SIR CHARLES SKERRETT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 483, 12 October 1928, Page 8

SIR CHARLES SKERRETT

THERE will be general sympathy for Sir Charles Skerrett, the * Chief Justice, whose courageous recovery from the sacrifice of one leg has been immediately followed by the loss of the other. It is a tragic business for a man of brilliant intellectual capacity, and tragic, too, for the New Zealand Bench, which is much the poorer by his absence. The death of the late Sir ‘William Sim, and the prolonged illness of Sir Charles, have removed two very brilliant members of the New Zealand judiciary. The more poignant aspect is the suffering Sir Charles Skerrett has undergone. He has borne it with fortitude. The qualities exhibited throughout his career, in which his personal force, persistence and ability lifted him to heights rarely attained by those not favoured at the start with the support of wealth or influence, were apparent again in the sick man’s gallant rally from his grave illness early this year. He lost a leg, a stroke which would have shattered many younger men; but within a few weeks he was out again, hobbling unaided along the Terrace in Wellington, and striving to accommodate himself to new conditions that he might resume his place in public life. Prom all who were in touch with his efforts he won admiration and sympathy. It is only a few months since, as principal of the Royal Commission on Samoa, Sir Charles presented a report which has commanded the endorsement of the highest authorities of the League of Nations, and the hope that a full recovery will permit him to accomplish more work of the same distinguished character will he warm among his countrymen.