CO885-(16-18) — Page 742

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

།། ། ‛「:། །

Reference :-

C.O.885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Thirteenth Day.

8 May 1997.

RECIPROCITY AS TO BARRISTERS AND SURVEYORS,

62

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON : I do not know whether Sir Joseph could tell us what are the qualifications in New Zealand for admission to the New Zealand Bar.

Şir JOSEPH WARD: I cannot tell you with complete accuracy, but I know that it involves a number of years being articled to a barrister and solicitor's office, and passing an examination before a Julge of the Supreme Court.

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: This is not merely a question of general reciprocity, but any advantage of this kind given to those who live, say in New Zealand, or Australia, or Canada, or anywhere else, might, if the qualification in New Zealand were not as severe as that in England, be made the means of securing admission to the English Bar by what one might call a Colonial avenue.

Sir JOSEPH WARD: Very well, make it a condition that the reciprocity should be contingent on their complying with the same conditions as exist for admission to the Bar in England.

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: The same conditions would not be quite as easily applied. We have very special and rather strict qualifications for admission to the Bar. Admission to the roll as solicitors is a different matter; there you have a five years' apprenticeship (I do not know whether in New Zealand the apprenticeship is so long), followed by a somewhat strict examination, and we have many men in England who would be very glad indeed to avail themselves of any avenue by which that strict condition could be evaded.

Sir JOSEPH WARD: I think it is five years in New Zealand.

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: Then with regard to the Bar, we have somewhat different qualifications, perhaps not apparently quite so severe as those which hedge round the profession of solicitors, but still we have qualifications of residence in England, which are generally accompanied, I think, although not necessarily part of the condition, by study in barrister's chambers. These qualifications I am afraid the English Bar would not be content to surrender. It is not an easy matter for us to maintain an even balance between barristers and solicitors with respect to qualifications but we have given special facilities to solicitors to procure admission to the Bar, and I am sure the English Inns of Court, who govern the Bar, would very favourably consider any proposal to give to solicitors from New Zealand or Canada, or the other Colonies, the same kind of special facilities as it already gives to solicitors here. They let in English solicitors upon slightly more favourable terms than they apply to one who is coming to the Bar merely as a student without having become a solicitor, and I have no doubt that the Inns of Court would favourably consider proposals to give that kind of facility to Colonial barristers; but I would urge the Conference not to adopt a resolution which it might be afterwards found difficult for us to give effect to, because we certainly would not be likely to force this upon the Inns of Court without carefully considering the views of those especially concerned. We should have to consider the views of the Inns of Court, and I am bound to say that I am not able to speak with authority as to their opinion, because I have taken no means of finding out what their opinion would be.

Mr. DEAKIN: They are expressed in the document before us.

63

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: I do not think the English Bar would be Thirteenth Day. willing to relax all the regulations and restrictions.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER: There are other difficulties in my country. The Bars, with us, are not under the jurisdiction of the Dominion Parliament. We have a Bar for each Province.

Mr. DEAKIN: Our position is the same as yours.

Sir WILFRID LAURIER: There is a Bar for the Province of Quebec and one for the Province of Ontario; and a man cannot be admitted from one Bar to the other except under very special circumstances. For instance, if a man becomes Attorney-General, he can be admitted from the Bar of one Province to that of the other, or if he has obtained some very high post; but I do not know more than two or three instances when a member of the Bar of one Province has been admitted to the other except by qualifying himself, and taking residence, and passing the examinations; so that we should not do it.

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: It would be very difficult for us to let in a New Zealand solicitor upon better terms than an English solicitor, and that is really what this resolution would amount to.

Sir JOSEPH WARD: The extraordinary thing about this matter, Lord Elgin, is, that from the New Zealand point of view we are regarding it from the very opposite standpoint. I quite concede at once that the profession are naturally jealous of their rights in England, and unless the terms of admission were the same, it would be proper to exclude anybody from getting in either as a barrister or solicitor in England; but this is urged from the very opposite standpoint. Of my own knowledge, I am not aware of many from our Colony trying to get admission to the Bar; but I understand that English solicitors have often come out and tried to get admission to the Bar in New Zealand.

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: I am sure it would be a great relief to English solicitors going out to New Zealand, but one is looking at it from the point of view of the English Bar, and, I am afraid, from their point of view-I do not speak from any personal feeling of my own-the proposal would be resisted. As it is, it is not altogether easy to procure special treatment for the admission of solicitors. That we have done, and that, I believe, the Bar would be willing to extend to the case of New Zealand or for Colonial barristers or solicitors, but I do not think we could induce the English Bar to go further in respect to Colonies than they go with respect to Englishmen.

Sir JOSEPH WARD: I will qualify my resolution by taking the suggestion made by the sub-treasurer, who writes on behalf of the British Law Society, I suppose.

"

$6

Mr. DEAKIN: The four Inns of Court.

Sir JOSEPH WARD: I will move as a preface to my resolution, "That provided it is satisfactorily established that the qualifications as a barrister in any Colony are equivalent to those in this country, any proposal for facilitating the call to the English Bar of Barristers in any Colony or Dependency upon terms analogous to those upon which English solicitors

8 May 1907.

RECIPROCITY AS TO BARRISTERS AND SURVEYORS.