The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1907. THE LAW AND THE LAWYERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3747, 5 February 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1907. THE LAW AND THE LAWYERS.

Lawyers, like birds in their little nests, do not always agree. It is rather amusing at the present moment to observe the state of the legal mind in our so beautiful country. Up to now a solicitor has merely had to go on being a solicitor for five years to blossom forth as a barrister. A chemist does not become a surgeon by the process of mixing pills for five years, nor does a man become a farmer by turning the handle of a chaffcutter for half a decade. So the Chancellor of the N.Z. Universitj7 has frozen on to the person who dares to become a barrister by just living, and there is a prospect that in the future the barrister will have to pass all the examinations 1 therein made and provided ’ in order to wear a wig. It has not occurred to the Chancellor or to the gentleman who suggested the reform that the most brilliant pleader is generally the man who has merely scraped through his exams., or that the finest barristers now in New Zealand have never their examina*|f\at ah. They must cram. must cram except and M.-’slt;Cv, who are

not required to know anything except how to guide everybody else’s actions. It was conceded that the late Mr Seddon was the must profound lawyer in New Zealand. He had never in his life passed an examination higher than an elementary school ‘standard’ exam, We of course do not dispute that a barrister should be a very learned person and we don’t believe that a solicitor should become a barrister merely by lapse of time, but we do say that examination as conducted in these days never yet made a good barrister. There are Labour advocates in New Zealand at the moment who are extremely able (if a nuisance) and there is a notorious criminal now serving his twelfth sentence who, for impassioned oratory, knowledge of law, and method of stating a case, has no superior in the ranks of the wigs. The point is that specialists are born not made. Girls become barristers by examination but not in practice. Examination gave them their license, but not necessarily any ability. Examination success means success of memory. It does not necessarily mean originality, individuality, or any such thing. Tha House of Representatives is strewn thick with lawyers, yet it is thought necessary to appoint a Professor of Law to cast his eye over Bills that the lawyers in the House are apparently incapable of amending according to the canons of common sense. Law is a very involved article in New Zealand and it takes a host of lawyers to handle this article. Lawyers grow on every bush so to. speak, and the curious fact is that a lawyer may be both solicitor and barrister at the same time. The ‘ amalgam ’is not a good one. In a country where labour is so much protected no man should be allowed two professions. If an amalgamated carpenter-bricklayer showed up he would be hissed out of both businesses. A solicitor is not necessarily a good barrister, nor is a barrister necessarily qualified to be a solicitor. The professions should be as distinct as are the callings ot a clergyman and a rouseabout. The present system is an invitation to mediocrities — and they accept the invitation.