READING THE LAW.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9541, 13 July 1909, Page 3

READING THE LAW.

TROUBLES OF A LAW STUDENT. A HARD AND UPHILL ROAD. When Adolphus is a young boy just out of the frock stage, he displays a remarkable "gift of the gab," and his fond and delightful parents assure themselves that he is nothing less than a progidy, and that nothing else than the Church or tha lawtwo highly divergent professions—will suit him. As the law is the better from a pecuniary point of view, that is to be his future calling. He is sent along to school, and after some years of play, he is at the age of, say, fifteen, carefully coached for the matriculation and solicitors' general knowledge examination. This examination is full of pitfalls for the unhappy neophyte, and he frequently comes to grief at the first attempt, but if he is-gifted with ordinary brains and pluck, he scrapes through the second time. Then, if he has reached his eighteenth year, he enters himself upon the roll of one of the affiliated colleges of the University of New Zealand, and now *he real work commences; the goal in sight being the coveted LL. B. (Bachelor of Laws) degree. After two years of general college work, the aspiring limb of the law sits fur his first university examination, the first section of his degree. If he is successful in passing this he enters upon his second section, which includes such subjects as Roman and international law. It is now that he looks for practical experience, and the necessary negotiations having been arranged, he becomes articled to a practitioner. After passing his second section the aspiring lawyer then enters upon the real business of liis studies, the third section, which generally takes two years to get through, comprising strictly subjects dealing with the laws of the country, and it is a pretty solid mass to wade through too, besides having to deal with the pet idiocracies of examiners. During his last course he has to cram ir.to hia head something like 5,000 pages of text books dealing with Contracts. Real Property, Personal Property, Torts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Procedure and Equity, besides having to read up statutes innumerable and case law by the yard. Many a student gets through his first two sections easily i enough, but badly comes to grief I when tackling the third and most I difficult one. The trouble is that one may have everything crammed into one's head, and then be met with questions on the examination paper that even a judge of the Supreme Court might not be able to answer off-hand. However, if the candidate has a fair share of luck, and thoroughly knows what he is writing about, he gets through, and the LL.B. degree is in sight. He applies for admission to the Supreme Court, and if he has reached bis majority, and there be nothing detrimental to his character, after paying £26 5s admission fees and £5 5s practising fees, he is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Then, when his college diploma day comes round, the proud and happy recipient has his degree conferred upon him to the i chorus of his fellow-students' good | natured remark?, fl? is fen P. • graduate of the University uf New | Zealand; receiving many privileges j and rights which theunder-"grads." fdo not enjoy. This is,one way, and 1 generally the hardest, of qualifying as a barrister r.nd solicitor, but there are others which are sped liy adaptable for those who have neither the time nor the' money for attending a long college course. One of these is sitting for the third section only, and qualifying as a solicitor. And then, if the applicant has practised as a solicitor for five years, or acted as managing clerk to another lawyer for that period, he can be admitted as a barrister without further exair ination. This is the course most often adopted. For many years now there has been a large section of the legal fraternity who have opposed this way of obtaining "silk," on the grounj that it 13 letting too many into the profession, and is furthermore lowering the profession's status; but it is very doubtful if this democratic country would ever allow the statute governing such to be repealed, more especially when it is the means of allowing a poor man to get into the profession. The third and last way of becoming a barrister is, as iu the last case, to pass the solicitors' examinations, and then to sit for the barristers' general knowledge examination; a very stiff ordeal. This course, however, is followed by few. It follows from the above remarks that passing a legal examination is no child's play. The law student must give up many of the pleasures of life; play must give way to hard, solid work. The college terms, of which there are two each year, commence early in March, and from then till November, when the examination, is held, the student has set himself a very stiff task. After that, for some four months or so, he has the delightful privilege of never glancing at the musty pages of a text book, and of enjoying life as thoroughly as he can, and to only those who have missed it for a space is known the sweet pleasure of enjoying life. During the first term the student takes things fairly easily; misses a few of his lectures, and does an average of about three hours reading at night; the period of "cram" has not arrived yet. He also finds time to attend to a few of the social duties of life. But after the winter vacation the real work begins, and then it is a case of cram, cram and cram, until one's head feels fit to burst, and one i can cram no more. Big and weighty books are read and read, and then diagnosed by weary lecturers and students, statutes are worked off by the dozen, and case law i 3 ground i into fragments. The wonder is where is it all stowed. Then the last month arrives, and the student is lust to the world. He retires from all, into the oblivion of seclusion, and while others follow life's pleasures he pursues the weary way of acquiring knowledge which will soon unhappily be lost. The sky looks to blue outside, and the grass is so green, but with a sigh he turns away his eyes to force them on the musty pages of a Chitty Wililams, the whole to be forgotten very short space of time. Then the opening day of the examination arrives, and the student betakes himself to his own little table,

and the myatery of mysteries, that I for which he has been working and I slaving the whole of the year, lies before his gaze. Whether he will master it depends not only upon the candidate, but upon the examiner.