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dency of Mr. Jasper Wolfe. That Society was
incorporated in the year 1852, and fourteen years
afterwards Michael Morris, a Galway man, piloted
a Bill through the English Parliament which made
the Society full masters in their own house. That
Act continued in force until repealed in the year
1898 when a new Act was passed which gave the
Society the custody of the Roll of members and
the record of apprenticeships with full control
over the education, legal training and qualifica
tion of solicitors.
Since that date the Society has had to prescribe
curricula for the various examinations, appoint
and pay Professors and Examiners and arrange
for the admission of solicitors on the Pioll of the
Society. It also gave power to the Statutory
Committee to consider complaints made by any
members of the public against any member of the
profession and, where the hearing justified the
complaint, to report the findings of the Committee
to the Chief Justice.
Since the year 1866, and particularly since the
year 1898, the Society of Kings Inns have no
responsibility whatever, and took no hand, act
or part in the education, training or qualification,
of solicitors' apprentices and yet, since the Stamp
Act of 1791, they have received £14 out of the
Stamp Duty payable on the Indenture of every
apprentice. It was estimated that from the year
1866 up to the year 1889 that the Benchers of
the Kings Inns had received under that heading
alone, £22,876, for which the Society had received
no advantage and the Benchers have given
nothing in return. Since 1889 they must have
received a further sum of £50,000. I have gone
back on that history in the hope that the new
Solicitors' Bill or some other legislation may now
be carried through which may remedy this great
injustice to our profession. It may b"e particularly
opportune to raise the matter since we have
recently discovered that during the past three or
four years we have been spending more than our
income. The figures show a sum of over £4.00 as
excess of expenditure over income, and even after
deducting the sum set aside for depreciation, the
accounts show a loss of well over £200 and that
the Council is in danger of wasting some of its
valuable assets.
The Solicitors' Bill, as printed for the fourth
time, is still under consideration by the Executive
Council. At the Half-Yearly Meeting I told you of
some difficulty that was presenting itself to some
members of the Government and of the danger
of carrying out that line of thought and I don't
wish to repeat what I have said before. The views
I have expressed are as clear and definite as they
were six months ago. There has been no delay on
the part of the Council; all reports and answers
to queries have been made out promptly and the
Council will give their unremitting attention to
the matter until the Bill shall become law, which
I hope will be the case in the very near future.
We have been agitated since our last Half-Yearly
Meeting by an order made by the Minister for
Finance, called the Land Registration Fee Order,
of 1944. Our report for the year shows the in
creases in the fees paid to the Land Registry on
transfers of Registered Land. The order was made
by the Minister without any notice to our Society
and without any consultation with any of our
members. Of course, the Minister was not legally
obliged to consult with us, but if we had been
consulted I believe that we would have shown
him the absurdity of placing such heavy burdens
on the farmers of this country and I believe that
our advice would have been much more valuable
than
that of the clever mathematician who
framed the figures of that order. We have given in
our Report the fees payable under that Order
and those of the Order of 1937 and they show
increases of from 76 per cent, to 1,130 per cent.
The Government have now decided to set up a
Committee under the chairmanship of Master
O'Hanlon to consider the revocation of that order.
Our Council pressed the Department of Justice to
suspend that order pending the report of that
Committee. The Department considered
the
suggestion impracticable but stated that the
Committee could recommend a
interim
modifica
tion of the existing fees. We pressed for the right
of our Council to nominate three members on
that Committee. The Department have agreed to
two members. We shall consider that question
at our meeting to-day and our members may rest
assured that we will advocate the repeal,
if
possible, of the order.
We have been asked to call a meeting of the
solicitors of Ireland to be held in public, to make a
protest against the onerous burdens imposed by
the order. We have delayed the calling of such a
meeting until the outcome of the report of the
Committee and its adoption by the Government,
but the members can rest assured that if the final
result the wishes of the profession are not carried
out that such a meeting will be summoned and
our grievances fully ventilated.
I do not think that anything remains for me to
add, and I now move the adoption of the Annual
Report.
Mr. Roger Greene seconded the adoption of
the report.
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