75 / 144
DECEMBER, 1931]
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.
27
W. S. Hayes, 301 ;
T. H. R. Craig, 300 ;
D. J. Reilly, 295 ;
E. H. Burne, 288 ;
J. J.
Lynch, 288; A. H. S. Orpen, 286 ;
A. D.
Orr, 285 ; C. J. Laverty, 284 ; E. J. Mallins,
281 ;
Peter O'Connor, 280 ; H. K. Toomey,
279 ;
M. E. Knight, 276 ;
Basil Thompson,
274 ; W. G. Bradley, 272 ; P. J. O'Sullivan,
265 ;
P. N. Smith, 261 ; G. A. Overend, 251 ;
W. V. Seddall, 246 ;
H. P. Mayne, 244 ;
P. E. O'Donnell, 225 ;
J. B. Hamill, 216
And the following to form a supplemental
list in case of vacancies : William Earl}',
211 ; W. J. Norman, 185 ; John J. Shiel, 184.
THE
PRESIDENT,
addressing
the
meeting, said :
Gentlemen, on rising to move the adoption
of the Report which is in your hands, I am
glad to have the opportunity of welcoming
you to our new home. Our new premises are,
as you see, on a site adjoining the site upon
which our old premises stood, but they have
this great advantage over the old premises
that they are self-contained.
I have no
hesitation in saying that these new premises
will adequately fulfil their purpose and are
fitting headquarters for our profession.
In
addition to this fine Hall we have a most
dignified Council Chamber, and excellent
Library, accommodation for our Secretary
and his staff, and a Lecture and Examination
Hall for our apprentices. These premises are
a credit to the architectural skill of Mr. Byrne,
principal Architect of the Board of Works,
who designed them, to his assistants, and to
Messrs. Alex. Hull & Co., the builders ; and
we also owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. R.
Caulfeild Orpen, R.H.A., who,
as
our
Architect, looked after our interests, and to
our Secretary, Mr. Wakely, who from the
time that the rebuilding of the Four Courts
commenced has spared no effort in assuring
that our premises would be all that they
should be, and whose efforts have been
crowned with success.
Membership of the Society.
The membership this year (701) shows a
slight increase over that of last year (690),
while the number of Solicitors practising in
the Irish Free State has increased from 1,032
to 1,038 ;
the increased membership is to a
certain extent gratifying, but, as so many of
my predecessors have said, it is not enough.
Every Solicitor in the Irish Free State should
be a member of our Society, and I am satisfied
that if those members of our profession who
are not members of our Society realised all
that the Society does for the good of the
profession generally, they would at once join
our Society.
Courts of Justice Act, 1924.
You will recollect that when I addressed
you at the half-yearly meeting in May last
I told you that the Minister for Justice had
stated in the Dail that he proposed in the
autumn of this year to introduce legislation
on the Report of the Joint Committee of the
Oireachtas dated the 6th November, 1930,
and I also told you that your Council had
made certain suggestions to the Minister with
regard to such legislation. Unfortunately,
the Minister has not yet found it possible to
introduce the promised legislation ;
I am
sure he will do so at the earliest possible
moment, and when he does I hope the
opportunity will be taken of codifying the
rules of procedure in the Supreme Court and
High Court. We are at present working on a
set of Rules adopting and modifying in certain
respects the Rules of the old Supreme Court of
Judicature, which makes it necessary on
many occasions to refer to these latter Rules.
It would, I think, be more satisfactory to
have one complete code of Rules under the
Courts of Justice Act, 1924, on which we
could work without reference to
the old
Rules.
Circuit Court Rules.
This is a subject which has called for our
attention for many years, and as the position
is now clear I need not enlarge on it to any
great extent. You will all remember that as
the result of the decision in the case of
" Ouinn and White v. Stokes and Quirke "
a Special General Meeting of this Society was
held on the 19th August last, at which
meeting the resolution, which will be found
in the Report, was passed. At that Special
General Meeting I told you that on the 12th
August the Minister for Justice and the
Attorney-General met a deputation con–
sisting of three members of the Bar, myself
and your Secretary, and that the Minister,
while he found it impossible to immediately
summon the Dail and Senate to a special
session
to pass
the necessary
legislation
legalising all decrees and orders made, and