The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Edwards, Worley Basset
Edwards, Worley Basset, son of Charles Scatcherd Wilson Edwards and Cornelia Allen (Waller), his wife, was born in London on Sept 5th, 1850, and went to Otago, N.Z., with his parents in 1856. Having embraced the practice of the law he gained a leading position in the profession, and was appointed a judge of the native land court, with the position of a puisne judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, in 1890 by the Atkinson Government. When the Ballance Cabinet came into power in 1891, they disputed the appointment as ultra vires, but the New Zealand Court of Appeal decided that the nomination was valid. The case was carried to the Privy Council, and in May 1892 the Judicial Committee gave a decision adverse to the legality of the appointment, on the ground that Parliament had not previously been asked to provide Judge Edwards's salary. Mr. Edwards married at Wellington in June 1886 Miss Mary A. Cutten.