NOTARY PUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1933, Page 6

NOTARY PUBLIC

EXPLANATION OF OFFICE

The swearing-in last week by the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, of Mr. W. 3. Eainey, of "Wellington, as a notary public, directs attention to the fact that behind such an. appointment there is a wealth of old ecclesiastical and legal customs. The appointment is made under the seal of the Archbishop of Canterbury, through the Master of Facilities in England, who issues a notarial factulty, or authority^ to practise. A text-book on. the subject states that there is good reason to believe that the office ot a notary public has its origin in the civil institutions of ancient Borne. In England notaries wore originally officers of the civil and common law and acted by Imperial and papal authority. Of their first introduction into England there is no authentic record. "The functions of an English notary are not defined by any statutory provision or rule," states a treatise on tho office and practice of a notary, "but generally speaking a notary public may be described as an officer of the law appointed by the Court of Faculties, whose auty it is to attest deeds, contracts, and other instruments that are to bo used abroad arid to give a centificate of tho duo execution of such documents, which certificate, if -duly authenticated by his signature and official seal, is accepted in all countries whero notarial acts are recognised as proof of the acts done in his presence and attested by him."