The Gazette 1946-49

the subject, but it is hoped that the Council's views

will be accepted.

We have again had an interview with the Secretary

of the Department

Justice in furtherance of our

Solicitors Bill. The present position is that the

Bill is receiving the attention of the Minister on

some points that we were able to express the views

of the Council upon. There is reason to hope that

the Bill will be considered by the Executive Council

in the immediate future.

The Secretary to "the Commissioners of Charitable

Donations and Bequests was interviewed on the

subject of the complaint of members that clients are

sometimes written to direct with reference to the

publication of the Statutory Notice and without

reference to the solicitor on record.

It was sug–

gested to the Secretary that writing direct to the

personal representatives should be discontinued as

it causes embarrassment to solicitors, and that in

lieu thereof in cases where the notice has not been

published a letter should be written' to the solicitor

pointing out the statutory obligation to do so.

In many cases there is some good reason for the

delay, and in such cases we thought the Commis–

sioners might reasonably agree to deal with the

solicitor direct. As a result of our conversation an

agreement was arrived at that provided the solicitor

notifies the Commissioners and lodges the Probate

or Letters of Administration as soon as possible

after it has been extracted the personal representa–

tives will not be communicated with unless the

solicitor has first been notified of the omission to

publish the Notice. A note to that effect and

fully explanatory has been published in the GAZETTE.

Solicitors are asked to facilitate the Commissioners

by publishing the Statutory Notice as soon as

possible unless publication has been waived by the

Commissioners and in any event to lodge the

Probate or Letters of Administration for noting

without delay.

In any case in which for one reason

or another it is not possible to obtain the Grant of

Probate or Letters of Administration within the

statutory period of four months the solicitor should

write to the Commissioners informing them that

he is acting and that in due course the Grant will

be obtained and lodged for noting, and that in any

event the notices will be published or application

made for exemption from publication as soon as

possible.

The subject of Law Reform is of very great

importance.

It is also a topic on which very much

could be said, and I do not propose to dwell on it

here as it has been commented on by more than

one of my predecessors in office at Half-yearly

General Meetings. Pending the setting up of a

Law Reform Committee no progress can be made

in remedying the existing defects.

A matter that is closely allied and of scarcely less

importance is that of the urgent need of the pro–

fession for the publication of legal text books both

for students of the law and for practitioners. As

everyone is well aware we rely almost exclusively

for our standard legal text books on the principal

English Law Publishing Firms, and down to the year

1922 and for a few years afterwards the text books

published in England were adequate for the needs

of Irish

lawyers. With

the passage of time,

however, we arrived at a cross-roads, and English

law tended to diverge more and more from, the

law of this country. This was to a large extent due

to the modernisation of English property, con–

veyancing and Company law, while the law of this

country has remained unchanged in many aspects

for the past twenty-five years. The result has been

that the modern English text books which have

been published since 1925 deal with statutes which

have no application here.

So far as common law

is concerned there was very little change, but the

statute laws in England have been amended and

revised to a greater extent. Our students have been

compelled to rely upon the pre-i923 editions of

standard books

such as Williams on Personal

Property, Snell on Equity, and Palmer on Company

Law. These editions have been very difficult to

obtain, and partly, I believe, as a result of the

destruction of property in London during the war

they have now become almost unprocurable.

our apprentices are to be properly equipped to

undertake the practice of the law on being admitted

as solicitors they must be provided with the appro–

priate legal text books to enable them to acquire

the requisite knowledge, and I regret to state the

present position is far from satisfactory and is

likely to become more so in the future unless some

active steps are taken to remedy the position. The

Council have not been unmindful of their respon–

sibilities in this respect and have pointed out to the

Government from time to time the necessity for

providing these text books. The war, of course,

put a stop to work in this direction, but it is to be

hoped that with the return of more normal con–

ditions the position will be faced and the necessary

funds provided for the publication of up-to-date

legal books. Apart from the necessity of our

students

their

research, practitioners, both

solicitors and Counsel, are severely handicapped

by having to rely upon old editions of standard

text books such as Vanston's Local Government,

Wylie's Judicature Acts, O'Connor's Justice of the

Peace and the treatises on Company Law. The

absence of up-to-date advanced books is bound to

retard the administration of justice, and

if, as

appears likely, the statute law of this country is

going to continue on different lines to the laws of