THE NEW MAGISTRATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 May 1921, Page 5

THE NEW MAGISTRATE.

WELCOMED BY STRATFORD BAR. APPRECIATION OF MR. BAILEY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Stratford, May 20. Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, the new Magistrate for the Taranaki district, presided for the first time at the Stratford Magistrate’s Court to-day. There was a full muster of the local Bar present, and Mr. T. C. Fookes, on their behalf, extended a welcome to Mr. Orr Walker. Mr. Fookes said he desired first to refer to the departure of Mr. T. A. B. Bailey? S.M. Unfortunately, members of the Stratford Bar had not had any opportunity of testifying publicly to their appreciation of Mr. Bailey, but Mr. Baiey had called personally on most of the members, and Rad bidden them adieu. He (Mr. Fookes) thought, however, that some public recognition should be made of the Bar’s appreciation of Mr. Bailey’s uniform courtesy and his capable discharge of his duties. The Bar also desired to extend a welcome to Mr. Orr Walker, who was not a stranger to them, a-s they had met him when he sat on the Military Service Board at Hawera during the strenuous days of the war. Mr. Walker had capably discharged his duties on that board, and the members of the local Bar, when they heard he had been appointed, knew they would welcome an old friend.

Mr. On- Walker expressed his thanks for the hearty welcome extended to him. The remarks of Mr. Fookes should be highly pleasing to Mr. Bailey, and he (Mr. Walker) hoped that when the time came for him to leave the district he would be thought as highly of as they thought of Mr. Bailey. The Bar, right throughout the district, was a most excellent one, and this was a great help to a Magistrate. He was well-known in Taranaki, perhaps not favorably by some of those who came before the Military Service Board, and he was glad to have Mr. Fookes’ assurance that his efforts on the board had been appreciated by the right-thinking section of the community.