Right Hon. Sir S.J. Way ADELAIDE AND VICINltV 227 ex-officio leader of the South Austrahan Bar. He has earned this ])roud jxjsition by sheer hard work and thorough devotion to his calling. He has recognised the old adage that the law is a jealous mistress and will brook no divided or half-hearted fealty. Fie is generally looked upon as a thoroughly shrewd lawyer, well versed in the science of his profession, rapidly seizing the point of an argument, acute in discriminating between what is material and what is purely accidental, pnjmpt to detect a sophistry, and far more apt to be swayed by principles than technicalities. In a word, he has many of the qualities that go to make an excellent judge." A quarter of a century has jjassed, and the Chief Justice's judicial career has not only justified the most sanguine e.pectations when he was appointed, and upheld the prestige of his high office, but his reputation as a lawyer and a jurist has been established all over Australia and is recognised in Elngland and America. " It is," said an article on " The Supreme Court Bench of South Australia,' in the Australian Rcvieiv of Reviews for 1895, "the justifiable boast of .South Australians that they possess a judicial Bench which, both on the intellectual and the moral sides, worthily maintains the high standard which the British judiciary has given the world, and that in Chief Justice Way they have one of the ablest judges in Her Majesty's dominions. The qualities which have so rapidly advanced Mr. Way may be summed up in five words — clearness of vision, courage, capability. To the man who has these comes opportunity. Mr. Way is first and foremost a lawyer. This he regards as the great business of his life, and to this the varied spheres of his marvellous activity are subordinated." According to a writer in the "Journal of the Society of Comparative Legislation," in December, 1899, the Chief Justice brought to the Bench "all the qualities of a sound and learned lawyer, added to industry that never flagged and patience that was ine.xhaustible. As Chief Justice of the Colony, Sir Samuel W^ay has gone on steadily from year to year increasing his reputation, and he is now acknowledged to be one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the colonies." Simplicity of procedure and despatch are the ideals he has set before himself in the administration of justice. In view of the former he was largely instrumental in procuring the re-enactment in South Australia in 1878 of the English Judicature Acts, and he actively supervised the rules of procedure, which have gone further than the English rules, in preventing delay and in securing prompt relief His judgments are rarely reserved, and are almost invariably unwritten, or aided only by brief notes. He has also been a strong advocate of the extension of the Circuit Court system. Owing to his efforts the Northern Circuit Courts were established in 1881. He held the first of these Courts, and complimentary banquets were given him on the occasions at Port Augusta and Gladstone. The Dormant Commission to administer the Government in the absence of the Governor has, in South Australia, since the withdrawal of the Imperial troops in 1870, always been addressed to the Chief Justice, and, in his absence, to the other Judges, in order of seniority. In less than a year after Mr. Way's elevation to the Bench, his Dormant Commission became active. Either as Administrator or Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Samuel has administered the Government of the Province eight times, as follows : — January 29 to March 24, 1877; ^^'^Y '7 to October 24, 1877; February 14 to August 15, 1878; January 9 to February 19, 1883; March 5 to April 11, 1889; November 3, 1893, to May 19, 1894; January 17 to October 29, 1895 ; and September 29, 1898, to April 10, 1899 (inclusive). He has also frecjuently acted as Deputy-Governor during the absences of successive Governors for less than a month. Probably there is no one else in colonial history who has opened a session of and dissolved, the Parliament of which he was a member. Mr. Way's Acting Governorships have met with the approval of successive
