Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Peter Whiteside.
It is an honour as the Chairman of Partners and Senior Partner of Wynn Williams & Co to welcome you on this occasion marking the 150th anniversary of the founding of our legal firm.
The Partners of our firm are grateful that you have joined them on this occasion to celebrate a significant milestone in our history. We are especially pleased that so many of our loyal clients and other professionals with whom we have had a close and lengthy association have joined us today.
Obviously to any legal firm clients must be a Number One priority because the law is a service industry. This firm throughout its history had had wonderful loyalty from its clients and the current Partners are very grateful for that. The firm pledges to continue in the years ahead to serve its clients with the same fearlessness, competence and timely performance that I believe have been the hallmarks of this firm’s service to its clients over the last 150 years.
Harry Bell Johnstone, an Englishman, started his legal practice on the corner of Oxford Terrace and Cashel Street in Christchurch around 5th January 1859. Europeans had lived in the town for not quite a decade. The European population of Canterbury, including Westland, was just under 13,000. Streets were not formed, running water and sewage systems did not exist, and there was only very limited street lighting. Central Government however was underway. The Governor was Gore Browne, the Premier Edward Stafford and the Chief Justice George Amey. The first of the Land Wars in Taranaki commenced that year and as a consequence the first military force in Canterbury, the Canterbury Rifles, was organised in April 1859.
Apart from Wynn Williams & Co, two other significant Christchurch institutions commenced operations in 1859, the Public Library and the Chamber of Commerce.
Further afield, there were wars between Austria and Sardinia, the second Opium War and the Spanish-Moroccan War. In England Queen Victoria was on the Throne and the Earl of Derby, the Conservative Prime Minister, was replaced by Palmerston. Louis-Napoléon was Emperor of France, Frederick William IV King of Prussia, and Alexander II the Russian Tsar. Europe was in a state of turmoil and times were tough in England. The prospect of commencing a new life in the colony of New Zealand promoted by the Canterbury Association attracted a number of lawyers wishing to leave the crowded profession that existed then in England and Ireland.
I want to talk briefly about the firm’s first two Partners. I am indebted for what I am about to say to Hamish Kenworthy, the husband of one of our Partners, Margo Perpick. Hamish has done a considerable amount of research and written a history of the firm.
Harry Bell Johnstone came to New Zealand with a good fund of capital having qualified as a Solicitor in England. He only practised briefly before engaging in a number of land transactions, including the purchase of 100 acres of land in Sumner. On or about 5th January 1859 Mr Johnstone commenced practice on the corner of Oxford Terrace and Cashel Street before moving into Cathedral Square later in that year, and then in early 1860 to the old wooden gabled building known as Shands Emporium in Hereford Street, which still exists today. It is perhaps a mark of the firm’s stability that the current firm still practices in Hereford Street some 200 metres from the site where Johnstone was joined in Partnership in July 1860 by William Henry Wynn Williams. Johnstone ceased practice altogether in February 1864 but Wynn Williams was to remain in practice for 52 years until 1912. Wynn Williams was a Welshman and the son of an Anglican Vicar. His brother became a Judge in England and a younger brother became a Partner in the well respected London firm of Freshfields.
Henry Wynn Williams practised in North Wales for a couple of years before arriving in Wellington in 1856 penniless. He worked on a number of farm stations around the South Island before being admitted to the Bar in Christchurch in the middle of 1860.
Henry Wynn Williams was a very successful legal practitioner. He acted from when he first started practising for the Trust and Agency Company of Australasia Limited and Dalgetys. He was regularly involved in land sales transactions but he was also a fearless advocate appearing frequently in the Christchurch Supreme Court before the first resident Christchurch Judge Justice Henry Barnes Gresson. Wynn Williams appeared regularly in criminal trials but also conducted significant civil litigation.
In December 1866 in the course of a week, he successfully secured not guilty verdicts for two clients on separate murder charges as well as an acquittal for a third client on a charge of assault. One of the murder trials involved the prosecution of a man called Darby Maher. Maher was a well known figure in Christchurch, having been a client of Henry Wynn Williams for some time and reasonably wealthy at one stage. However he had a problem with liquor and had fallen on hard times so he was imprisoned for debt. A property in Manchester Street had been sold to meet the claims of creditors. Less than a week after his release from the Debtors’ Jail Maher was seen behaving suspiciously in the vicinity of the Manchester Street property. Around the same time a fire started in the property and an occupant of the house was burnt to death. Maher was charged with murder.
The evidence of the crown was circumstantial and there was some conflict between the civilian witnesses called for the Crown. A Police Detective however had seen Maher in the vicinity on the evening of the fire and gave evidence about Maher’s movements and the suspicious nature of them. However he could not give any direct evidence of Maher lighting the fire. Human remains found in the house had been burnt beyond recognition. Maher was charged specifically with the murder on one Henry Smith but the Judge held, contrary to Wynn Williams’ submission on an application for discharge, that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence as to the identity of the deceased to justify the case going to the jury. Wynn Williams in his address to the jury argued that someone as drunk as Maher was said to have been on the night in question, could not have set the fire in the timeframe described by the various witnesses and that Maher was acting innocently in returning to the scene of fire with others after the alarm had been raised. The jury acquitted Maher after deliberating for 20 minutes with Justice Gresson advising Maher as he was discharged to adopt complete abstinence in order to avoid the perils of intemperance.
The very next day on a few hours’ notice, Wynn Williams appeared to defend a charge of murder against one Henry Ives. The case had been stood over for a day when Ives was unrepresented to allow an interpreter to be found because the accused was described as a half-caste whose English was poor. Not only was an interpreter found but Wynn Williams had agreed to act for him on what could only have been a pro-bono basis and secured a verdict of manslaughter. The Judge imposed a comparatively light sentence by the standards of the time of three years’ imprisonment with hard labour.
Wynn Williams was a fearless advocate. He was extremely hardworking, compassionate and always prepared to help the underdog.
In his later years Wynn Williams became very involved in local body politics and after a rating case become an extremely popular member of the Provincial Council. His popularity was based in the local Working Men’s Associations and he held regular public meetings in the bars of hotels, such as the present day Warner’s Hotel. Wynn Williams held universal respect in the town based on his honesty, integrity and professional ethics. He set a fine example to all those who have followed him in the Partnership which bears his name by acting wholeheartedly in the interests of Christchurch and its people.
When Henry Wynn Williams retired his Partner was Matthew Stoddart Brown who had been an employee of Henry Wynn Williams for 18 years before becoming a Partner in1898. Brown’s primary focus in practice was acting for farmers and a substantial rural clientele. Brown established the branch offices of the firm at Rangiora and Leeston, which have existed for almost 100 years. Brown was a Partner in the firm for 42 years and was responsible for building a large base of rural clients whose heirs and successors the firm has continued to serve since that time. Succeeding generations of farming folk have had their legal needs met by the firm. Many of these families were first looked after by Matthew Stoddart Brown and it is a delight to have some of those families represented here today.
Brown was also responsible for the goodwill that was built by the firm with Canterbury farmers in the 1930s during the depression by obtaining relief under the various pieces of legislation passed at that time to assist farmers, including the Mortgagors and Tenants Relief Act 1933. He was ably assisted in this work by Alan Reed. Matthew Stoddart Brown had also been extremely busy after the First World War in assisting returning soldiers on to farm properties under the Government policy of the day.
So we see in Henry Wynn Williams and Matthew Stoddart Brown, the two leading figures in the first 50 years of the firm, that interest and expertise in litigation and rural practice which has been reflected in the expertise of the Partners engaged in the firm over the next 100 years.
The firm has been remarkably well served by the Partners who have practised as Court lawyers. Shortly after the retirement of Henry Wynn Williams a powerful advocate joined Matthew Stoddart Brown in the firm. He was Maurice James Gresson, a Partner between 1912 and 1948. Maurice Gresson was an outstanding advocate who travelled to London by sea on two separate occasions in the 1930s to argue four cases in the Privy Council.
Just as Henry Wynn Williams was joined briefly in Partnership by his son Douglas Wynn Williams in the early 1890s before the latter’s untimely death, Maurice Gresson was joined in Partnership in 1942 by Terence Gresson who became the first Partner of the firm to be appointed a High Court Judge, although the appointment in 1956 was to the Court then known as the Supreme Court.
Of the first 20 Partners in the firm no less than four or 20% have been appointed as Judges of what is now known as the High Court. This is a remarkable record and reflects the skills and attributes of the people who have been invited to be Partners of the firm of Wynn Williams & Co. Sir Terence Gresson was later followed by Sir Alan Holland, Justice Andrew Tipping who is now a member of New Zealand’s highest Court that replaced the Privy Council, the new Supreme Court, and Justice Geoffrey Venning who is currently a High Court Judge in Auckland. It is a privilege to have the latter with us today. As a result of the skills of these men the firm has a long proud history of Partners acting as advocates in our Courts, including the conduct of eight cases in the Privy Council. The fearless example provided by Henry Wynn Williams, Maurice Gresson, Terence Gresson, Brian McClelland, Alan Holland, Andrew Tipping and Geoffrey Venning has provided an inspiration to those who have followed them and been mentored by them.
Now of course the firm provides an all round service covering all aspects of legal service. Gone are the days of the generalist like Henry Wynn Williams but we are still committed to practising in the same fearless fashion and with the highest ethical standards demonstrated by our predecessors.
From his early days in practice Henry Wynn Williams engaged a Clerk. There was a colourful portly Londoner by the name of Edward Preston who worked for Wynn Williams in the 1860s before going to Hawaii. In 1871 Wynn Williams took on Edward Deacon as an Articled Clerk and Deacon later became a Partner in the firm for a period of eight years in the 1880s.
Staff have always been extremely important throughout the 150 years of Wynn Williams & Co. When I commenced employment in the firm in 1970 the staff numbered 18. They were extremely loyal and hardworking. Now the firm has ten Partners making a total Partner number of 29 in the history of the firm and total staff numbers, including Partners, of just over 60. As before, in its history, the firm is extremely well served by its staff both professional and support. The firm would not have survived but for the loyalty, honesty and hard work of those who have been and continue to be employed in the firm. I pay particular tribute to Rita Dennis and Matthew Jones who have been Managers to this firm in the last 30 years. So at this time of marking 150 years of continuous legal practice, in this wonderful city of Christchurch, we look forward to the next 150 years. It is trite to say Johnstone and Wynn Williams could not have imagined how their efforts would have led a century and a half later to the practice of a modern day law firm in the city, regulated by email, text messages and cell phones, but I believe with your support the firm will continue to grow and serve the legal needs of this community. We recently looked at the firm’s vision and have resolved to be the trusted legal advisors of choice. We shall do our utmost for you, applying the best legal knowledge and commercial insight to all tasks. We shall honour the highest ethical and professional standards always. We shall deliver results on time and with value, and we shall be here because 150 years of experience counts.
Please join me in toasting Wynn Williams & Co the next 150 years.
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Wynn Williams & Co • All rights reserved •