YOUTHS OF 56.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1926, Page 1

YOUTHS OF 56.

A barrister writing in a Loudon journal says that we 'have moved far from the days when a man was said to. lie too old at 40. The Lord Chief Justice, in fact, has just declared that at 3G “ a man is very young.” Lord llewart himself is it mere legal stripling, for he is only 35. Sir Harry Poland, the famous criminal advocate, is actually 9G. hut he took the precaution of retiring from practice just 30 years ago. On the other hand, Lord Finlay (an ex-Lord Chancellor) is 83, and is still acting as the British representative on the International Court at the Hague. Lord Mersey, long known as Air Justice Bigltam, is 83, Lord Darling at 70 seems to possess perennial youth, and Sir Edward Clarke at 81 is an example to the Bar. But the years were always kind to the lawyers. The late Lord Halsbury was nearly 100 when he died, and Lord Lindlcy lived into the late eighties. At 53, the present Lord Chief Justice is, indeed, " a very young man.”

' Other professions and callings are notable for brilliant old men. Air Thomas Hardy is still writing wonderful poetry at BG. Sir Hugh Bell, the eminent ironmaster and philosopher of the North, has abounding vigour at SI. To keep youthful after fifty a man must, surmount victoriously the climacteric that sets in during those trying years. When the physical organism has stood the wrench, the mental faculties have sharpened and strengthened under the strain, the energies have developed, and the imagination has lifted and widened, the whole man begins a fresh canter along the road of I i I'e. The I ask is harder in these testing days when the after-war strain on nerve and energy is increased by economic strain. But courage can achieve miracles.