The Gazette 1940-44

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland

May, 1940J

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be forgotten by those who worked with him. Yet I venture to say that great as were his talents, and strenuous and successful as was his work for the profession, his colleagues will best remember John J. Duggan as a great gentleman, with qualities of heart and character, not easy to analyse or define, which inspired not only admiration and respect, but affectionate regard in those who had the privilege of his friendship. I also wish briefly to refer to the late Mr. James A. Denning, a former member of our profession, who served on the Council of the Society up to the year 1914 when he was appointed as Taxing Master. To the younger members of the profession Mr. Denning can only have been known as Taxing Master, but many in this Hall to-day will recall him to mind as a distinguished practising Solicitor and a loyal colleague. He died full of years and honour, and with many of us his memory will long remain. The late Mr. Thomas Ireland for many years acted as one of the honorary auditors of the Society's accounts. He was a much respected member of our profession. His death and the deaths of many others of our professional brethren are deeply deplored. During the last six months the Council has been unusually busy in attending to matters affecting our profession. A great deal of work has been done, not all of which can at the moment be referred to in detail. One of the principal matters engaging the time and close attention of the Council may possibly be the subject of a special meeting of the Society at a later date. LAND REGISTRY. As a result of representations made by the Council to the Registrar of Titles a change has been introduced into the Office practice, and for the future Solicitors lodging copies of Folios to be written up will receive them back with the copies of the revised Folios when issued. The Registrar who has at all times carefully considered suggestions from the Council in reference to improvements in Office practice, has emphasised the advan– tages from the point of view of Solicitors of the revision of Folios, resulting in a lessening of labour in tracing out-of-date entries of

pertinent to the title.

LAW REPORTS. The Council through its representatives on the Incorporated Council of Law Report– ing has raised a question about the method and expense of obtaining official copies of judgments required for Appeals or other purposes. Our representations on the subject were sympathetically received, and while it is too soon to say that the grievances put forward will be wholly remedied, I have great hopes that an arrangement will be made for a more equitable system of charges. We recognise the great difficulties besetting the path of the Council of Law Reporting in its endeavours, with resources wholly inadequate to the task, to continue the official reporting of decided cases, without which the work of the Courts would be severely hampered. We can only hope that the sympathy of the Government may be enlisted and that a substantial grant, adequate to the necessity of the case may be forthcoming. I think our own Society might fairly be asked to increase the annual grant of thirty pounds which we make to this important work. LEGAL TEXT BOOKS. Somewhat similar to the difficulties of maintaining adequate law reporting are the difficulties confronting the Council in the matter of text books to be prescribed and recommended for our professional examina– tions. The list of such books is revised every year in consultation with the Special Exam– iners. The text books suitable for the use of our apprentices in some branches of law, notably the law of real property, are few in number, for the recent editions of standard English Text bqpks deal only with English law of property which since the year 1925 has undergone revolutionary changes. We are therefore thrown back upon text books written before 1925 which is not altogether satisfactory, but the difficulty already exists and every year is becoming more acute that these old editions of the text books are scarce and even second-hand copies are in some cases almost impossible to obtain. So far we have been able to prescribe books which can, though with difficulty, be obtained, but unless more Irish text books are produced, the day is approaching when legal education in this country will be seriously hampered.