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his advice has been invaluable to his colleagues and
in accepting his resignation, which they do with
deep regret, they would like to convey to him their
very sincere good wishes in his new calling."
Mr. Cox has donated to the Society the Chair of
John Mitchell Attorney, and author of the "Jail
Journal" and a bust of Chief Justice Malone by
Nollens. The Council has accepted these gifts with
pleasure and conveyed to Mr. Cox its appreciation of
his kindly parting gesture.
May I say very sincerely to Mr. Cox on your behalf
and on my own "In the days that lie ahead of you,
be they long or short, may all your ways be ways of
pleasantness and all your Paths be Peace ".
You will each have had a copy of our Annual
Report and Statement of Accounts which I hope you
will iake time to read carefully if you have not
already done so. You will I am sure realise that it
would be quite impossible for me to deal in any
detail with the report in the time at my disposal
and accordingly I propose this afternoon to confine
my remarks to those matters which I consider should
be brought to your particular attention.
Education
This is a subject which quite rightly has occupied
and will continue to occupy a good deal of the
Councils time and attention and we have set out at
appendix B on Page 38 of our Report our mem
orandum to the Commission of Higher Education.
We have not yet been asked to appear before the
commission but are ready and willing to do so.
There are one or two points
in our memorandum
which I would like to stress.
For a long time we have felt that our system of
education is far too rigid and being established by
statutory enactments it cannot easily be changed to
meet changing times. We take the view that the
time has now come when power should be vested
in our Society to prescribe our own system of
education and training by statutory regulations made
if necessary with the approval of the President of
the High Court.
While under our present system I am satisfied
that our students are getting adequate instruction
and examination in the theory of law I am far from
happy that when first qualified they have any practical
knowledge at all. Technically they are expected to
serve an apprenticeship of 3, 4 or 5 years a,s the case
may be in their masters' office but in practice
academic study and lectures prevent them from so
doing.
Amongst other things we have made the following
recommendations :
Firstly:
Every intending solicitor should have a
university degree and in that connection we do not
limit his or her choice of subject.
Secondly :
Having obtained that degree and passed
our examinations in the Theory of Law every in
tending solicitor should serve two years at least as
a full time apprentice of a practising solicitor durnig
which period he should be entitled to earn a, salary.
Thirdly :
We recommend a common system of
legal education and examination for our profession
and the Bar ; greater ease of transfer from one pro
fession to the other, and reciprocity with other
countries which entry into the Common Market
will make more necessary than ever.
Fourthly :
Our students and indeed the members
of our profession must have adequate text books.
You will have seen from our report that the In
corporated Council of Law Reporting are now
arranging to have some books published and we can
only hope that the Government will realise that it
has some financial responsibility in this matter.
Much as we welcome the explanatory memoranda
how being published by the Stationery Office with
each new Act these are no adequate substitute for
text books.
With new statutes, which are effecting important
changes of the Law and which in many cases are
indeed long overdue, appearing with ever increasing
frequency, our profession, the Bar and indeed the
judges and justices are faced with the problem of
keeping ourselves up to date with these changes.
While within our own resources we will do all we
can to assist members by the provision of summaries
of the more important acts, these again cannot take
the place of text books which are quite beyond our
resources and must remain the responsibility of the
Council of Law Reporting assisted by adequate
government grants.
Before I leave the subject of education may I
express my admiration for and appreciation of the
work done by all our lecturers and examiners during
another year.
Legal Aid
The Minister for Justice recently announced the
Governments intention to introduce a legal aid
scheme in criminal cases and permission has been
obtained to introduce a Bill.
We understand that the Bill has actually been
drafted providing for legal aid in certain criminal
matters but up to the present we have not seen it
nor have we been consulted in regard to its pro
visions or implications.
I would like you to know that we have asked the
Minister for Justice as a matter of urgency to meet
us and discuss with us the provisions of the proposed
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