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following had been returned unopposed as Pro–
vincial Delegates :
Ulster:
John Gillespie;
Munster :
J. A. Blood-Smyth ; Leinster :
Reginald
J. Nolan; Connaught: C. E. Callan, and that the
following had been elected as the thirty-one ordinary
members of the Council, having received the number
of votes placed after their respective names :
Arthur Cox 490, Daniel O'Connell 449, Patrick F.
O'Reilly 447, Henry St. J. Blake 444, J. Travers
Wolfe 423, Thomas A. O'Reilly 417, William S.
Haye
412, Scan
(!)
hUadhaigh 408, William J.
Norman 402, G. A. Overend 398, Peter O'Connor
385, P. R. Boyd 384, James J. Lynch 372, John J.
Bolger 371, Joseph P. Tyrrell 370, John B. Hamill
369, John P. Carrigan 366, John S. O'Connor 365,
W. L. Duggan 364, Lughaidh E. 0 Deaghaidh 357,
Roger Greene 355, Henry P. Mayne 354, Joseph
Barrett 347, Dermot P. Shaw 326, Hugh O'Donnell
323, James R. Quirke 321, John J. Dunne 314,
William S. Huggard 309, R. A. Macaulay 304, Niall
S. Gaffney 302, John J. Smyth 299, with the
following as the supplemental list in case of vacancies:
Cecil G. Stapleton 285, John P. Gannon 247,
David R. Pigot 245.
The President, in moving the adoption of the
Annual Report said :
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I am very pleased to have the opportunity of again
addressing you and of meeting you here to-day.
Your presence is evidence of the interest you take
in the affairs of the Society and I know the members
of the Council are gratified with the support you
accord those meetings.
Since our last half-yearly meeting in May the
Council has continued to safeguard the interests
of our profession and has been called on actively
over the intervening months to consult and take
action in many spheres.
During this period death has taken away a number
of members of the profession. These include Mr.
Edward Mallins and Mr. Thomas J. Greene, former
members of the Council, William J. Girvan, District
Justice Meagher, William J. Keery, Patrick F.
Molony, William Morrogh, Robert W. Hamilton,
Joseph Fegan, Philip H. O'Reilly.
We deeply
regret their passing and to their relatives we tender
our sympathy.
During the past year in response to an appeal
made on behalf of the Council some 36 new
members have joined the Society. This is satisfactory
but our membership is not yet what it should be.
We should have as members of the Society every
practising Solicitor and I am hopeful that in the
near future we shall have attained this object.
Members present at this meeting can help by seeking
to encourage others to join,
The Solicitors' Bill has received the attention of
the Executive Council and the Department of Justice
has been engaged in the work of drafting the final
form prior to its introduction in the Dail. Rep–
resentatives of the Council have attended on the
Minister for Justice on two occasions and have
given the views of the Society on this most important
Bill which has been unavoidably held over so long.
It is hoped that in the coming months progress will
be made towards placing the Bill on the Statute
Book.
During the past year the activities of your Council
in safeguarding and forwarding the interests of the
profession have been varied and manifold.
I
think it will be apparent from the reference in the
Report to the number of meetings of the Council
and its Committees seventy in all or an average of
more than one meeting each week, not excluding
the Christmas
and Long Vacations that
the
members of the Council have no idle office. Of
necessity during the Emergency the chief burden
of Committee work fell on the shoulders of the
Dublin members of the Council, but I am sure
that with the coming of better travelling facilities
the Provincial members of the Council will be able
to resume their accustomed part in the work of
the Society. An important part of the work of the
Society is to watch legislation in its passage through
the Oireachtas with a view to ensuring as far as
possible that the rights and liberties of the citizen
and the relationship between solicitor and State
are not prejudiced by legislative enactment.
The
Secretary receives a copy of each Bill as it is intro–
duced and refers to a Standing Committee of the
Council any matters which seem to call for action
by the Society. You will see from the report that
the Council found it necessary to submit amend–
ments to a number of Bills during the year and I
should like to thank Mr. John S. O'Connor, T.D.,
and Senator O'Dea for their Parliamentary services
in this connection.
At this point I should like to refer to a matter of
serious importance to the profession, but of still
greater importance in its effects upon the constitu–
tional rights of the citizen.
I refer to the growing
tendency towards setting up quasi-judicial bodies
invested with far-reaching powers and important
functions affecting the lives of a great number of
people constituted entirely of
lay
adjudicators
without a lawyer either as chairman or as a member
of the board. In some cases the Act setting up the
tribunal or regulations thereunder expressly enact
that no party coming before it may be represented
by counsel or solicitor without the special permis–
sion of the tribunal. The idea underlying this type
of legislation has been translated here directly from
England where it is regarded by impartial and com-