OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2652, 24 December 1915, Page 6

OBITUARY

e SIR JOSHUA WILLIAMS By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Rec. December 23, 11.35 p.m.) London, December 23. Sir Joshua Williams, ex-Judge of tho Supreme Court of New Zealand, and a ' member of tlie Judicial Committee ot tlie Privy Council, is dead. The Right Hon. Sir Joshua Strange Williams, P.C., K.C.M.G., was appointed to tlie Judicial Committe of the Privy Council in October ; 1913, under an Act of the British Legislature passed a few months previously. Ho was therefore the first New Zealand Judge to be appointed to tho Privy Council. ludeeci tho position was not previously open to our Judges. At that time Sir Joshua Williams was Senior Puisne Judge ot tho Supremo Court of New Zealand, and one of the most distinguished members of our Supremo Court Bencft. Born in London in 1837, Sir ' Joshua Williams was the son. of a lawyer whose name is known to every- student of law iii the British Empire, Mr. Joshua Williams, Q.C., author of tlie well-known works on real and personal property. Ho was educated at Harrow and 'lrinity College, Cambridge, concluding a brilliant university career by graduating M.A. and LL.M. in 1859. In the samo year he was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, and in 1801 ho came to New Zealand. For some ten years he practised his professionin Ohristchurch, and also ho took an active part iu the publio life of this young colony. He was a member of the Provincial Council, or Canterbury in 1862-63 and 1866-70, and he was first chairman of the Board ot Governors of Canterbury College, in 1872 he was appointed Registrar-General of Lands, a position which he held until 1875, when he was made a Judge of the Supreme Court. This, of course, closed his career as / a public mau, and since then ho has been known only as the most striking figure on tho Bench, and as a scholarly cultured gentloman. Ho resided in Dunedin during most of his life, as a Judge, and in that city he held the position of Chancellor of tlie University of Otago. When the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration ■Act was passed, Judge Williams was made tho first president of the Arbitration Court. For 38 years Sir Joshua Williams sat on the Now Zealand Supreme Court Bench, long enough to see young barristers whom he admitted grow up to full manhood, or oven to approaching old age in the practice of their profession, and in all those: years the respect and confidence of tho profession and tho people in him grew in strength. When in the evening of his days he was singled out by His Majesty tho King' for the highest honour that could be bestowed on any Judge, there .was no one to say . that the honour was not richly deserved and wisely bestowed. . Congratulations from the Bar 'were unanimous and of quite unexampled cordiality. New Zoaland was exceedingly 'fortunate iu lior early colonists. ,To this country Sir Joshua Williams rendered a service such that only few could appraise its worth, but a servico of.groater worth perhaps than that _of others whose names * and deeds will bulk bigj in the country's annals. For one thing the British Courts 'are famous the world over —f o r : the even-haudedl dispensing of justice—and in no small degree were Sir Joshua Williams and others with liixn responsible for tho transplanting and nurture in this new country of the traditions of British justice. MR. J.' B. BETTINGTON. By Telegraph—Press Association Copyright Sydney, December 23. Mr. J. B. Bettington, the well-known pastoralist, is dead. •< ,