DICK SEDDON ON LAWYERS.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 4, 28 June 1882, Page 3

DICK SEDDON ON LAWYERS.

„ Speaking oi> r Law Practitioners Bill Mr Seddon said:-" We hear a great deal said about lawyers, and thb position- they occupy at the present time, as well «s the ' positiou th^ fchdbhl'ticeupy ' for the fu- ■ ture. As a rule liwyeys ai-e a claSt thaT >■ may Be -very well' Up ha. law.but J-'thTnk' it wili be admitted on all sides that they are ssdly. -deficient io common-sense, s I stiall jireyou'a few examples before. J_ ha ¥ e .^My.f oipn experience .of ! young men or boys when they ara first indentured to learn tha legal profession if that the first business they are called upon to laarn 4*ihojr [. to jftsperitpqnd sweeping-ouFof the ofßce ; the next business is the copying o£ letters, which are bq very.iogbfj^o^ w«ide<tby tt£ lawQ yers that the boy does not understand tbem, and the client it was neverjnt^ded , .should be .o far enlightened: IVltt 'itow ' quote an instance of ona of these young men, who, .after being plucked once or twice and -stuffed to the bottom with - dry law, came into Court as lawyers very often do — as already stated by the honorable member of Roslyn — entailing great los» upon their clients through sheer want of common- senseyand knowledge of tlfe^wojld. A.a^ostan^o^iflttficVuff^ id a mmingOfmltthe (•fWtfftyA A lawyer came into Court from a mining district, and in the course of the case in which he was engaged the term" soldier," used by miners to mean the single props of! the roof of the mines, often cropped up, together with the phrase "shingling the soldier." Iu the course of examination one of the minora. aaid, "they bsjd well securecU)^li^V.|,lsM*lfMl^ particular spot it was held up By a soldier, which was well shiu»led; that the soldier was there two days before the damage occurred, aud for what he knew was there still, and had never shifisd." The lawyer, who had no knowledge of .mining mutters, did not know what the phrase meant, but he proceeded, to jgf£, s the witness's veracity. He SaiiLJ*Suv' have you the audacity to Btate to the Court that this soldier stood in the one position two days without stirriuf , or that he maj be there yet, after a lapse of a fortnight's timeP Perhaps, Sir, you will next tell the Court what regttntnt tM'gnrg-tKfft^ofdfer-bel-ragßtl ixr."- --" The Red-Birch Brigade," said the witness. At this the Court was convulsed with Unghtoci and wtah th«.-rpistaka wasM^tiW»h^i_&wl.f.iedged Kuan \>t law heartily joined in the merrimenl, and did not ask any more questions/'