COURT OF APPEAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1020, 13 October 1903, Page 3

COURT OF APPEAL.

(Per Press Association.) Wellington, last Dight The Appeal Court opened' with a ful Bench this morning, Judge Chapman tak ing hi 3 seat. Before the formal proceed ings began Mr Brown, president of the local Law Society, askod the Chief Justice to unveil a portrait of Judge JH. S. Chapman who, he stated, was tho first judge appointed to Wellington. Ho read a sketch of the life of the Judge, who died in 1881, and laid stress on the fact that he was so closely associated with Wakefield, Selwyn, and others, and took so much interost in tho colonisation of Now Zealand as to bo, in fact, one of tho founders of tho -colony. Hi 3 appointment to be the first judgo in Wellington therefore was peculiarly fitting, and it was an agreeable coincidence that enabled him to ask His Honor to unveil tho portrait on tho same day that the distinguished son of an illustrious .father also took his seat on that Bench as a judgo of tho Supremo Court. Sir Bobest Stout, in performing tho ceremony, referred briefly to tho late judge, by whom he himself was admitted to the bar, and under whom he had pleaded. Judgo Chapman bold a uniquo position in colonial history of the Empiro, for he had -been associated with the early history of four important colonies —Canada, Nov/ .Zealand, Tasmania, and Victoria. Ho had most intereetiog personal recollections nf tho deceased gentleman, who was a snan of great culture and great learning, os skilled in tho French tongue as in his own. and well versed in German. Ha had known intimately such men as Jeremy Bontbam and Mills, and was especially well read in philosophical literature. Speaking for the Bench, ho would say 4hey were greatly pleased to have the son of so distinguished a man associated with item in thsir judicial duties. Thero was a large attendance of tho Bar. Tiie portrait hangs by the side of |p!, ihat of ex-Chief Justice Prondergast, and opposite the late Judgo Richmond's all T.%C" furnished by the Law Society.