JUDGE CHAPMAN’S FAREWELL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4383, 7 April 1875, Page 3

JUDGE CHAPMAN’S FAREWELL.

(From the Dunedin Star, March 31.) It being known that his Honor Judge Chapman, having forwarded his resignation to the Governor, would retire from the bench after the proceedings in banco of this day were disposed of, nearly all the members of the Supreme Court, barristers, and attorneys, resident in Dunedin were present. Mr. G. Cook rose, and addressing his Honor, said :—“ Sir, —This being the day appointed for your Honor’s final retirement from the bench, and as no fresh business can therefore be conveniently entered upon, it may be considered that your Honor’s judicial career has now ended. As this is so, I have to ask your Honor’s permission to say for myself, and for my brethren of the Bar, who have selected me as their spokesman for this occasion, a few parting words expressive of our esteem for your Honor, and of our regret at your departure from among us as a body of legal practitioners. Sir, if some of those of my brethren who have been engaged in the more exciting litigation that has at times occupied tho attention of this Court have ever hastily said or done anything that has caused your Honor the slightest pain, I am sure they wish that what they so said or did were unsaid or undone, because I believe they now heartily join the rest of us in this tribute of respect to your Honor. Sir, it is now just eleven years since your Honor became a Judge of the Supreme Court of this, colony for the second time and took your seat on the bench for this district. During the greater part of this your tenure of office, your Honor has been unaided in your judicial duties by any other Judge. The business of the court has always been considerable, and, at times, heavy, both in character and quantity ; but your Honor’s industry, added to considerable powers of endurance, has always enabled your Honor to get through the work with comparative ease. “ Sir, we are, and cannot but be sensible of your courtesy to ns on all occasions, of the great patience with which you have always listened to our arguments, and of your efforts always to endeavor to grasp the true points of every case brought before you for adjudication. Sir, for all this we thank you, not only for ourselves, but on behalf of those whose interests have from time to time been committed to our care. We , feel, and tho public must feel, that your retirement will deprive the community of an experienced and able Judge, and that the loss will be theirs, whatever may be the merits of your Honor’s successor. “Sir, you carry with you into your seclusion our best wishes for your future happiness, both individually and in your domestic relations. May you bo long spared the use of all your faculties entire, to enable you to enjoy that repose you have earned so well, and to follow those pursuits that arc congenial to your tastes —pursuits that tend, when properly followed, to elevate and adorn the mind, and to lead those who follow them hopefully on to the time when addresses Buch as these arc futile and useless.

“Sir, with these few valedictory words, permit us now to bid Jyou, in your judicial capacity, a respectful and final farewell.” His Honor, after listening to this address, rose to reply, hut spoke with much difficulty through the emotion with which he was affected. He said: —“Mr. Cook and gentlemen of the Bar —I beg you will accept my very cordial thanks for the kind expressions which have fallen from Mr. Cook, which I know echo the feelings of the Bar. T have had a long tenure of office in this colony, extending over nineteen years, with the exception of a short period. Eleven years have been passed in this district, with the exception of a short time when I was absent. During such a period it is almost impossible that a number of men could meet in contests, involving perhaps a good deal of human passion and argumentative annoyances, without expressions falling from them that should not have been used. I do not at all forget that a Judge is subject to similar infirmity, and that occasionally expressions may have fallen from my lips which, though not intending it, may have caused some pain to the minds of some. These inadvertences are much too well known and understood to last long in the minds of counsel. A man must, indeed, be of very weak mind if he supposes he can pass through the world and not take those little expressions as mere words which should be forgotten as soon as felt. Generally, I may say, during the whole of the nineteen years I have-sat on the bench, my relations with the Bar have been of a satisfactory and even friendly nature, and therefore it is that I feel this retirement from the office I hold inexpressibly. Some philosopher, I think it was Dr. Johnson, said, “we never do anything for the last time without regret. Even a prisoner who leaves his prison looks back with regret on something that has occurred—some kindness, perhaps, that he lias experienced there which has mitigated his sufferings. I, too, regret that this is the last time I shall sit as Judge in this court. Sitting as I have done in the exercise of a profession of which I have always been fond and proud, which has led me into studies congenial to my own feelings and tastes—studies not only pertaining to the technicalities of my profession, but which were necessary to the clear conception of the cases which came before me—the work I have had to do, although sometimes a little pressing, has on the whole been only such as to keep the mind alive and in healthy action. It has not been so oppressive as probably it may some time be when the colony has doubled its present population. Perhaps one or two words as to ray experience in the colony will not be quite out of place, in connection with the office I have so long held. I came to New Zealand in 1843. At that time there were only 11,000 Europeans in the country. There was no production for trade in the colony. The .only article of export was whale oil. We in Wellington did not know anything of the Middle Island. The West Coast was totally unknown, although now proving a mine of wealth. We knew of this part of the country only that there was a Port Cooper, and that a gentleman lived in this neighborhood legally known as John Jones, Esq., of Waikouaiti. We u*ere totally ignorant of the whole of this island and of its resources. Now we have in New Zealand a population of 300,000. That fact explains the variety of operations which have created the laws which we have for the last eleven years been engaged in dispensing to the best of our ability. One testimony to the prosperity of this colony is to see the number of wigs and gowns I now see before me. My earnest wish is, that in your profession, and in your domestic privacy, you may have health, happiness, and prosperity. Although it is the last time I shall sit on the bench, I hope it is by no means the last time I. shall have the pleasure of seeing you, though not as Judge but as Mr. Chapman.” His Honor then retired.