"TAKING SILK"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 128, 26 November 1929, Page 10

"TAKING SILK"

King's Counsel are barristers who have obtained the appointment of counsel to His Majesty by reason, as old writers put it, of their .learning and talent. They wear silk gowns, sit within the Bar, and take precedence in Court over "utter barristers": that is to say, the ordinary barrister who sits outside the Bar. They have no active duties to the Crown to perform, but they must not be employed in any cause against the Crown (eg in defending a prisoner) without special licence. There used to be also King's Counsel in the County Palatine of Lancaster, who took precedence of other barristers in the Palatine Courts. King's Counsel are comparatively modern. Francis Bacon (1604) was the first; Francis North (1668) was the nest; and there seem to have been but few other appointments down to about 1750. In 1775 there were only fourteen, ana in 1850 only twenty-eight King's Counsel, the highest intermediate number being under fifty. -Now the number is over three hundred Down to 1831 King's Counsel received an- annual stipend of £40. This made it necessary for a barrister who was a member of Parliament to vacate his seat if he took silk. To meet such cases the Crown occasionally issued patents of precedence, the holders of which became of equal rank with King's Counsel and ranked with them according to seniority. Such patents were issued sometimes in other cases also. One was granted in 1872 to Mr. Benjamin, a distinguished American lawyer who came to the English Bar in 1866 after the collapse of the Confederate cause. King's Counsel take precedence of Serjeants. Colloquially, King's Counsel are known as seniors and other barristers as juniors. When, a barrister becomes a King's Counsel he is said to "take silk."

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS.

Mr. Wilford is the twenty-first K.C. to be appointed in New Zealand, the first such appointment being made in 1907, when the following received the distinction: The Hon. Sir John George Findlay (Wellington), Mr. Martin Chapman (Wellington), the Hon. Joseph Augustus Tole (Auckland), the Hon. Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell (Wellington), Mr. John Henry Hosting (Duuedin), Mr. Saul Solomon (Dunedin), Mr. Thomas Walter Stringer (Christchureh), Mr. (later Sir) Charles Perrin Skerrett, who was later Chief Justice of New Zealand (Wellington). The next appointments were made in November, 1912, and July, 1913, and were:—

Mr. John William Salmond (Wellington), Mr. Frederick Earl (Auckland), Mr. Alexander Gray (Wellington), Mr. Charles Bruce Morison (Wellington), Mr. John Banken. Reed (Auckland), Mr. Frederick Wilding (Christchurch), and Mr. Samuel George Eaymond (Christchurch). The next appointment was that of Mr. William Cunningham MacGregor (Dunedin), in August, 1915. In December, 1919, the Hon. Oliver Samuel, M.L.C. (New Plymouth), was appointed.

The next appointments were- those of the present Chief Justiea (the Hon. Michael Myers), in October, 1922; Mr. Henry Hubert Ostler (Auckland), February, 1926! and Mr. Arthur Fair (Solicitor-General), June, 1925.