HISTORY WITH HUMOUR

Professor Peter Zablud

Trust Me! I’m a Notary

Extract from the luncheon speech on Saturday, September 21 at the BC Notaries Fall Conference

Even though Australia is God’s own country and is actually the centre of the world—we are 24 hours away from everywhere, it is always a particular pleasure to be in British Columbia.

Even more so, when I have the opportunity to catch up with some longstanding colleagues and friends, many of whom I am delighted to see here at this Fall Conference.

A sense of delicacy precludes me from discussing hockey and the Canucks’ performance last season so I will confine my remarks to a subject about which we can communicate sensibly and dispassionately.

I’ve heard it said the word “Notary” is the 50,000th-least-used word in the English language. I don’t know about that. I do know that most people and most lawyers haven’t the vaguest idea what a Notary is or what a Notary does.

In that regard, I am reminded of the story of little Johnnie at school at “Show and Tell, asked by his teacher, “What does your father do?” Johnnie said, “My father is a piano player in a brothel.”

That night at a parent/teacher meeting, Johnnie’s teacher said to Johnnie’s father, “I understand that you are a piano player in a brothel” “No I’m not,” said Johnnie’s father, “I’m a Notary . . . but how do you explain that to a 6-year-old.”

It will be of some help to those seeking to know more about Notaries to look it up the Oxford dictionary. You will see that the word “Notary” appears between the words “lunatic” and “parasite.”

“For a woman to dream of being associated with a Notary foretells she will rashly risk her reputation in gratification of foolish pleasure.”

It will also be of some guidance to consider a little-known but important fact about the notariat. One hundred and twenty years ago, at the turn of the 20th century, people used to dream about Notaries and about being Notaries.

That is definitely true. In the bestselling self-help book, 10,000 Dreams Interpreted, published in 1901, we are told in no uncertain terms, “For a man to dream of being a Notary is a prediction of unsatisfied desires and probable lawsuits” and “For a woman to dream of being associated with a Notary foretells she will rashly risk her reputation in gratification of foolish pleasure.”

At the time the book was published, women did not dream of actually being Notaries. The notariat was very much a club for the boys. The first female Notary in the British Empire was Mary Kitson of Adelaide in South Australia. She was the first female law

Mary Kitson graduate in South Australia and the first woman to be admitted to legal practice in that State.

Mary Kitson’s first application to be appointed to office as a Notary was rejected by the Supreme Court of South Australia on the ground that the word “person” in the South Australian Public Notaries Act of 1859 could not be construed as including a woman.

Following the passage of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act in 1921 by the South Australian parliament (that mirrored the 1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of the United Kingdom), Mary Kitson was appointed to office as a Notary.

Fortunately, women are now recognized as persons throughout Australia and throughout Canada, although it did take until 18 October 1929 for your Supreme Court to declare that women were persons for the purposes of Canadian Law. (I have no reason to suppose that momentous event caused the American Stock Market Crash a week later that triggered The Great Depression.)

As we all know, the nations of the world have great difficulty agreeing