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LEGAL.His Honour Mr. JOSHUA STRANGE WILLIAMS
His Honour Mr. JOSHUA STRANGE WILLIAMS, M.A., LL.M., Judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, is the eldest son of the late Mr. Joshua Williams, Q.C., who was author of well-known standard works on real and personal property. Judge Williams was born in 1837 in London, and was educated at Harrow during the bead-mastership of the late Dr. Vaughau, and where he bad for his tutor Mr. Westcott, now bishop of Durham. Continuing his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was second in the first class in the law tripos of 1858, and a junior optime in the mathematical tripos of the following year, gaining also the gold medal by the Chancellor of the University, the late Prince Consort, for legal studies. Mr. Williams took his degrees M.A. and LL.M. and was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in the Michaelmas term of 1859. He studied conveyancing under his father and was a pupil in equity of Mr. (now Lord) Hobhouse. He left England in 1861, in search of health, per ship “Derwentwater,” which vessel brought many immigrants for Otago. As the captain feared his crew would desert owing to the gold “rush,” the ship lay outside the heads to disembark her passengers, and went on to Lyttelton. After a short visit to Dunedin at this early period of its history, when the sensation of the hour was the issue of the first numbers of the “Otago Daily Times,” Mr. Williams proceeded to Canterbury in December of the same year. Early in 1862, he was admitted barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and commenced practice with Mr. Duncan, provincial solicitor. This partnership continued till 1864, when Mr. Williams visited England; he resumed the practice of his profession in Christchurch on his own account after his return to the Colony at the end of the same year. He took a prominent part in the provincial government of Canterbury, being elected for Heathcote district in October, 1862, and again in 1866. He held office as provincial solicitor and was a member of the executive till his resignation about the end of 1863, and subsequently during Mr. Moorhouse’s superintendence’ of 1866-71. Mr. Williams became district land registrar at Christchurch in February 1871 under the Land Transfer Act of 1870, and also registrar-general of land in 1872. He was appointed a judge of the supreme court in March 1873. Mr. Justice Williams has held office as president of the arbitration court from 1895 until his resignation on obtaining leave of absence to visit England, in March, 1898. His honour has taken a lively interest in educational matters in Canterbury and Otago; he was the first chairman of the board of governors of Canterbury College, and at the time of writing is chancellor of Otago University College. He has been married twice; first in 1864 to Caroline Helen, daughter of the late Mr. T. Sanctuary of Horsham, Sussex, and who died in 1875: and in 1877, to a daughter of Mr. J. W. Jago, of the “Evening Star” newspaper, Dunedin, and has a family of eight children living.
Mr. HENRY SAMUEL CHAPMAN, better known as Judge Chapman, was born in Kensington, Surrey, England, in 1803, and commenced his career in Esdaile’s Bank. His father held an important position in the civil service. As a youth, he was sent to Holland to represent the interests of a mercantile house, for whom in 1823 he also went to Quebec, where at twenty-one he became a merchant. After many years, during which he drifted into journalism and politics, he gave up business and settled in Montreal in 1833. Subsequently, he visited England and returned with a complete printing plant, establishing the “Daily Advertiser,” the first daily paper in British North America. His partner, Mr. Samuel Revans, was afterwards well known in Wellington as the founder of its first news paper. In 1834, Mr. Chapman was seat lo England commissioned by the Liberal majority in the Assembly (not then in session) to confer with the leaders of the Liberal party, and represent the grievances of the Colonists. Continuing in England, lie spent many years as a writer on political and social subjects, being associated with such men as Mills, Cobden, Parkes, and others. He contributed to most of the leading periodicals of the time and was the author of several important articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Mr. Chapman was married in 1840 to Miss Catherine Brewer, a daughter of a barrister, and the same year was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple. Commencing practice, he had some success till 1843 when he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand; and after a six months’ passage to Auckland, was sworn in on December 24th, 1843. He was located in Wellington, having to visit Taranaki, Nelson, and occasionally Auckland on circuit. Resigning the judgeship in March 1852, Mr. Chapman went” to Tasmania, then known as Van Dieman’s Land, as Colonial Secretary; but owing to difliculties with the Governor, he left in 1854 and settled in Melbourne. There he practised his profession and was twice attorney-general of Victoria. As a private member of the legislative council (before the introduction of the Constitution), he drew the ballot clauses for Mr. Nicholson, when that gentleman had carried a motion in favour of the ballot. Mr. Chapman was thus the inventor of the “mechanical” device known as the Australian Ballot, the leading principle of which is to encourage the voter to act on his instinct, and strike out the names of those to whom he is opposed rather than to actively express his preference for those whom he supports. This system now prevails in most of the Colonies, and has been widely adopted in the United States. Mr. Chapman held for several years the position of law lecturer to the university, and for about eighteen months was a judge of the Supreme Court, during Mr. Justice Barry’s leave of absence. Re-appointed in 1864 to the New Zealand bench, his honour continued to perform the duties of his high office in Otago till 1875, when lie retired on a pension. He was greatly interested in the Otago University, of which he was for some time chancellor. Mrs. Chapman, together with her eldest and youngest sons, and her only daughter, was lost in the s.s. “London” in 1866, and Mr. Chapman was married a second time, and on his death, December 27th, 1881, left four sons, two of them Messrs. M. Chapman of Wellington, and F. K. Chapman of Dunedin, being well-known members of the New Zealand Bar. The other sons are Settled in Victoria. Mr. GEORGE ALFRED KING, Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court, Agent for the Patent Office, and Clerk of Awards under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, was appointed to the above-named offices in 1890.
Mr. WILLIAM SCALE, Chief Bailiff of the Stipendiary Magistrate’s Court, was born in 1843 at Pembroke, South Wales, where he was educated at the Collegiate School, Pembroke Dock, entering the Royal Artillery at the Woolwich riding school in 1858 where he continued till August, 1863, when he was attached to the F Battery of the C Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, then stationed at Lucknow in the North West provinces of India. Mr. Scale served in India till December, 1869, when He left the service on his return to England. He subsequently engaged in business as a wine, spirit and coal merchant. In 1874, he lauded in Queensland, and joined the mounted police in Brisbane as drill instructor to the force. In December of the following year, he arrived in Wellington, and joining the Police Force, was appointed to a new station at Castle Point, and was subsequently stationed at Masterton. becoming bailiff of the Magistrate’s court for Wairarapa in 1879. After being transferred to Oamaru, and afterwards back to Masterton, he was appointed in 1896 to the position he now holds. Mr. Scale was married in May 1873 to a daughter of the late Colonel C. F. Holmes, of the Imperial army, who was at St. Helena during the Emperor Napoleon’s exile there, and served twenty-six years in India. Mr. Scale’s only son is correspondence clerk at the Wellington Meat Export Company’s head office. |
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