{{Short description|New Zealand lawyer and judge}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=January 2017}} thumb|Sim in 1924 '''Sir William Alexander Sim''' (13 September 1858 – 29 August 1928) was a New Zealand lawyer and judge.
He was born in Wanganui, New Zealand, and died in Wellington. Wilfrid Sim was his son.<ref name="DNZB Sim">{{DNZB|title=William Alexander Sim|first= Nigel|last= Jamieson|id=3s18|accessdate=1 December 2011}}</ref>
In the 1924 King's Birthday Honours, Sim was appointed a Knight Bachelor.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32941 |date=3 June 1924 |page=4408 |supp=y}}</ref>
== Sim Commission == Sim was appointed as chairman of a royal commission set up in 1926 to inquire into confiscations of native lands in the nineteenth century as well as other grievances alleged by Māori.<ref>{{Cite news|last=J. C.|date=26 October 1926|title=The raupatu case: Maori war confiscations|work=Auckland Star|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19261026.2.109|access-date=20 December 2021|via=Paperspast}}</ref> The commission has come to be known as the Sim Commission. The other two commissioners were Vernon Herbert Reed and William Cooper.
The commission was to report on four areas:<blockquote>(1) "Whether, having regard to all the circumstances and necessities of the period during which proclamations and Orders-in-Council under the said Acts were made and confiscations effected, such confiscations or any of them exceeded in quantity what was fair and just, whether, as a penalty for rebellion and other acts of that nature, or as providing for protection by settlement as defined in the said Acts.
(2) "Whether any lands included in any confiscation were of such a nature that they should have been excluded for some special reason.
(3) "Whether any, and if so, what, natives (having a title to or interest in lands confiscated), are, in your opinion, justly entitled to claim compensation in respect of the confiscation of such title or interest, and if so, what natives or classes or families of natives are now entitled by descent or otherwise to claim and receive such compensation.
(4) "Whether reserves or other provision subsequently made for the support and maintenance of natives within one or more of the classes excepted were, in regard to any particular tribe or hapu, inadequate for the purpose."<ref>{{Cite news|date=27 October 1926|title=Grievances of Maoris|work=New Zealand Herald|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19261027.2.104|access-date=20 December 2021|via=Paperspast}}</ref></blockquote>The Commission reported back to the Government in 1928.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1928|title=Confiscated Native Lands and Other Grievances. Royal Commission to Inquire Into Confiscations of Native Lands and Other Grievances Alleged By Natives (Report Of)|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1928-I.2.2.6.13|journal=Appendix to the Journal of the House of Representatives|volume=Session I, G-7|pages=1-40|via=Paperspast}}</ref>
==See also== The 1908 Blackball miners' strike
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{cite web|url= http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH19280830.2.86.1&srpos=3&e=28-08-1928-10-09-1928--100--1-byDA-on--0Sim-ILLUSTRATION- |title= Photo of Sir William Sim |publisher= New Zealand Herald (Papers Past) |date=30 August 1928}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sim, William}} Category:1858 births Category:1928 deaths Category:19th-century New Zealand lawyers Category:High Court of New Zealand judges Category:People from Whanganui Category:New Zealand Knights Bachelor Category:20th-century New Zealand judges
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