Lieutenant in 1875, Captain Commitreiant in and Major in 1894. He has taken many prizes for rifle shooting, including the Governor's Cup of 1877, which was presented to him by Sir William Robinson, for the best rifle shot of all under arms in Western Australia. By identifying himself with such a useful institution as this, Mr. Sholl has shown an excellent example to all young Western Australians. In 1891 he was gazetted a Justice of the Peace.
During his career Mr. Shall has encouraged sporting in every way. He takes especial interest in horse racing, and was for many years honorary secretary of the West Australian Turf Club. Pressure of public duties eventually compelled him to relinquish the position. With Mr. E. T. Hooley, M.L.A, and a few others, he worked most actively in the interests of the club, and the debt which had accumulated was completely liquidated before he left office. In other respects Mr. Sholl has interested himself in everything which aims at the social advancement of Western Australians.
He married, in 1872, Elime, daughter of Assistant Commissary-General Ashton, an Imperial officer stationed in the colony. This much-respected lady dying, Mr. Sholl was again married, in 1887, to the eldest daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Sanders, late of the 30th Regiment. Mr. Sholl has a soldierly appearance. He has given Western Australia his best energies in his department, and labours night and day to facilitate the work of the post and telegraph offices. He is a man of method, and deserves high encomiums for his contributions to the public weal.
EDWARD AUGUSTINE ST. AUBYN HARNEY.
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Photo by E.A. ST. AUBYN HARNEY. Greenham & Evans. |
IN the golden age of Greece, when intellectual development had reached its maximum, the study of law became a recognised institution in the Athenian Academies, and with all its importance to the law-abiding mind of the ancient Greek it was made subservient to, and wrapt firmly up in, the cardinal doctrines and canons of rhetoric. While as yet Demosthenes, the greatest advocate and orator of the Hellenic world, was a stripling and a novice in rhetorical declamation, he was wont to wander in solitude to the sea-shore, and rehearse his speech with his mouth full of pebbles. The apologies, or defence speeches, of these classic barristers seem to have aimed more at rhetorical effect than at legal and logical acuteness and sequence. Fallacies were covertly hid beneath the florid flow of eloquence, and surreptitious assumptions lay darkly lurking.
The advocate at the modern bar differs little from the orator-lawyers of the ancient world. To press home the real point at issue, to arouse the slumbering emotions of the bench that have been blunted by custom, to rivet the attention of the judge on the argumentative position assumed, demands a power of oratory that seems, unfortunately, to be the possession of the few. What is more dull and boresome than a halting, limpid, and straggling speech, where both merit and, concentration of attention are smothered and lost? He who can give solid, forcible, and declamatory expression to his sentiments and arguments is he who can impress, convince, and win his case.
In Western Australia the name of Mr. Harney seems a synonym for oratorical powers and forensic persuasion. Some competent judges avow that his peer nowhere exists on this island-continent. He has the spontaneity, the fiery eloquence, and the shrewd mother-wit and humour of his native land.
Mr. Harney was born in Dublin in 1865, and passed most of his youth at his father's country seat, Kildteran House, County Waterford. His education was practically begun at St. Vincent's College, Castleknock, Dublin, where he obtained several money prizes and two gold medals; one for mathematics, and one for chemistry and natural science. From Castleknock he went to the Jesuits' College at Clongowes Wade, County Kildare, where he completed his elementary education, and obtained the special money prize given by that institution for the pupil who scored best at the intermediate examinations. He then studied for his first law examination, at which he obtained first place out of a large number of candidates. He matriculated for the Royal University of Ireland. In Trinity Term of 1892, having eaten all his dinners, according to the antiquated custom, in reading for the Bar (the dinners being as important as the examinations), he was called to the Irish Bar. During his student career for the Bar, Mr. Harney obtained many distinctions, taking first places at Trinity College in feudal law, criminal law, and the law of evidence, and obtaining four gold and one silver medal, and the Victoria Studentship at the Law Students' Debating Society and the examinations for the King's Inns. Mr. Harney then joined
