LAW EXAMINATIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1929, Page 6

LAW EXAMINATIONS

ABILITY OF KXAAIJNERS. SYSTFAI CRITICISED. WELLINGTON, April 5. “1 suggest that the present system of conducting law examinations is capable. of improvement,” said Mr A. EL Johnstone* (Auckland) at the legal conference yesterday in the course of a paper on “ The Profession of a Barrister in New Zealand.” “ For many years past it has been tlie practice of the university to select its examiners in law subjects from members of the prolession. These gentlemen may, or may not, have the ability to test the knowledge of candidates l>v setting questions and estimating the value of written answers. There are many who think that an examiner should also he a teacher. In my view the practice adopted by some of the English universities and by the University of New Zealand in relation to certain examinations for the medical profession, might well he adopted here, namely, examination by two examiners, one a practitioner and the other a teacher.

“ As wo ourselves have come to regard the preliminary steps towards Die admission o'l a barrister as unsatisfactory, tfe can scarcely complain it tins profession in other countries take the same view, it is a standing reproach to US, and a very distinct disability, that barristers admitted in New Zealand are denied admission elsewhere unless they undergo substantially tlie same curriculum as that required Iroin students, while we, on the other hand, are quite glad to welcome barristers from other lands without examination, or at any rate with hut slight examination. And as the removal of that reproach and that disability is largely uour own hands our duty is surely obvious. AVe need not hesitate to promote. legislation which has the hacking of this Commission’s report. •• Difficulties of a more substantial kind are encountered when we proceed to consider whether it is possible i improve the conditions in which the barrister in New Zealand carries on bis work. The tendency all over the world in every walk of lile- is towards specialisation. The qualities necessary for a good solicitor are essentially diilereut !rom those necessary for a success! ul barrister. It is but rarely that we find one man who excels both in the office and in Court. The arts of advocacy and of advising are quite sufficient for one man to master in his lifetime. On the other hand, a solicitor frequently is what usually tlie advocate is not. a man of business as much as a man of law. Our experience in New Zealand has been that usually the most successful barristers have been those who have most completely thrown off.the trammels of the solicitor’s office, and the not uncommon practice of so arranging partnerships that one partner shall attend to tlie conveyancing side and another to the Court side is founded upon an attempt to meet the difficulty. It is some admission of the need for specialisation even here. “ 1 desire to stress that it is in the public interest that tlie practice followed elsewhere of retaining two counse of experience in important cases should he followed here, and that the public should he educated accordingly. I' will no doubt lie said that ynder existing conditions there has arisen in No Zealand a not inconsiderable number of barristers who would have uist*,' guished themselves at the Bar in an\ country, and 1, of course, gladly con cede that this is true.”