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494

Sir WILLIAM ROBSON : I do not think the English Bar would be 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, 1 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. Mr. DEAKIN : The four Inns of Court. Sir JOSEPH WARD : 1 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

Thirteenth Day. S May 19(17.

RicrpHjOcrrY as To Barristers.