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suggest that solicitors in their professional contacts
with clients, and by every other means open to them
in the localities where they practice, should avail of
every opportunity o f bringing home to their clients
and neighbours the realities underlying this tax and
o f organising public opinion against it.
I turn from this subject to a matter which
has engaged the attention of the Council for
some years and in which I think there is some
reason now to hope for improvement, namely the
necessity of installing modern and up-to-date
methods in the Court offices, with a view to speeding
up business. The most obvious need is to instal
photostatic machines for the reproduction o f copies
of wills and probates required by personal repre
sentatives in connection with the administration of
estates. Representations on these lines have been
made on several occasions by the Council, and
recently the matter has been re-opened. It is
understood that the Department of Justice is
actively investigating the possibility of doing some
thing on these lines in such offices as the Public
Records Office, the Central Office, Probate Office
and the Land Registry. In the Probate Office alone
it would be an immense advantage as it would
dispense with the tedious work both of engrossing
copies of wills and grants and comparing the copies
with the originals, thereby effecting a great saving
of time. Furthermore, a solicitor for an executor
o f an estate which included a dozen or more holdings
of stocks and shares, could obtain a dozen photo
static copies of the grant and register them with all
the companies simultaneously, instead o f sending
one “ hand-made copy ” peregrinating round a
dozen companies. I think, however, the system
might have even wider uses. I do not see, although
there may be good reasons, why all the copying
work in the Probate Office, the Central Office and
the Land Registry could not be done with
immeasurably greater speed and satisfaction, and
with the certainty of eliminating errors by means
of photostatic machines. I should think that the
work o f these various offices would fully engage
the services of at least one machine with its operator,
and that the capital and running cost could be
recovered by fees which would not be excessive.
The continued delays in the Land Registry are
a matter of serious concern to the Council. I doubt
if the responsible Government Departments really
appreciate how serious the position has become.
The Society for the past four or five years has
been voicing the complaints of the profession
concerning these delays, and we have from time
to time received assurances that steps were being
taken to deal with the position. Any action that
has been taken up to the present has been a mere
palliative, and we have always found that after
the lapse o f a month or two the situation became
as bad as ever. It seems to me that the whole
system of Registration of Title, which was designed
in 1891 to deal with a volume o f work about oner
third o f its present dimensions, has broken down.
The object of the Local Registration o f Title Act,
1891 was to introduce “ a cheap and speedy system
of Registration of Title.” From cases which reach
the Society, it is clear that the registration o f even
a simple dealing may take many months, and there
is a long and growing arrear o f work in the Registry.
The office fees in the Land Registry were increased
in 1944 by amounts ranging from 100 per cent, to
700 per cent, on the scale then in existence and
instead of the cheap and expeditious system
proposed by the Act, we have now a costly, slow
and complicated system. Solicitors who have to
explain these matters to their clients find it almost
impossible to make laymen understand the cause
o f these delays. I greatly fear that with the increase
of work flowing into the Land Registry through
the Small Dwellings’ Acquisition Act, 1899, and
the programme o f vesting under the Land Acts,
the situation in the Land Registry will deteriorate
rather than improve.
The Council has already suggested that S. 15 (1)
o f the Small Dwellings’ Acquisition Act, 1899,
which requires the title to all property purchased
through that Act to be registered under the Local
Registration Act, should be repealed. I f this were
done it would save the Land Registry from being
flooded under a further avalanche o f work which
would overwhelm it, but much more radical treat
ment will be required if the present deficiencies
in the system of registration o f title are to be
remedied.
There is one other topic which has been mentioned
by Presidents from this platform in years past and
to which I should like to recur, namely advice to
parents whose sons and daughters are on the
threshold of life and are on the point o f making
a vital decision as to the choice o f a career. The
career of a solicitor may seem agreeable and
interesting, and no doubt for those who are properly
adapted and circumstanced, it offers work of variety
and interest, as well as opportunities of service to
our fellow men in trying to solve their manifold
difficulties. But I would offer this word o f caution—
the profession is overcrowded, without the
compensatory factor in the case o f other professions
of an outlet for practice in England and abroad.
The opportunities for remunerative private practice
have been further curtailed by the tremendous
increase in office rents, wages, and. general overhead
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