At a ceremonial sitting of the court yesterday to mark the appointment of new Chief Magistrate John Burns, the things that went unsaid were as significant as the words in the speeches.

Instead, there were expressions of mutual respect in the speeches of Attorney-General Simon Corbell and the newly appointed Chief Magistrate, and commitments to work together in the future.

There were no references to the notoriously testy relationship between former Chief Magistrate Ron Cahill and the Stanhope Government and not a single mention of the painful events surrounding Mr Cahill's resignation late last year.

ACT Law Society president Athol Morris and bar association president Stuart Pilkinton gave polite, well received speeches. But it was the words of the Attorney-General and the new Chief Magistrate that the great and the good of Canberra's legal community had crammed themselves into courtroom No 1 to hear.

Mr Corbell opened the ceremony, praising Mr Burns' career in the law, at the bar and on the bench and his efforts in improving efficiency as the court's listing coordinating magistrate. ''I'm sure the ACT community knows that your 20 years' experience places you in an ideal position to meet the challenges that this court faces every day and into the future,'' Mr Corbell said.

For more on this story, see today's Canberra Times.