WILSON GRAY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 350, 19 November 1875, Page 3

WILSON GRAY.

The judgments on questions of Mining Law delivered by the late, Wilson Gray, as District Judge .of the Obago, Gol dfiel attaches 'to' theVd'eeisi ins or inferior Courts. When he began to exercise jurisdiction on the Goldfields, the law relating to goldininiug a terra ineognila in this coimtry. No case had come before the Supreme Court on mining questions : consequently there were no judicial interpretations of the Groldfielda Acts, and ihe regulations made under them. The Act of 18(J6.which represents the greater' part of the .statute law on the subject, required interpretation at every clause, for no Act could be more clums-lyidrafted, or cause greacer perplexity to the offimls charged with its administration. But the questions which came before • Mr. Gray were alinost.invariably, enveloped, in the mist of technicalities more bewildering than those of the law courts —the practical technicalities of the miner. To decide these questions satisfactorily required something more than the judicial acumen usually displayed on the Bench. But through-' out his tenure of office—a period of ten years—the judgments delivered by Mr. Gray commanded the confidence of litigants on the Goldfields' to an unusual degree. His patient investigation of facts was not less admired than the clearness and force of his reasoning, or' the peculiarly happy maimer of his-expressioti. Those who knew hint personally will recognise liis style o! thought and language in'the judgmerits we now-publish", which were ail writtaa by him. "We may refer to the judgment in the case of Fraud v. Holt, as an illustration, certainly not the best; that could be given, of the easy art with which—like a painter in water colors —he sketched the laudscap'e oi' he case before him. The long pla nwith .its. fear!'til capacity fur.,absorbing water —the narrow valley with its thirsty farms —the rocky gorge arid "the race threading its way through it—are all brought before lis with a color au'd truthfulness we do not expect to tinil i:.i judicial utterances. Mr. Gray was a natural master of' languageand -possessing a rich fancy arid <ixubera,il humor, it was not possible that he should fall to the level,' in point ol' style,' of an oktinary '" judgment "of the Court."—''New Zealand Jurist.'