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warning lights would be of inestimable value to the
profession as a whole.
Specialisation
The foregoing leads me naturally to the question
of specialisation. Solicitors are expected to know a
bit about everything but the law in former days was
much more straightforward and much less complex
than it is to-day and it is becoming more difficult to
do so.
It is not for me to attempt to tell solicitors how
to run their businesses but, in all walks of life, the
day of the specialist is approaching and I think
members of our profession should bear this very
much in mind and contemplate at all times grouping
into larger units rather than splitting into smaller
ones.
In a small country such as this, it is difficult to
be a specialist and I think all we can hope to achieve
is, while trying to be a general practitioner on the
one hand, we should all endeavour to have a specialist
line of our own as well.
Annual Report
I would commend to the members a careful study
of the annual report of the Council. This does not
really illustrate the amount of time and attention
given by members of the Council and of committees
to problems submitted by them by solicitors and to
matters which are of general interest to the profession
as a whole. Any member reading the report in full
will not fail to appreciate the wide variety of matters
which have engaged the attention of the Council and
of the committees over the past year.
Conclusion
To-day you have heard read to you the names of
the persons who will constitute your Council for the
year 1962/63. At the conclusion of these proceedings
the new Council will hold its first meeting and one
of its first duties will be to adopt the bye-laws for
the election of president and vice-presidents and to
authorise the issue of ballot papers to the Council to
elect my successor.
While the Council which elected me as president
has fulfilled its function and been replaced I will
continue for a matter of a few weeks until my
successor has been appointed.
This, however, is really my swan song and I hope
I may be forgiven if I conclude with a few personal
remarks.
I am very deeply conscious of the honour which
the Council and .the Society paid me in electing me
as president. I have endeavoured during my year to
do all in my power to uphold, maintain and enhance
the reputation of the Society. I have had the oppor
tunity of travelling to many parts of the country and
meeting many of my colleagues who, before then,
were only names. This has been a real privilege and
one of the pleasures which I will most long re
member. I hope and believe that I have made many
friends throughout the country and I look forward
to continuing and renewing these friendships.
I have also represented your Society at numerous
functions and have been the recipient of much
varied hospitality.
The flow of invitations to public functions indicate
to me the high regard in which your Society is held
throughout the country.
Frequently I have been accompanied by my wife
and we were treated as honoured guests wherever
we went. We both went to Scotland to attend the
annual week-end of the Scottish Law Society at
Gleneagles and to England to attend the Annual
Conference of the Law Society held last month in
Torquay. Both at Gleneagles and Torquay my wife
and I were most warmly and lavishly received and
entertained and I know that these continuing and
ever-growing contacts between this society and our
sister societies are invaluable, and to be fostered and
encouraged. The Society hope to repay some of this
hospitality to our English and Scottish friends at
Bundoran next May.
My wife and I with Mr. and Mrs. Ralph J. Walker,
represented the Society at the International Bar
Association Conference at Edinburgh last July.
Several other members of the Society and their
wives attended as conferees. We were all the
recipients of the traditional Scottish hospitality.
I would not be human if I did not admit that we
both have enjoyed all the functions which we have
attended but particularly the contacts and friendships
which we have made. We have been at all times
very conscious that we were your ambassadors and
we hope that, as such, we have done credit to the
Society.
I would like to say how very grateful I am to my
two vice-presidents, Mr. Frank Lanigan and Mr.
Bertie Taylor, who have so ably and willingly
supported me at every turn. They have always been
more than ready and willing, no matter what their
prior commitments, to take my place if required or
to take on any duties which I asked them to under
take. I could not have been better served.
I have been more than fortunate in the Council
with whom I have worked over the past twelve
months. They have been diligent in their attendance
and indefatigable in their energies. I think I might
safely say that the burden of the work on the Council
in the last year has been the heaviest ever as the
programme of law reform has entailed a measure of
study and research quite disproportionate to that
which normally comes their way.
I have had to call upon them individually to give