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tants, were re-appointed Auditors for the year to

end 3Oth April, 1948.

The Secretary read the report of the Scrutineers

of the Ballot of the Council for the year to end

26th November, 1948, which stated that the fol

lowing had been returned unopposed as Provincial

Delegates :

Ulster, John Gillespie; Munster, A. J.

Blood-Smyth ; Leinster, Reginald J. Nolan ; Con-

naught, Christopher E. Callan;

and

that

the

following had been elected as the thirty-one ordinary

members of the Council, having received the number

of votes placed after their respective names : H. St.,

J.Blake, 418; Arthur Cox, 411 ; Daniel O'Connell,

389 ; William L. Duggan, 388 ; Patrick F. O'Reilly,

383;

J. Travers Wolfe, 367;

Joseph Tyrrell,

364; William J. Norman, 361; Joseph Baxrett,

359; Thomas A. O'Reilly, 351 ; Patrick R. Boyd;

351; James J. Lynch, 348; William S. Hayes,

345 ; G. A. Overend, 343 ;

J. P. Carrigan, 340 ;

Dermot P. Shaw, 335 ; Lughaidh E. O Deaghaidh,

335 ; Scan O hUadhaigh, 334;

J. B. Hamill, 334

John J. Bolger, 326 ; Henry P. Mayne, 319; Roger

Greene, 316; James R. Quirke, 307; William S.

Huggard, 307;

John S. O'Connor, 303 ;

Peter

O'Connor, 299; John B. J. Dunne, 296 ; Niall S.

Gaffney, 288; John J. Smyth, 284; Francis J.

Gearty, 266 ; Robert A. Macaulay, 263 ; with the

following as

the supplemental list

in case

of

vacancies :

Anthony J. Malone, 234; John P. J.

Gannon, 232 ; Derrick M. Martin, 216.

The President, in moving the adoption of the

Annual Report, said:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

I should first like to welcome you all here to-day.

The half-yearly meetings of the Society are not as

a rule very largely attended by the members of the

Society.

I think this must be evidence that the

members of the Society are satisfied with the

manner in which their interests are looked after

by the Council. Like the shareholders in a well-

managed company, they are interested more in the

results than in how the results are achieved.

It

would, however, be desirable that the members

of the Society should take an active interest in the

everyday management of the Society, and it is

therefore, in my view, regrettable that a larger

number of members do not attend these half-yearly

meetings. The Council are always interested in the

view-point of the individual member. Any repre

sentations or suggestions put forward at these

meetings are always carefully considered by

the

Council, and if they are practicable suggestions,

and in the interests of the profession, effect is

given to them.

Since the last half-yearly meeting of the Society

the following members of the Society have died:

Mr. Archibald Clarke, Mr. Vesey C. Nash, Mr.

Frederick W. D. Moorhead, Mr. Henry E. Donegan,

Mr. Edward Thornton, Mr. Charles Jermyn, Mr.

William Dwyer, Mr. Patrick Donnelly, Mr. J. P.

Lonan Murphy, Mr. Richard L. O'Flaherty, Mr.

Aloysius D. O'Riordan. We deeply regret their

loss, and tender our sympathy to their relatives.

Membership of the Society

You have read in the Annual Report circulated

with the Agenda for this meeting that the members

of the Society for the current year number 1,084.

This is a slight increase over the number for the

previous year. During the past six years there has

been a considerable increase in the number of

members, but I regret to say that there are still

almost 300 members of the solicitors profession

who, while continuing to benefit from the activities

of the Society, do not think it worth their while

to pay the annual subscription of

£i

necessary for

membership. This must strike you all as extra

ordinary, but it is a fact.

I doubt if there is any

other profession in which such a large body of

practitioners

remain

outside

the

professional

organisation. I hope that as a result of the appeals

made from time to time these members will join the

Society, and that we shall shortly have a membership

of one hundred per cent.

Bar Associations

NEXT to membership of the Society, the most

important thing, in my view, is that each solicitor

should be a member of a provincial Bar Association.

The Society regulates the profession as a whole,

and speaks on behalf of the profession when

occasion requires.

It is also charged with the

duty of protecting the interests of the profession

as a whole throughout the country. The Society,

however, is not as closely in touch with the indivi

dual solicitor as is his local Bar Association, which

knows intimately the conditions affecting its par

ticular locality and the general opinion of the

practitioners in that locality. There are a number

of matters with which Bar Associations are better

qualified to deal than the Society, except as a last

resort.

In my opinion, the standard of professional

conduct between solicitors among themselves and

towards their clients, and the efficiency with which

clients' business is transacted is raised and main

tained by the existence of a strong and well-

organised Bar Association. Unfair practices, such

as canvassing for business and undercutting, which

are as much against the interests of the client as of

the profession, can best be eliminated by the action

of the individual members of the profession operat

ing through their local Bar Associations,

In the