THE LATE JUDGE CHAPMAN.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2413, 29 December 1881, Page 3

THE LATE JUDGE CHAPMAN.

An lotbkebhng Cabehb. We take the following interesting retuine of the life of Judge Chapman from the " Otago Diily Times" of yesterday : The late Mr Chapman was born in Kennington, London, on the2lst July, 1803. He was a son of Henry Chapman, Esq., who was for many years connected with the Barrack Department (now abolished) of the Civil Service, and was eduoated in English and Continental schools. It may, however, be said that thronghout a long and eventful life he was always engaged more or less in the work of selfeducation. Apart from ancient classics, in which it is known he was proficient, he had acquired a complete mastery of the Frenoh, German, and Italian languages. Of late years he devoted his leisure very largely to the cultivation of o renewed acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon and early English writers, and it was an especial hobby of his to endeavour to trace back to a real or supposed Baxon origin oommon words of modern use and coinage. The love of languages and literature, which Mr Chapman contracted at an early period of his life, probably led to that connection with the Press to which he made passing allusion at the reoent meeting of the Early Closing Association. He then stated that he had established or assisted in establishing the first newspaper ever published in Montreal, Upper Canada—a newspaper still extant. This carries one back to the political turmoil in Canada whioh culminated in the formation of the body known as Fits de la Ziberte, and the Papineau Rebellion. The first outbreak occurred at Montreal in the year 1837, and Mr Chapman beoame involved in the general movement. He made no secret of his connection with the party, end although the so-called " rebels " sustained a series of defeats at the hands of the English troops at St. Eustace, Toronto, and other places, Mr Chapman lived to see the wrongs of his fellow colonists redressed. He was appointed a joint commissioner with the late Mr J. P. Roebuck, M.P., to represent the Colonial Reform party in England. By their united efforts through the Press, and a then common mode of appeal, pamphlets, and still more strongly through personal intercourse with leading members of the House of Commons, the condition of Canada eventually engaged the attention of her Majesty's Ministers. The E»rl of Durham (having the late Sir R. D. Hanson, afterwards Chief Justice of South Australia, as his private seoretary) was despatched on a special mission to Canada, and the outcome of his investigation was a series of legislative Acts relating to the Government of Canada and the reunion of the two provinoes. The Canadian question having been solved, Mr Chapman devoted himself for a number of years to the discussion and treatment of politics-economical, social science, and colonisation questions. He formed one of a circle whioh included the late Charles Buller, J. 8. Mill, J. P. Roebuck, S. Ricardo, Gibbon Wakefield, G. S. Evans, and others. Concurrently, Mr Chapman wrote extensively for the reviews, the London press, and qualified himself for the English Bar. He was a pupil of Mr Dodson, an eminent pleader, and after serving the necessary number of terms, the 12th June, 1840, saw Mr Chapman enrolled as one of the mystic craft. He went for some short time the Northern cirouit, and in June, 1843, was appointed by the late Earl of Derby (then Lord Stanley, Seoretary for the Colonies), to be a Judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. During the interval which elapsed between Mr Chapman's return from Canada and his departure for New Zealand he took a very active interest in the " heroic work " (to use Lord Bacon's term) of colonisation. Fully subscribing to the views which afterwards beoame known as the Gibbon Wakefield theory, he labored hard by personal exertions to promote the settlement first of South Australia and then of New Zealand. Of those who took a deep and active interest in both project, Sir Richard Hanson, Dr. Evans, and Mr Chapman afterwards emigrated to Wellington, while Mr George Fife Angaa went to South Australia, where he now remains, the solitary survivor of the little band. Mr Chapman's papers, pamphlets, and "appeals" upon the subjeot of colonisation were so numerous that it would be impossible in this obituary notice to attempt to epitomise or even glance at them. His interest in the newly formed colonies did not end with their first establishment. He continued from time to time to write upon the progress whioh the colonists were making as items of intelligence reaohed London. And we believe it was mainly through the attention which he direoted to the imperfect judioiary system of New Zealand that the appointment of a second Judge was resolved upon, and the offer of it given to him. Prior to his departure for New Zealand he was presented with a costly service of plate in recognition of his unwearied efforts in promoting the work of colonisation. That he retained the good wishes of his old fellow workers was shown by the uninterrupted correspondence which they mutually continued to interchange until, one by one, they were removed by death. When Mr Chapman arrived in New Zealand, in the year 1843, the Chief Justice (now Sir William Martin) was stationed in Auckland. Mr Chapman was plaoed in Wellington, and periodically held his Court there and in Nelson. When the two judges had to meet in oonferenoe they made Wanganui or New Plymouth their common rendezvous, one walking or riding all the way from Auckland, and the other from Wellington. This mode of conference was necessarily so inconvenient that when " the Government brig " was at last secured the judges interchanged their opinions on paper. In the days of which we speak little or nothing was known of Otakou (Otago) beyond the fact that Taiaroa and Tuwaiki (Anglicised into "Bloody Jack ") were lords of the dominion, and that venturesome Billy Williams (the late Coptain Peter Williams) used to trade here occasionally. The late Mr John Jones had taken up his abode at Waikouaiti, and when leaving Wellington for the purpose he was generally regarded as consigning himself to Ultima Thulo. Wellington itself was the resort of whalers, and they were fond of law. There was consequently, even in these Noachian days, a very considerable bar, including Sir R. D. Hanson, the Messrs Brewer, Mr A. T. Holroyd (now Master in Equity at Sydney), Mr H. Ross, Mr Fox, Mr Robert Hail, Mr Brandon, Mr King, and Dr. Evans. Most of them got scattered afterwards, while Messrs Fox, Hart, and Brandon alone remain as the wearers of the ancient toga. The entire European population when Mr Chapman came to the colony in 1843 was about 11,000 ; now it must number roundly between four and five hundred thousand. The disturbed condition of the Wellington settlement, the Native difficulties in the North, and the failing hopes of the oolonists rendered it for some years very doubtful whether New Zealand would ever become the land of promise the early pioneers had so earnestly hoped and prayed for. A great number of the first Wellington settlers forsook the colony, but Mr Chapman is not to be numbered among them. It is true that in Maroh, 1852, he was appointed from Downing street Colonial Secretary of Van Diemen's Land during the rule of Sir William Denison. Mr Chapman was personally very much opposed to the change of life and country which the new appointment involved. But the offer of the appointment, it seems, was made to Mr Chapman's father and friends in London, and they, without reference to the subject of our sketch, committed bim by an acceptance of it. Communication with New Zealand was then a thing of time, and Mr Chapman's friends in England presumed that bb the emoluments of the Colonial Secretaryship were larger than those of the New Zealand Judgeship he would make no demur to the intended change. Mr Chapman felt himself committed to what his father had arranged, although personally he very much regretted the relinquishment of the judicial office. His stay in Tasmania was not of long deration. He went to a penal settlement from a free colony. He found the people clamoring loudly for a discontinuance of a compulsory importation of the sweepings of English prison cells. Bir William Denison —a martinet, autocrat, and continual meddler, alternately offering his unsought advice to his Excellency of New Zealand on the Native war; to the Governors of New South Wales and Viotoria on fortifications, gold discoveries, and riots; and lecturing Sir John Pedder, the Chief Justice, on tho functions of tho judicial office—was the Governor under whom Mr Chapman was called upon to serve. The colony was governed from Downing street, and tho Governor was fond of despotic sway. It booted not that the colonists wero all but in firms on the convict question. Sir William Damson insisted that his advisers should resent a metion brought forward in the Council praying that her Majogty should be

petitioned to discontinue the practice of consigning English felons to the oolony. Mr Chapman, true to hii natural and traditional instincts, declined to rote as the Governor required ; and his Toice and influence went with the emancipationists—with those who were striving to free Tan Diemen's Land from the taint and burden which it had endured so long. Sir William Denison, true to his instincts, at onoe suspended Mr Chapman; but he in return enjoyed a magnificent ovation, shortly before his departure for England, at the hands of a large gathering of colonists, including almost every man of note or influence in the place. Mr Chapman's mission to England was eminently satisfactory. He was compensated for the loss of offioe; and as responsible government had meanwhile been introduced in Tasmania (as the oolony was then styled), he resolved to try his fortunes in the new El Dorado, Victoria.

| He arrived in Melbourne as a passenger by i the Black Ball liner Lightning in the year 1854, and shortly succeeded to a very lucrative practice, although be was a competitor with such men as Messrs Micbie, Ireland, Dawson, Fellows, Abraham, Sewell, Sitwell, Wood, Aspinall, Stephen, and Higinbotham. After the introduction of responeible government in Victoria, Mr Chapman was persuaded in April, 1857, by Sir John O'Shannaßßy to join his Government as Attorney-General. His prestige as an exjudge of New Zealand and Colonial Secretary of Tasmania, and the contributor of a little brochure upon the working of responsible government, pointed him out as a desirable man to have in the Government. AMr Baragwanath retired from the House in Mr Chapman's favor, and he was consequently eleoted to the vaoant seat. The Ministry included Mr Henry Miller, Sir O. G. Duffy, and Mr J. D. Wood as Solicitor-General. The Ministry was soon afterwards defeated, and Mr Haines resumed his former position as leader of the Government. Mr Haines bad in his turn to retire from office within the course of a year, and the succeeding Ministry included nearly all the members of the former O'Shanassy team, with Mr Chapman as AttorneyGeneral, and Mr Ireland as Solicitor-Gene-ral. Mr Chapman at this time was one of the representatives of St. Kilda, and in his official capacity had the conduct of the Price murder trials. Mr Duffy retired from the Ministry before the meeting of Parliament while the Premier (Mr O'Shanassy) was on the worst possible terms with his Excellency Bir Henry Barkley. The Ministry was mainly kept together through the tact of Mr Chapman, who was also the medium of personal communication between the Governor and the Cabinet. At the succeeding general eleotion Mr Chapman was defeated for St. Kilda, and failed to secure his return for any other constituency. The Ministry was afterwards defeated on the motion of Mr William Nicholson, and Mr Chapman's career as a Minister of the Crown i nally ended in the year 1859. At the next succeeding general election he was returned for Momington, and in 1861 relinquished his seat to become a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria during the absence on leave of Sir Redmond Barry. Mr Chapman's tenure of a place on the Victorian Bench extended over a period of between one and two years. When relieved of his judicial duties he returned to his bar practice, which was necessarily a good deal disturbed by his previous retirement from it. He was one of the law lecturers at the University, a vice-president of the Forensic Society, and Melbourne correspondent of the " London Times."

When the appointment of a second Judge for Otago was resolved upon by the WhitakerFox Government in 1864, it was intimated to Mr Chapman, through Mr Ligar, the Sur-veyor-General of Viotoria, at the time on a temporary visit to Auokland, that the newly created office was open for his acceptance. He accordingly returned to New Zealand in 1864 as a Judge of the Supreme Court, and was a colleague of Mr Justioe Richmond in Dunedin down to the departure of the latter for Nelson in 1867. During their three years joint tenure of offioe the two judges differed, we believe, only upon one occasion. The administration of justice was preeminently satisfactory. The judges were men representing entirely distinct classes of mind. What one needed the other had, and there was invariably observed the most marked and oordial deference to each other'o views. The Court so constituted was hot inaptly likened to the English Court of Appeal when Lords Justices Knight Bruce and Turner presided there. After Mr Richmond's removal to Nelson Mr Chapman continued to administer justice single-handed in Otago and Southland down to the end of March, 1875, save during an interval of eighteen months, when absent on leave in 1868 69. . . . His retirement in 1875 waß fairly earned, and the unusually large muster of the Bar upon the oocasion of his final appearance proved how sincere was the regret with whioh the veteran Judge's words of farewell were listened to.