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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]

Law Courts

Law Courts.

The Law Courts, Dunedin . This handsome and conspicuous pile of buildings is most conveniently situated in a central position, and also somewhat removed from the streets of busy traffic. The Dunedin Gaol and the Police Station adjoin the Law Courts. These buildings occupy the whole of the triangular block bounded by Stuart, Castle, and Police Streets. The Law Courts stand on a corner site, and have a large entrance from Castle Street, and two entrances from Stuart Street. The ground floor accommodates the Supreme Court, Magistrate's Court, and Police Court, and contains the Judge's chambers, Supreme Court offices, Magisterial offices, Crown Solicitor's office, and witnesses' waiting rooms; also the public office of the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court, office of the Registrar, Deputy-Registrar, Clerk of Awards, the Patent Office, and the office of the Official Assignee. The handsomely furnished Law Library is upstairs, and so also are the offices of the Government Inspectors of Machinery. For general convenience the Law Courts of Dunedin are unrivalled in New Zealand.

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 head-mastership of the late Dr. Vaughan, and where he had for his tutor Mr. Westcott, afterwards 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 given 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 1861 He studied conveyancing under his father and was a pupil in equity of Mr. (now Lord) Hobhouse. Heleft England in 1861, in search of health. by the ship “Derwentwater,” which brought many immigrants for Otago. As the captain feared the 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.
The Law Courts, Dunedin.Armstrong, photo.

The Law Courts, Dunedin.Armstrong, photo.

page 235 Duncan, provincial solicitor. This partnership continued till 1884, when Mr. Williams visited England; he resumed the practice of his profession in Christchurch on his own
His Honour Mr. Justice Williams.

His Honour Mr. Justice Williams.

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 superintendency 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, 1875. Mr. Justice Williams 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 has for many years been chancellor of the University of Otago. He has been married twice; first in 1864 to Caroline Helen, daughter of the late Mr. T. Sanctuary, of Horsham, Sussex, who died in 1875; and in 1877, to a daughter of Mr. J. W. Jago, of the “Evening Star” newspaper, Dunedin, find has a surviving family of six children.

Mr. George Alfred King , Registrar of the Supreme Court, and Sheriff, and Mr. Arthur Stubbs, Deputy-Registrar and Deputy-Sheriff, Agent for the Patent Office, and Clerk of Awards under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, were appointed to the above-named offices in 1890 and 1901 respectively.

Mr. Henry Samuel Chapman , better known as Judge Chapman, was born in Kennington, 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 newspaper. In 1834, Mr. Chapman was sent to 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. He continued to reside in England, and spent many years as a writer on political and social subjects, being associated with such men as Mill, 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 Encyclopædia 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
The Late Mr. Justice Chapman.

The Late Mr. Justice Chapman.

after a six months' passage to Auckland, was sworn in on the 24th of December, 1843. He was stationed at Wellington, but had to visit Taranaki, Nelson, and occasionally Auckland on circuit. In March, 1852, he resigned his judgeship, and went to Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen's Land, as Colonial Secretary; but owing to difficulties 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 Melbourne University, and for about eighteen months was a judge of the Supreme Court, during Mr. Justice Barry's leave of absence. In 1864 he was re-appointed to the New Zealand bench, and continued to perform the duties of his high office in Otago till 1875, when he 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. Judge Chapman married a second time, and at his death on the 27th of December, 1881, left four sons, two of whom are settled in Victoria. The other two, Mr. M. Chapman, of Wellington, and Mr. F. R. Chapman, of Dunedin, became well known as members of the New Zealand bar. Mr. F. R. Chapman was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court in September, 1903.