Bible Christian Magazine Samuel James Way

Chief Justice Way

In the year 1850 there sailed for South Australia a minister named James Way, to whom was committed the task of opening a mission there, in connection with the branch of Methodism known as Bible Christian. It might have been said of this pioneer missionary, as truly as of Abraham, that "he went out, not knowing whither he went." His only prospects, on the human side, were toil and privation. Anxiety and hardship were certain, both for himself and his brave wife, with a stern struggle probably to bring up their young family. Little did he imagine, as he went on board, that within less than twenty six years his eldest son, then a lad of fourteen, who was left behind for the time at an English school, would be Chief Justice

of the colony to which the rude sailing vessel of those days was about to carry him.

Two years later Samuel James Way followed his father to Adelaide. Having entered a lawyer's office, he was admitted to the Bar in 1861. He came rapidly to the front in the courts, his chief rival being, curiously enough, a son of the first Congregational minister who landed in the colony. He was one of the first Australian lawyers who came to England to advocate an appeal before the Privy Council. His visit for that purpose was paid in 1869, and two years later he was created Queen's Counsel. In 1875 he stood for Parliament, and within a few months of his election won the Attorney-Generalship also. In March, 1876, before he had quite reached his fortieth birthday, he was appointed Chief Justice of South Australia, in succession to the late Sir R. D. Hanson. He received the high distinction of being selected by the Governments of the various Australian colonies to represent United Australia on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, according to the new scheme for utilising the experience of the colonial Bench in the hearing of appeal cases from Greater Britain.

One of the duties of a Chief Justice is to supply the place of the Governor, when the latter happens to be absent from the colony, or during the interval between the departure of one Governor and the arrival of his successor, This duty fell early to the lot of Chief Justice Way, who was actually called upon to dissolve the Parliament of which he had himself been a member an incident which has only occurred on one other occasion in the history of British Legislatures - viz., in the dissolution of the Long Parliament by Oliver Cromwell.

Since his appointment, he has administered the Government no less than nineteen separate times. He has many times declined the honour of knighthood; but in 1890 he accepted the rare distinction of the permanent Lieutenant-Governorship, a title which had never previously been conferred in the history of South Australia, and in only one or two other instances in any other province of Australia.

Of his skill and learning as a lawyer and a judge it is obviously impossible for a layman to speak, though it is equally impossible for any one, however innocent of legal training,

to read such a brilliant record without forming conclusions. And those who have the right to express an opinion have described him as one of the ablest judges in His Majesty's dominions, and have eulogised in the highest terms those qualities of clearness and breadth of vision, capability, sound judgment, and integrity, which are perhaps of special importance in the development of the constitution of a young colony.

Yet, with all this, he is as far as possible removed from the pedantry of a mere lawyer. He has a high ideal of citizenship, and does not conceive the sphere of his public service to be limited by the walls of the Supreme Court. Almost every important moral and intellectual interest in the colony owes much to his support. If any society were to elect him as its president under the impression that he would be a mere figurehead, it would quickly find its mistake. Whatsoever his hand finds to do he does with his might. As the South Australian Register said the other day, in an article which claimed to be simply recording the language of sober truth without panegyric, "Although he is pre-eminently a man whom his fellow-colonists

delight to honour, there are, we fancy, few people who fully realise the debt of obligation under which the province has been placed by him. We have become so accustomed to see him occupy the highest offices in the land, taking the lead in all public movements associated with the intellectual, social, and religious life of the community, and actively identifying himself with the principal philanthropic and educational institutions in the city, that we are apt to think somewhat lightly of the valuable services rendered by him to the colony. We venture to say that there is scarcely a man in Australia to compare with him in versatility, vigour, and public-spiritedness. Now and then are to be heard murmurs on the score of his doing too much - of his being a monopolist of offices of influence and responsibility; but open censure is dumb in presence of the fact that everything he undertakes is done well. There is no room for the suggestion that in any of the important positions he occupies he is usurping the places of men better qualified to fill them."

The multiplicity of his interests was perhaps never more clearly illustrated than on his

return from a tour round the world a few years ago. Although he had only just recovered from a severe attack of pneumonia, which seized him in Japan, he kept the reporters of the daily papers busy for weeks. One night he would be lecturing on the Methodist (Ecumenical Conference, which he had attended in Washington; next day he would give the Committee of the Deaf, and Dumb Asylum particulars of similar institutions that he had visited in America; another evening he would be meeting the Freemasons, and bearing them the greetings of lodges he had visited in many lands; next you would find him describing to the Bureau of Agriculture a model farm over which he had been taken at Ottawa; presently you would be reading reports of his lectures to the Natives' Association and the Y.M.C.A. - not to mention the Gardeners' Association, and other societies of a less general scope. It is easy, no doubt, for a practised lawyer to "get up " any subject at short notice; but here it is not a case of cramming, but of the zeal of a many-sided man who is really interested in every subject he touches.

Though a diligent student and an insatiable book-lover, he has not sought fame by

authorship. Yet there is a "distinction" about his speeches, given commonly from the briefest of notes, that reveals the possession of no ordinary literary skill. And, while neither a Horace nor a Virgil, he is certainly a Maecenas. His gifts to the Picture Gallery and his services to the University of Adelaide, of which he has been for several years the Chancellor, show his earnest devotion to the cause of art and letters. His school studies - he was educated at the Bible Christian School at Shebbear, Devon, and at a private school in. Kent - were supplemented by his own reading in later years, for he had no opportunity of an academic training. He worthily bears, however, the high distinction of the honorary D. C. L. of Oxford, where he formed one of a distinguished group admitted to that degree at the Encaenia of 1891.

His amazing capacity for work would be impossible but for the apparently inexhaustible physical energy that feeds it. Yet this, in a measure, he owes to his own good sense and determination. As a youth he was not strong, but, believing that gymnastic exercises would do him good, he applied

himself to them with such happy results that now he can tire out much younger companions in a day's sight-seeing or mountain-climbing.

The late Dr. R. W. Dale, in the Impressions of Australia which he published not many years ago, described as "felicitous" Mr. Froude's reference to "the charming and accomplished Mr. Way," and went on to say that the Chief Justice was not only charming and accomplished, but had "a positive genius for hospitality." To a stranger the use of the word "genius" in this connection might seem extravagant, but not to any one who has ever had the pleasure of staying at Montefiore.

There is a kind of hospitality, lavish enough and generous in its way, which is possible to any one who can afford to engage a good cook. But few hosts have ever cultivated hospitality into a fine art to such a degree as the Chief Justice of South Australia. And if genius means "an infinite capacity for taking pains," the word is certainly in place here, for no detail is too insignificant to be attended to, if only the comfort and pleasure of the guest may be enhanced thereby.

Whether prince or preacher, he will meet just the very people whom he would get most pleasure in meeting, and his path will be smoothed to see -often in the company of his host himself, in spite of his scanty leisure just the very institutions and features of colonial life which would be of greatest interest to him.

The readiness of the Chief Justice to take any amount of trouble for the sake of his friends comes out in many ways - notably in his custom, so consistent now that it might almost be called a habit, of closing his Monday's programme, however full, by writing letters until two in the morning to catch the English mail.

In 1897 he visited the home country, where he was warmly received by his many friends. During his stay on this occasion he received from Cambridge University the honorary degree of LL.D. In 1899 he was made a baronet -an honour which few have more richly deserved. His interest in the work of the denomination at home has invariably been of a practical character, and no visitor at the Annual Conference has received a more cordial and enthusiastic welcome. His

munificent gift to Shebbear is only one of the many tokens of his unfailing interest in and love for the denomination, of which he is so distinguished an ornament. Loyalty to the church of his fathers is one of the distinguishing characteristics of his religious life. In spite of all temptations to belong to other denominations, he remains a Bible Christian. He is no bigot, as the treasurers of many Anglican as well as Nonconformist funds would gladly testify; but he has not yet seen any reason why he should withdraw his ecclesiastical allegiance from the little church in which he was born. Though honoured with the personal friendship of some of the most distinguished leaders of society in London, as well as in other cities, he could yet tell the Bible Christian Conference, which he visited at Plymouth in 1891, that the reception it gave him he regarded as the greatest honour of his life. In the words of a well-known American journal, "while his abilities and exalted position would entitle him to be presented to the American public as worthy of the highest respect, he is to be honoured particularly for adhering to the comparatively small body in which he was trained.

This is an example which should bring the blush of shame to many persons in the United States, who, without any pretence of change of doctrine, when attaining prosperity, have turned their backs upon the church which made themselves and their parents all that they are, and entered denominations which they fancied could give them a little better social standing. Chief Justice Way has successfully proved that merit and magnanimity can make a standing which is not only independent of adventitious aids, but can bring them, when they are no longer needed, obsequiously to do him homage." (H. W. H., in "Osborne Magazine," 1897)

[ Volume 1 pages 92 - 100 ]

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