Wellington District Law Society

Mr President (Wellington) David Murphy, Mr President (New Zealand) John Marshall, Your Honours and Your Honours and Your Honours,  Members of the Wellington District Law Society Past and Present Ladies and Gentlemen.

The numbers of you present (96 in a room designed for 92) I am reminded of the words of a new Judge at his first bar dinner in a provincial district:- "there is a comforting number of you present". Thank you first for your gracious invitation to my wife Susan and I and thank you for the generous way in which you have conveyed the toast.  I thought long as to whether there might be a suitable collective noun for such a splendid gathering but have failed.  And I do not need to fall into the trap of a fellow Indian addressing a meeting of school principals in New Delhi and searching for a collective noun referred to them as "a lakh of principals"

It occurred to me as Chris and David were speaking with exactitude and the new honorific was being exercised that I am still rather having to pinch myself in that new role with a certain honorific.

Two recent examples of honorifics encounter came to mind - one of a meeting I undertook as an Ombudsman in late 2004 with the Mayor of Darwin who luxuriated in the name of "The Right Worshipful, the Lord Mayor of Darwin, Alderman, Mr George Brown".  And his mayoral chain matched that of the Mayor of Invercargill in New Zealand - with three times round the block!

The second occurred about eight weeks ago when I was among those in attendance at the funeral of the late King Taufa ahau IV of Tonga.  There was after the funeral rites a dinner hosted by  the new King, His Majesty Sioaosi  V.  Present at the Dinner were a grouping of those from overseas - the Crown Prince of Japan, the Duke of Gloucester, several Governors General from Australia, New Zealand Solomons, Presidents from Vanuatu and Fiji, the Afioga from Samoa, the Prime Ministers of Tonga and New Zealand, the Chief Justice.  At about 8 35pm at a Dinner which had commenced at 6 00pm, the New Zealand Prime Minister who was seated one away from me if I could make a brief  "exit" speech because 150 people were boarding  the RNZAF Boeing aircraft in the expectation that we would leave at 9 00pm.  It was an unforgettable honorific moment - putting aside the rather undignified graunching sound I made as I moved back my chair on the floor - but I did get to begin my speech in a way that I do not think will ever happen again - "Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Right Honourable and Honourable Prime Ministers, Ministers, Your Honour, Ladies and Gentlemen" .  Your Majesty I have the task of thanking you for your hospitality etc etc.

The second thing that occurred to me was the hospitality of the profession which I have enjoyed helping provide as a Law Society member and enjoyed receiving as a Judge and Ombudsman.  It is a fine New Zealand tradition of the legal profession one which this Society undertakes in a way that is exemplary and one which I am happy to salute in this new role.  Long may it continue.

The third thing I reflected on in this part of Wellington which goes back to the origins of this Law Society and this city was how little time there has been involved in our history to date.  FE Maning, Author and Judge of the

Native Land Court

wrote his book "Old New Zealand" in 1863 and wrote under the mantle of a Pakeha Maori  and of what he called "the good old times before Governors were invented and law and justice and all that.  Where everyone did as he liked except when when his neighbours would not let him when there were not taxes or duties or public works or public to require them."  And this in a country where the New Zealand Law Reports of last year (2005) generated no fewer than three volumes.

Short though our history may be as a country, we can be pleased as a community with what the legal profession has always stood for.  It is I think a matter of regret that lawyers are so essential to almost every aspect of modern life both formal and informal and yet the recognition of that by the community and governments never seems to quite reflect that.  There is an uneasy tension between regulation and submission which goes hand in hand with the welfare state.

Despite all that, may I say that the profession and the Society is poised at the best time ever.  The new legislation will enable lawyers to get on with doing things because they wish to.  It will enable Law Societies to refocus their activities on what they can do best.  In all those endeavours I wish you all the best.

To end  because I belong to a school that says an after dinner speech should begin with the speaker being unsure of where he may go and should end soon after becoming unsure of where he has been.  May I offer a toast in return which is to the New Zealand public whom we all serve and in whose regard two brief items may stand mention: -

The first is recollection of the defendant acting for himself who began the day calling the Judge nothing but as the witnesses gave their evidence making a certain conclusion look more and more inevitable he changed to calling him "Your Worship'.  When given his options at the end of the prosecution case he said "Your Honour I will give evidence".  It was to no avail because the judgement which followed ended in conviction and before turning to sentence the Judge said "Is there anything you wish to say in mitigation" to which the Judge received the reply "Your Majesty has been very helpful". 

The second is a jury trial after the Springbok tour of 1981 in a trial that was conducted by Judge Ron Gilbert.  The defendant appeared for himself and cross-examined only briefly.  At  the end of the Crown Case he said he would give evidence and in a very brief opening said he would call only witness.  "Archbishop Desmond Tutu"  the doors opened in came His Grace.  His evidence in chief was about two minutes his cross examination by the Crown prosecutor not at all.  The Jury's verdict of not guilty took not much more than a decent tea break.  The New Zealand public with all their faults and criticism and complaints and foibles  they are worth it.  I hope sufficient of you agree in joining me in this toast to them.