 | The Streets of my city, Wellington New Zealand, by F. L. Irvine-Smith. (1948).
Part Two : Chapter Twelve |
| Contents: a letter | Part One chapters: 1 | 2 | Part Two chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 Part Three chapters: Intro | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Appendix | |
Professor R. C. Maclaurin.
WELLINGTON, as capital, being the legislative, executive and judicial head of the Dominion, is naturally the centre of the country's legal activity and interests. To Wellington therefore have gravitated at all times many of the keenest members of the bar; its University College makes a specialty of law, and not a few of its citizens, who have never contemplated entering into practice, have nevertheless qualified along legal lines. Law is in the air.
The city has consequently a fine array of legal street names, but as lawyers, from the very nature of their calling, are mostly useful members of the community at large, such streets have already found their way into classes previously investigated.
To sum up briefly, the earliest legal light of the settlement, G. S. Evans, D.C.L., who is commemorated in the name of Evans Bay, is also remembered in a minor street in Thorndon, George Street. Three chief justices of the Dominion are recorded in Arney Street, after Sir George Arney, Stout Street, after Sir Robert Stout, and Hanson Street, after Sir Richard Hanson, who commenced colonial practice in Wellington in 1840 and ended his career as Chief Justice of South Australia.
Further legal names appear in Halswell Street, after E. S. Halswell, judge of the county court from 1842 to 1845, Hosking Lane, after Sir John Hosking, Judge of the Supreme Court from 1914 to 1925 and Buckley Road, after Sir Patrick Buckley, appointed to the bench a year before his death in 1896.
Whittaker Street (misspelt for Whitaker) recalls a former Premier and Attorney-General for the Colony, Sir Frederick Whitaker, who reached New Zealand in 1840, and Cooper Street, a well-known legal family long resident in Karori. Bell Road and Izard Road commemorate two members of an erstwhile legal firm of high repute, "Bell, Gully and Izard," in the persons of Sir Francis Dillon Bell, long leader of the New Zealand Bar, and his cultured partner, Charles Izard. Brandon Street, Bunny Street and Borlase Street help to keep alive the memory of three prominent legal members of the Provincial Council who served their city well.
Among magistrates, Murphy Street commemorates Michael Murphy, who was appointed police magistrate at Port Nicholson in 1841, but left the Colony in 1842; St. Hill Street, Henry St. Hill who was sent to New Zealand in 1840 and remained as magistrate until his retirement to England in 1864, while Coutts Street, Crawford Road and Crawford Green serve to recall Wellington's earliest settler (q.v.) who was Resident Magistrate from 1867 to 1882. No member of the Wellington bar deserves greater recognition for city service that the late W. T. L. Travers, a lawyer of wide and varied culture, who gives the name to Travers Street, while Hiropi Street worthily recalls Mr. T. W. Hislop, a former barrister, mayor and member of the Legislative Council. Nor must we omit Mr. John Wade, remembered in Wade Street and Wadestown who played many roles in the city's earliest days, and ended his career as a successful advocate in San Francisco. Part Two : Chapter Thirteen : Little Ways o' Thorndon