The Gazette 1924-27

L1 UNE . 1926

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society ot Ireland.

idea underlying this Bill appears to be to treat all the officers appointed under it as a branch of the Civil Service, and to make the members of the staff of the several offices interchangeable. To a limited extent the Council agreed this might be practicable, but in the case of some of the principal officers we regarded it as essential for the good working of the department that the principal officer should have a sound knowledge of law, which would be evidenced by his either having a professional qualifica– tion or by service in the particular office for a certain number of years. In an especial degree we think this applies to: (1) the office of the Registrar of the Chief Justice, who is in future to have the control of minors and lunatics ; (2) the Examiner, who now takes the place of the Chief Clerk of the late Chancery Division : and (3) the Principal Probate Officer, and we submitted amend– ments accordingly to the Minister for Justice. In company with the two Vice- Presidents and our Secretary I had an interview with the Minister, and we strongly urged on him the importance of this matter, and pointed out that the work done by these particular officers was largely of a judicial nature that could only be properly and efficiently done by a trained lawyer. Whilst we had no desire that the present officers filling these positions should be discharged, we were anxious that in the case of a new appointment the office of Examiner (formerly Chief Clerk) should be filled by a Solici or of not less than ten years' standing, or by a person who had some years' experience in the late Chancery Division and the new High Court, and an amendment to that effect was proposed in the Committee stage in the Dail. This was similar to the qualification pre– scribed for a Chief Clerk (whose work is now taken over by the Examiner) under the Chancery (Ireland) Act, 1867. I regret that this amendment has so far not been accepted by the Minister, although he has agreed that the office of Registrar to the Chief Justice should be filled by a Barrister. There were several other suggestions for amending the Bill, and some of these were accepted by the Minister. I should like to take this opportunity of thanking him for the patient hearing which he gave our deputa–

tion, and I trust he will yet see his way to accept the amendments which we suggested and which we believe are of vital importance if really efficient machinery is to be provided for taking accounts and inquiries involving of necessity nice points of law. No Representation in the Senate. Here, incidentally, I should like to call attention to the fact that our profession, carrying on as it does a great public service, is greatly hampered in bringing useful con– structive criticism on measures such as this, which so intimately concern the administra– tion of justice, in that it has no representa– tive either in the Dail or in the Senate. The Constitution provided that so far as possible the several interests of the community should be represented in the Senate. Art, Literature, Science, Medicine, the Bar, Commerce, Agriculture and Labour, are all more or less represented in the Senate. The Solicitors' profession has not a single representative. This is not as it should be, and we earnestly hope that when next a Senator is to be co-opted the claims of the profession and the advantage of its representation will be fairly considered. Amendment of the Bankruptcy Laws. The Council appointed Mr. Hayes, Mr. Seddall and myself as their representatives at the Conference of the Chamber of Com– merce, held to consider amendments in Bankruptcy Law. We attended several meetings of this Conference, and, no doubt, you will have seen in the daily Press the several amendments suggested, and which have been forwarded to the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Industry and Commerce. The principal amendment in the recent suggestions is to make it possible to have a binding agreement for a composition with creditors without the necessity of obtaining the concurrence of every single one of these creditors, the amendment providing that a majority in number and three-fourths in value shall bind the other creditors. Such a provision is very necessary in small cases where the costs of an arrangement through the Courts would be prohibitive.