497
A.—s
Sir WILLIAM ROBSON: That only binds the English Bar, that resolution does not bind the Colonial Bar, and it does not deal with the difficulty raised by Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I will put in the words " English or Colonial." Sir WILLIAM ROBSON : It is much better before one adopts a resolution which may conflict with so many professional interests that one should see it in some form in which it can be considered. As Mr. Deakin suggests, you cannot take pagaraph 2 and make it a resolution at this Conference without reference to the reciprocal obligations. I agree that if you take the spirit of this resolution and you make it applicable to all the Colonies one might then get some resolution which is capable of being accepted, but as it stands now it is unilateral. Sir JOSEPH WARD : What I am trying to bring about, and I know there is a strong opinion in our country with regard to it, is a position which would bring the Colonies* and the Old Country closer together and in the matter of the professions it is as important as in any other respect. If the conditions required by the Tnns of Court in England are fully complied with by a man who has passed through our Courts in our Colony and those responsible for the government of the Inns of Court on behalf of the profession in England are satisfied that he can pass an examination near to their own and it is for them to say finally whether that examination has been such that they can agree to if that be their imprimatur upon that professional man who comes to England, and we interchange by conferring the privilege upon Englishmen coming to our country, surely it is an advantageous thing for us to help one another. That is what Tarn asking for. I take the proposal made by the Tnns of Court themselves; I give way upon my own as it is considered too wide and is capable of an interpretation that is opposed by those who represent the Inns of Court, and in the aspect of it I take their own words, and I ask that that should be given effect to as evidence of the goodwill of the profession in England to their brethren of the same flesh and blood in a British country, New Zealand, or Canada, or Australia, as the case may be, I think one may hope for this being generously considered even by those who are anxious to conserve, and rightly so, the great interest of the profession in England. Ido not want to derogate from their status; Ido not want any one from our Colony who is inferior in any way to the best men who can pass the most severe examinations in England to come here, but if he passes with the approval of the representatives of the Inns of Corrrt an examination equal to what is required here, that would be a matter of reciprocity between the two countries. Sir WIT JJ AM ROBSON : Do you not think you had better draft a resolution which shall incorporate the reciprocity" As matter of draiurhtsmanshin it is scarcely quite convenient to adont this paragraph which relates only to what England is willing to do and not to incornorate in that what the Colony is to do. Sir JOSEPH WARD: Let us add at the end of this: "should be " favourably considered and provided that the same conditions as exist in " relation to admission to the Bar in the Colonies should anply to English "barristers or solicitors visiting those Colonies." Mr. F. R. MOOR : How does that apply to the Colonies ? Sir Wilfrid Laurier has pointed out the difficulty in their country, and we have it in ours too: T do not think there is reciprocity amongst ourselves over there yet.
Thirteenth Day. 8 May 1907.
Reciprocity as to Barristers.
64—A. 5.
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