KING'S COUNSEL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8461, 11 June 1907, Page 6

KING'S COUNSEL.

ADMINISTERING THE£OATH. Half-a-dozen ladies were in the gallery at the Wellington Supreme Court, yesterday morning, says the Post. They gazed down into the body of the building upon a gathering of barristers resplendent in wig and gown. Every available seat and standing place was occupied by legal practitioners and friends interested in the ceremony of administering the oath to the Attorney-General (the Hon. Dr. Findlay), Mr Martin Chapman and Mr H. F. D. Bell, who are among the ten gentlemen recently appointed King's Counsel. The three honoured ones took their places at the front. The Attorney-General in virtue of his office,, had the middle position, and he had Mr Chapman on his right, and Mr Bell on his left. In that" order each repeated the oath after the Registrar (Mr D. G. A. Cooper). Addressing the trio subsequently, Mr Justice Cooper said that hitherto there had been no King's Counsel in New Zealand, and consequently there had been no Inner Bar, technically speaking, in this court up to the present. The Bar in New Zealand had been distinguished for a great number of years for the learning, ability, and the high sense of honour which was one of the traditions of the English Bar. This occasion was one to be fairly termed historic. The conferring of the rank of King's Counsel on the leaders of the Bar in this country was a recognition of the ability, learning and degree of busi ness to which they had attained. It would be of great utility to the Junior Bar. The disadvantages of the K.C. honour—if he might so term them—were that the holder could not plead in the lower court except under a considerable fee, and in the upper courts they must have a junior with them. The prospect of this rank would stimulate the junior members to look foward to what was, after ail, the blue riband of the profession. In congratulating the gentlemen before him, the speaker said that they were three of the most distinguished leaders of the profession and he retr.-tted that Mr Skerrett, who was also held in the highest respect,' was not present in Wellington f to take the oath here.' He believed 'that throughout the colony the appointments would be received with satisfaction bj members of the Bar, by solicitors, and by the general public. The judiciary, he' were dependent to a very extent upon the learning, ability, and sense of honour of members of the Bar in these courts. All were associated with the one desire 'to administer justice truly and impartially in the King's courts. This occasion, which brought the New Zealand Bar on a level with the English Bar, marked the attainment of a status for which this country had been waiting for many years. Mr Justice Button said that he could fully endorse the statements of his brother judge. Dr. Findlay, speaking for himself and his colleagues, briefly returned thanks for the honour conferred on them.