ARNEY, SIR GEORGE ALFRED (1810-83) was born at Salisbury, England, in 1810, the seventh and youngest son of William Arney, of The Close, and Maria Charlotte, daughter of Thomas G. White, of Kew. His father was a lawyer with a good practice and steward of several large landed estates. Educated at Winchester and at Brasenose College, Oxford, Arney excelled in classics. He graduated B.A. in 1832 and M.A. the following year. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1829 and was called to the bar at Easter Term 1837. For some years he went the Western circuit and attained a leading position at the bar. In 1835 he married Harriett (d. 1842), daughter of Captain Thomas Parr, R.N.

After practising for more than twenty years, and being recorder of Winchester, Arney was appointed on 2 Sep 1857 to be Chief Justice of New Zealand, on the recommendation of Mr Justice Coleridge. When he arrived at Auckland early in 1858 by the Gertrude, he was the only judge in the colony. Arney was an able lawyer, absolutely impartial, a man of great refinement and a Christian gentleman; modern in his outlook, gentle almost to timidity; a lover of the classics and art. Under him the New Zealand courts led the way in the fusion of law and equity. Immediately on his arrival in New Zealand he was called to the Legislative Council. He intervened in debate rarely, but always with a sense of conviction and earnestness. In his first session he protested against the Government's expecting the Council to come to a decision without sufficient information, and objected to "holding a position something between a registration officer and a printer's devil" (6 Jul 1858). He spoke chiefly on legal measures, of which in those days there were many, and on 13 Aug 1861 persuaded the Council to reaffirm a resolution of 1856 that judges of the supreme court should not be removable except by Her Majesty or on an address from both houses of Parliament, and that judges should be appointed only on the recommendation of a judge of the superior court in England. One of his most noteworthy speeches in Parliament was delivered on 30 Aug 1860 in a debate on the Maori war. In a dignified and impassioned plea for social justice to the Maori he declared: "I should hold the entire province of Taranaki hardly worth the cost of one year's contest." In 1862 Arney was knighted. He was absent from the Council for two consecutive sessions, and early in 1866 he resigned his seat. In 1873 he was for a few months administrator of the government. On 31 Mar 1875 he retired on a pension, and on the eve of his departure for England he received a flattering testimonial of esteem from the citizens of Auckland and from the Provincial Council. Sir George on returning to England lived chiefly at Torquay, and continued to take a lively interest in colonial matters. By the death in 1879 of his brother, Colonel Arney (who was in New Zealand with the 58th Regiment), Arney inherited considerable property. He died on 7 Apr 1883, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

N.Z.P.D.; Cycl. NZ., ii (p); App. H.R., 1874, A5; University Registry, Oxford; Morton; N.Z. Herald, 31 Aug 1865, 11 Apr 1883. Portrait: General Assembly Library.

Reference: Volume 1, page 26

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