English barristers and Scotch advocates are admitted at once to practise.
The judges appoint a board of examiners, and admit any man of good character to practise as a barrister, after passing an examination in classics, mathematics, and law.
Attorneys and writers to the signet are admitted to practise of course.
Persons who have served their articles and not passed in England may be admitted in the colony. The result is, that parties who have been or would have been rejected in England, in consequence of tainted character, are able to practise in New South Wales.
Three important law reforms are due to the exertions of Robert Lowe, Esq., now member for Kidderminster, during the time he was a member of the Legislative Council, and practised at the bar in Sydney:—
1. The substitution in 1849, in the Colonial Equity Court, of the common law proceedings on application for a rule nisi instead of the tedious delays of bill and answer.
2. The abolition of imprisonment for debt on final process. In Australia to commit a man to prison virtually amounted to destroying all his property.
3. Arrangements for admitting gentlemen to the bar without proceeding to England, provided they are able to pass an examination in classics, mathematics, and law, before examiners appointed by the judges. The sons of Australian gentlemen, for want of friends accustomed to the state of society in the universities, are usually ruined.
In South Australia there is a Supreme Court, composed of one judge, who also presides in the Vice-Admiralty Court, a commissioner in the Insolvent Court, and three police magistrates.
