OBITUARY.

MR T. I. JOYNT. K.C. Mr T. I. Joynt, the senior King's Counsel in New Zealand, died at nis residenoe, at five o'clock this morning. He had been ailing for some time, and his early death ; had been anticipated for some days past. Mr Jovnt was born in County Galway, Ireland, on the last day of the year 1830, and was educated at luam and Dublin, being afterwards articled to a solicitor in Dublin. Acting on a suggestion made by the late Mr Justice Gresson, then practising at the bar in Dublin, Mr Joynt came, to Canterbury, leaving Gravesend on July 6, 1856, in a 600 ■'on barque, The Mariner. The voyage to Wellington was full of incident. Before Hobart was reached the provisions ran short, and fever broke out. When the vessel arrived at Wo_lington she was much overdue, and bonfires were lit on the hills to signalise her safe arrival. Tlie voyage from Wellington to Lyttelton was made in the little schooner Canterbury, the trip oocnpying a fortnight. Lyttelton Harbour was reached on November 30, and on December 1, 1856, Mr Joynt first set foot on New Zealand soil. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed clerk to the Magistrate's Court at Lyttelton, remaining in that position till 1858, when he went to Christohureh, under articles to Mr T. S. Duncan, then Crown Prosecutor. On August j 31, 1863, Mr Joynt started practice on his own account in a I little three-roomed cottage in Licbfield Street, on a site at present occupied by His Lordship's Larder Hotel, and then owned by the late Mr Thomas Mollet. During his professional career j in Christchurch Mr Joynt at different times entered into partnership with the late Mr R. D. Thomas, Mr A. )W. O'Neill, Mr .(afterwards Sir) Westby Brooke Perceval and Mr W. ActonAdams. His last partnership, which existed up to the time of his death, was with Mr H. D. Andrews. Mr Joynt's reputation was mostly gained as a criminal pleader, the case which first brought him into prominence being one in which two ladies, Mrs Patterson and Miss Williams, were charged with setting fire to a cafe of which they were the lessees. Mr Joynt's defence was. brilliant and succesful, and his business rapidly increased from that time forward. Another case in which he displayed especial was that in which a man named Fowler was charged with 6heep stealing by the M'Carthy family, at Waiau. The M'Carthys had been losing sheep for some time, and at last adopted the expedient of importing a detective and setting him to work ostensibly as a shearer. As a result of the detective 9 observations a case wa6 brought against Fowler. Mr Joynt was able to obtain Fowler's acquittal, and then brought an action on Fowler's behalf against the M'Carthys for malicious prosecution. The case was first heard at Christ-church,-and was fully proved, but an unsympathetic jury awarded _ only a farthing damages. A re-hearing and a change of venue were applied for and granted; the case was reheard at Nelson, and damages amounting to £400 were obtained. Mr Joynt also obtained great kudos for his conduct of a case which at the time was termed " The Kaiapoi Tichborne Trial," in which one Keetley, a wheelwright at Kaiapoi, proceeded against the resident Provincial Minister of Public Works, the Hon W. Reeves, to obtain compensation for land wrongfully estreated by the Provincial Government. Substantial damages were ultimately awarded to Keetley. Another great civil case, in which Mr Joynt was not, for once, ultimately successful, was the cause celebre or Creyke v. Dransfield, followed by the cross action of Dransfield v. Creyke. This case went from Court to Court, and was eventually settled in error, at Home, against Dransfield, Mr Joynt's client. Mr Joynt's greatest oase was probably the Thomas Hall poisoning case, in which despite the line defence worked up, facts proved too strong, and a conviction was recorded Other murder trials in wliich Mr Joynt defended were the Cedeno case, in which the accused, a Spaniard, was tried for the murder of Hannah Burke, a fellow servant in the employ of the Robinson family, and the case against a man named M'Leod, some twenty years ago. Mr Joynt was for some years member for Kaiapoi in the Canterbury Provincial Council, and afterwards held office as Provincial Solicitor under tne Rolleston administration, at a time when Mr (afterwards Sir) William Montgomery was Provincial Secretary. Mr Joynt retained this position till 1875, when the provinces were abolished. He later contested the seat for Christchurch South, against Mr John Holmes, and was defeated. After that date Mr Joynt took little part in public matters, his large legal practice necessitating his unflagging attention. He acted, however, as legal adviser to many public bodies. While Mr Joynt will be principally remembered as a brilliant pleader in criminal cases, his wide reading and exceptional facility in handling the English language effectively made him almost without a compeer in New Zealand in drafting difficult and complicated legal documents in the clearest and mest concise manner possible. Mr Joynt was married in Ireland, bej fore coming to this colony, to a Miss i Abbott, whose people subsequently came to Canterbury and settled near the Styx. Among Mr Joynt's relations through his marriage with Mi6s Abbot are Mrs Thomas Pavitt, Mrs Edward Pavitt, Captain Parsons, late of Fernside, and Mr Frank Rickman, of Rangiora. Mr Joynt's family comprised five sons and two daughters. One of the daughters married a son of the late Mr 11. Chapman, and the other married a brother of Mr J. Cook, of the Loan and Mercantile Company. In June of this year, Mr Joynt was appointed the senior King's Counsel in New Zealand, being the senior member of the bar in this colony. A MARK OF RESPECT. No defended cases were heard at the civil sittings of the Magistrate's Court this morning, as a mark of respect to the late Mr T. I. Joynt, K.C. Shortly after the commencement of the business Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M., the presiding Magistrate, drew the attention of the Court to the news of Mr Joynt's death. He said that in referring to the death of Mr Joynt he was touching a personal matter to them_ all. He had been on terms of closest intimacy with Mr Joynt during the pact fifteen years, and they all knew of his ability. It seemed only a few days ago that they had all gathered in the Supreme Court to honour him when he was invested with the dignitaries of King's Counsel, and became the senior member of the New Zealand bar. His voico bad been raised in learned argument within the Magistnate's* Court, and it was sad to think that he was no more. He had always held a high position in the profession, and as a J mark of respect he had decided after the cases had been called to adjourn the sitting, placing the facts on the { records of the Court. It was the only means of honouring the departed counsel. Mr W. Hoban, the senior member of ' the bar present, on behalf of the' legal profession, made reference to Mr Joynt, and said that tie had looked on him as one of the most brilliant members of the bar in New Zealand. As a young man he had freauer.tly been greatly assisted by Mr Joynt, and there was no doubt that he would be missed by tbe profession th'-oughoub the colony. Person nlly, a«d he was sure that the entire New Zealand bar would agree with hirr., he had looked on Mr Joynt j as °n ornament io the profession in the 1 colony ahd one of the truest gentlemen. '