The Gazette 1946-49

tad been filed repeating paragraph by paragraph the terms of the petition. His Lordship observed that the only authority for this practice appeared to be derived from a case over a century old; he was not, he said, aware of the attitude of the Taxing Masters to the costs of such affidavits, but the practice appeared to him an undesirable one. There was no reason why an affidavit con– taining no more than one or two paragraphs, stating that the deponent had read the Petition and that the matters therein stated were in all respects true, should not be sufficient. APPLICATION FOR DIRECTION ON PLAINTIFF'S CASE IN the GAZETTE for March, 1944, there was reference to recent English cases laying down the practice in the matter of an application to the judge by the defendant for a direction in his favour on the ground that the evidence for the plaintiff had not made out a prima facie case for the relief sought. The English practice is that the defendant on such an application should be asked to elect either to stand on his application and not to call any evidence, or to go into evidence, and the judge will not rule on the application for a direction until this election is made. Since these cases were reported there seems to have been some doubt as to whether they would be followed here. These doubts may have been resolved by the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Bradley v. Coras lompair Eireann, as yet unreported. It is understood that Maguire, C.]. then President of the High Court stated on the hearing before him that he would follow the practice of the English Courts, and that Counsel would be put to his election, on an application for a direction on the ground of " no case," between foregoing the right to call evidence and having his application for a direction refused. This practice is understood to have been disapproved of by the Supreme Court (Murnaghan, O'Byrne and Black, JJ. ; Geoghegan, J., dissenting) and the opinion was expressed that it would be undesirable to depart from the existing practice of the Irish Courts on such applications. The case was sent back for retrial. CALENDAR AND LAW DIRECTORY, 1947 OWING to difficulties in the printing trade it is unlikely that the Calendar will be available for distribution until March. The Council regret this unavoidable delay and every effort is being made to expedite publication. Any member who wishes to obtain a copy and who has not yet sent in an order, is advised to do so immediately. 55

IRISH LAWYERS IN AUSTRALIA THE following paragraphs, taken from a letter received by the Society from a solicitor in Sydney, may be of interest: " I am in communication with Messrs. Vincent and Beatty about a property in Dublin and in a letter I recently wrote I suggested that if they knew of any young members of the profession who were thinking of trying their fortunes outside Ireland or England, they might consider coming out here to Australia. " We read in our papers that great numbers of young people are finding life too hard or too restricted for them in Europe and who are going to newer lands. Irishmen have always done very well in the law in Australia, and in the early days of New South Wales and Victoria they were very prominent, especially in Victoria. The first four Chief Justices of Victoria, Stawell, Higginbotham, Irvine and Madden were Irish– men. Irvine was a nephew of John Mitchel, but in politics resembled Lord Halsbury more than his famous relative. Sir James Martin, great in politics and in advocacy a Chief Justice of New South Wales came from Co. Cork as did Stawell and Madden. These Irishmen all enriched our life in every respect. " It is true, of course, that these fertile streams almost died out in the last forty years, but Mr. C. V. Rooney, a Senior Crown Prosecutor, is an Irishman and Mr. J. A. Meagher a solicitor with a very large practice in the Courts was at one time very prominent in Dublin. " The Irishman's gift for advocacy, for argu– ment, for making a case, finds full scope in our courts and in our way of life, and Irishmen of all classes, mainly on account of their fighting records in our regiments in both World W^ars, are very popular in Australia. " I hasten to add that I am "not an immigration officer, but I would be glad to refer any inquirer to the proper authorities." A notable omission from the names mentioned by the Society's correspondent is that of The Rt. Hon. Sir Frank Gavan Duffy who was called to the Bar in Australia and subsequently became Chief Justice of the Commonwealth. He was a brother of Mr. Justice Gavan Duffy, President of the High Court. LENGTHY AFFIDAVITS GAVAN DUFFY, P., in the High Court recently referred to the practice of filing lengthy affidavits in support of petitions. The case before him was a petition under the Solicitors Act, and an affidavit