often j sarcastic, and generally able critic of the j Ministerial policy and measures. But he j never obstructed. In the mutter of loans i he tried to fill the office, which some j politicians who desired at a later date to control Sir Julius Yogel, called "the brake ;" and he was always a great stickler for minute compliance with every provision of the law relating to sinking funds. He was also always an economist of pronounced views, raising up his voice for simplification and economy of practice. Particularly noticeable was he in this character when the Christchurch Gas Bill was before the House in 1871, when he denounced the expenses of private legislation, deriding our slavish imitation of British Parliamentary forms, " even down to that bauble." In 1872 Mr Gillies -was the Colonial Treasurer of Mr Stafford's Ministry of twenty-eight days. From that time to 1875 he continued to oppose the Government actively as before, speaking on a great variety of questions. He took, we remember, a rather prominent part in the famous Ward-Chapman controversy, which so greatly disturbed the House in 1874. Not long afterwards, he was offered and accepted the position of Puisne Judge on the retirement of Judge Gresson, taking up his residence at Auckland. He discharged the duties of the office from that time to the day of his death, ■with, the exception of a few months' holiday last year, when he took the opportunity of visiting Europe. As a Judge the late Mr Gillies was painstaking, shrewd, and decisive. As a politician, he was practical, earnest, and of great diligence and energy. In both capacities he made the most of great natural abilities. After thirty-seven years of busy, useful, distinguished Colonial life he leaves many friends to mourn his loss.