Editing Dudley Ward (judge) (section)

==Judiciary==
On 1 June 1857, 18 months after his election to Parliament, Ward was appointed chairman of the Courts of Sessions of the Peace for the [[Wellington Province|Province of Wellington]] and presiding judge of the Magistrate's Courts for [[Hawke's Bay Region|Hawke's Bay]], [[Wairarapa]] and [[Whanganui|Wanganui]]. On 1 January 1864, he was given a two-year appointment as Resident Magistrate at [[Wellington]], the capital. The remainder of his career was appointments as District Judge for a series of individual provinces until, after more than 49 years service, his retirement in March 1906, aged almost 79, on a pension of £800 per annum.

=== Supreme Court ===
Ward was appointed Acting Supreme Court Judge on four occasions: September 1867 Dunedin; September 1886 Auckland; September 1887 Christchurch; March 1894 Dunedin again.

He had been involved in the parliamentary ''Ward-Chapman'' enquiry of 1874–75 after he laid certain charges of gross partiality against Justice [[Henry Samuel Chapman|Chapman]] of the Supreme Court. Chapman retired in 1875.

Ward declined a permanent appointment on the Supreme Court bench in June 1896, the offer being received just after the death of his wife, and he declined an Acting Supreme Court judgeship in the following year.<ref name="ODT obit">{{cite news | url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=ODT19130901.2.60 | title=Obituary | work=[[Otago Daily Times]] | date=1 September 1913 | issue=15857 | page=5}}</ref>