SIR JOSHUA WILLIAMS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1886, 21 October 1913, Page 7

SIR JOSHUA WILLIAMS.

APPOINTED TO THE PRIVY COUNCIL. By Tel«zr&pli—Press Association—Copyright London, October 19. Sir Joshua Strange Williams (senior Puisne Judge of tho Supremo Court of Now Zealand) has boon mado a Privy Councillor. Tho Hon. W. F. Massey (Prime Ministor) stated last ovening that by virtue of liis appointment as a Privy Councillor Sir Joshua Williams would terminate his judicial duties in this Dominion and proceed to London, thero ioininpr the Judicature Committee of tho Privy Council. This will, of course, create o. vacancy in the ranks of tho New Zealand Supremo Court Judges. Sir Joshna Williams has attained to a position of eminenco not hitherto open to. any Now Zealand Judge, for this Dominion has not hitherto enjoyed representation upon tho Judicature Committee. Tho following reference to the representation of New Zealand upon tho Judicature Committee of the Privy Council waa made by Lord Emmott, Under-Secre-tary of State for the Colonies, when, with other members of a visiting delegation of British Parliamentarians, he was entertained at a Parliamentary luncheon on August 29 last:—ln the matter of appellato jurisdiction, since they left Home, a Bill had been jxassed increasing tho number of Dominion representatives on the Privy. Council from a maximum of five to a maximum- of seven. He was not without, hope that New Zealand might be able to securoi representation on that Judicial Committee. Up to the present time sho had not. He ventured to say that the decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council' were accepted everywhere throughout Hia Majesty's Dominions, and he did not think it wag going too far to say that tho groat Judicial Committee was exercising a real influence in the direction of unity within the Empire. The passage by the House of Commons of the Appellate Jurisdiction Bill, referred to by Lord Emmott in tho foregoing statement, was announced in a London cablegram dated August 12. In a memorandum prefixed to the Ap- ' pellate Jurisdiction Bill when? it was introduced' in tho House of Commons, it la set forth that "the increase of the number of Law Lords from four to six, proposed by tho Bill, is tho first step necessary to give effect to the resolution passed at the Imperinl Conference in 1911. The proposals of His Majesty's Government then were that they should add to the highest Court of Appeal, both for the United Kingdom, and the Dominions and tho colonies, by selecting four English) Judges of the finest quality; that the quorum should bo fixed at, say, five, and that the Court should sit successively in tho House of Lords for United Kingdom appeals, and in tho Privy Council for appeals from the Dominions and the colonies. These proposals wero unanimously accepted by the conference."