1442 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



separate the professions was made, on the motion of Messrs. Wentworth and Wardell. 

 This was not effected, however, until 1829, when the barristers and attorneys then prac- 

 ticing were allowed to make choice of the branch they preferred to follow. The first 

 Supreme Court Jury dates from 1825. In 1827, arrived Mr. Justice Dowling, afterwards 

 second Chief Justice of New South Wales, and the next year the Supreme Court buildings 

 in King Street, Sydney, which had been commenced in 1820, were opened. In the same year, 

 " Emancipists," who had hitherto been excluded from the exercise of the jury-right, were for the 

 first time here admitted to that privilege, on the ruling of the Chief Justice, although their 

 absolute right thereto was not formally acknowledged by the Full Court until 1833. In 

 1837, Judge Forbes retired, having done a work in the colony second to that of no other 

 servant of the State and of the people. In all matters pertaining to jurisprudence the 

 colonists, as in politics, worked their way steadily, though not without difficulty, from the 

 earlier colonial regime to the condition enjoyed by their brethren in England. They 

 always had before them the English Constitution as a model to Avork to, and they 

 never rested until society in the colony was established on an English basis. 



The first Court was opened at Port Phillip in 1841. The first Supreme Court Judge in 

 South Australia was appointed in 1839, and the first Supreme Court of New Zealand opened 

 in 1842 ; and in 1844, Mr. Alfred Stephen was appointed to succeed Chief Justice 

 Dowling in New South Wales. Sir William a'Beckett, first Chief Justice of Victoria, 

 was appointed in 1851; Sir Valentine Fleming was nominated Chief Justice of Tasmania 

 in 1856; and in 1857, the first Supreme Court was opened in Brisbane, although the 

 first Chief Justice, Sir James Cockle, was not appointed until 1862, after the separation 

 of the two colonies. Sir Archibald Caul Burt became first Chief Justice of Western 

 Australia in 1861. The second holder of the office of Chief Justice of Victoria was Sir 

 William Foster Stawell, who was on his retirement succeeded by the present Chief 

 Justice, His Honor Mr. Justice Higinbotham. In New South Wales, Sir Alfred Stephen 

 retired from office in 1873, and was succeeded by Sir James Martin, on whose death, in 

 1886, the post being declined for the second time by the Right Honourable William 

 Bede Dalley, was conferred on Sir Frederick Matthew Darley. The present Chief 

 Justice of South Australia is His Honor Samuel James Way. In Tasmania, Sir 

 William Lambert Dobson holds that position ; in Queensland, Sir Charles Lilley ; in 

 New Zealand, Sir James Prendergast ; and in Western Australia, His Honor Alexander 

 Campbell Onslow. As soon as the local Bar was strong enough to furnish competent 

 judges, there naturally grew up an indisposition to the importation of lawyers to fill the 

 higher offices. For many years past none but local men have been appointed, except in 

 the Crown colonies of Western Australia and Fiji ; and the local Bars have proved quite 

 equal to the task of providing judges. Western Australia has lately been granted 

 Responsible Government, and henceforth the custom of the other colonies of Australasia 

 will doubtless be followed in this as in other matters. Political preferences have, in many 

 instances, influenced the appointments ; but, taken as a whole, the Bench of Australia 

 has commanded the respect and confidence of the people. The Judges have emulated the 

 seriousness, the dignity, and the impartiality that distinguish the English Bench. It is 

 almost unnecessary to say that, except in certain details, the law of the Australian colonies 

 is in substance identical with that of England, one of the more noticeable of the 



