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May, 1940J
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland
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of labour in tracing out-of-date entries of
dealings with
registered
land no
longer
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.