John Jeffries (judge)

Jeffries was born in Wellington on 28 March 1929 to Frank and Mary Jeffries and grew up in Lyall Bay.{{cite news |title=Mr Jeffries to be Judge in Supreme Court |date=9 March 1976 |work=The Evening Post |first=Alistair |last=Rowe}} He was the second born in a family of five. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father was a joiner by trade who was unemployed during the Great Depression. His family experienced much prejudice in their lives due to their Irish Catholic background.{{cite news |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/110574838/sir-john-jeffries-from-school-failure-to-career-overachiever |title=Sir John Jeffries: From school failure to career overachiever |date=16 February 2019 |work=Stuff |first=Karl|last=du Fresne }} He was educated at St Patrick's College. He failed his School Certificate exam three times and the college rector wrote a reference for Jeffries recommending to prospective employers not to hire him for a job requiring study.

He began work in 1946, first as an insurance clerk, and then as a teacher. Upon finding employment he contracted tuberculosis. While at Wellington Hospital he was nursed in by Joan Patricia (Pat) Christensen. The pair married in 1951 and would adopt two children together.

He received his tertiary education at Victoria University College, graduating from first with a Bachelor of Arts in 1956 and later a Bachelor of Law in 1959.{{cite web |url=https://shadowsoftime.co.nz/university13.html |title=NZ university graduates 1871–1960: I–K | website=shadowsoftime |access-date=4 June 2018}} Then he became first a law clerk before qualifying as a lawyer himself. He was admitted to the bar in 1961 and became a partner in the firm of Scott, Hardie Boys, Morrison and Jeffries (alongside Sir Michael Hardie Boys). He later became vice-president of the New Zealand Law Society. He was a member of the panel of prosecuting counsel who regularly conducted Supreme Court prosecutions on the instruction of the Crown Solicitor.{{cite news |title=Rare Appointment of Two Judges |date=10 March 1976 |work=The Evening Post }}

In 1962 Jeffries was elected to the Wellington City Council on a Labour Party ticket, remaining on the council for 12 years.{{cite report |last=James |first=T.W. |date=23 October 1962 |title=Declaration of Election Results |publisher=Wellington City Council }}{{cite news |title=Official Result of Poll in Wellington |work=The Dominion |date= 29 October 1962 }} In doing so, he became the youngest candidate ever elected as a councillor (at that time) aged 33. Ahead of the 1968 election, after two terms, Jeffries announced he would not stand for re-election, however he later recanted and stood again successfully.{{cite news |title=Councillors To Stand Down |work=The Dominion |date=21 March 1968 }}{{cite news |title=Cr Jeffries May Seek Re-Election |work=The Evening Post |date=8 July 1968 }} After the election he became leader of the Labour caucus on the council and in 1971 he was elected deputy-mayor to Sir Frank Kitts. Jeffries himself had mayoral aspirations, but they were unable to be realised due to the reluctance of Kitts to retire.{{sfn|Betts|1970|p=203}}

Jeffries was the chairman of the council trading committee, which controlled the city operations in milk delivery, electricity and abattoirs.{{sfn|Betts|1970|p=206}} He was given the label "Mr. Fixit" from the Sunday News after making steady progress on issues that others had given up on. His younger brother Bill Jeffries succeeded him as a Councillor and was later an MP. A later Wellington mayor, Sir Michael Fowler, later described both the Jeffries brothers as "extremely good" councillors.{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/local-papers/the-wellingtonian/2447879/The-Wellingtonian-interview-Sir-Michael-Fowler |title= The Wellingtonian interview: Sir Michael Fowler |date=28 May 2009 |work= The Wellingtonian |access-date=25 May 2013 |first=Joseph |last=Romanos}}

He had several failed bids to enter national politics. Jeffries was approached to stand for Labour in the 1967 Petone by-election however he was not selected as a candidate.{{cite news |work=The Evening Post |title=Labour Contenders Not Lacking For Petone Seat |date=10 February 1967 |page=22 }} The Labour Party later offered him the candidacy for the seat of {{NZ electorate link|Miramar}} which Labour had lost in an upset at the 1966 general election. However, he declined, instead hoping to win nomination for a safer Labour seat in the Hutt Valley. To his frustration the Labour Party executive ruled it out.

In 1974 Jeffries was appointed by the government as chairman of the National Housing Commission.{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19740221.2.27 |title=Chch architect in housing body |work=The Press |date=21 February 1974 |volume=CXIV |issue=33465 |page=2 }} In 1975 he was appointed as the chairman of Air New Zealand. That same year he was a signatory of the Citizens for Rowling campaign which urged voters to support Labour in the 1975 election. He resigned later in the year, following the election, after receiving criticisms from incoming Prime Minister Robert Muldoon over the appointees of the outgoing Labour government.

In 1976 he was appointed as a Judge of the High Court serving in this capacity until his retirement in 1992. He was appointed by Muldoon who retracted his previous criticisms of Jeffries saying he was "a very fine lawyer and an honourable man", however it failed to allay suspicions that he appointed Jeffries to rule him out of politics.

Jeffries delivered three significant judgments in his career. First he found against an Australian wine company who claimed the right to use the label "champagne" for its brand of sparkling wine, ruling that only makers from the French region of Champagne were solely entitled to use the term. Later he clarified the previously vague, unsatisfactory definition of the word "welfare" pertaining to child custody cases. In another decision he upheld a Planning Tribunal decision restricting state power company Electricorp's right to extract water from the Tongariro River as part of a hydro scheme, a significant victory for local Iwi.

In 1977, Jeffries was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1990 he received the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal.{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alister |last2=Coddington |first2=Deborah |author-link1=Alister Taylor |author-link2=Deborah Coddington |title=Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand |year=1994 |publisher=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa |location=Auckland |isbn=0-908578-34-2 |page=202}} In the 1993 New Year Honours, Jeffries was appointed a Knight Bachelor, for his service to New Zealand's legal system.{{London Gazette |issue=53154 |date=31 December 1992 |page=29 |supp=2}}

From 1992 to 1997 he was the head of the Police Complaints Authority.{{cite news|url=https://www.ipca.govt.nz/Site/about-us/History.aspx |title=History |date=28 May 2009 |work=Independent Police Conduct Authority |access-date=4 June 2018 }} In July 1997 he was appointed chairman of the New Zealand Press Council, a position he held until July 2005. He was also Commissioner of Security Warrants.

He died in Wellington aged 89 years on 25 January 2019.

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• {{cite book |last=Betts |first=George |author-link=George Betts (political scientist) |title=Betts on Wellington: A City and its Politics |year=1970 |publisher=A. H. & A. W. Reed Ltd. |location=Wellington |isbn=0-589-00469-7 }}

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Category:1929 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:People educated at St Patrick's College, Wellington

Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni

Category:High Court of New Zealand judges

Category:Wellington City Councillors

Category:Deputy mayors of Wellington

Category:New Zealand Labour Party politicians

Category:New Zealand Knights Bachelor

Category:20th-century New Zealand lawyers

Category:20th-century New Zealand judges