The Gazette 1914-15

21

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland.

JUNE, 1914]

he would be in favour of increasing the subscription to £2 a year. What he should like to see was that, before a candidate received his certificate.lhe should be obliged to become a member of the Society. He thought that if Mr. Rooney's motion was carried it would be a breach of the contract they made with their country friends in 1888. MR. R. A. MACNAMARA'said he voiced the opinion of the majority of the Council, a view that was taken without any hostility to their country friends, with whom they had all worked in the greatest harmony. The motion was not moved by a country solicitor. The reason, he presumed, was that country solicitors would not go back on what was arranged in 1888. Up to that year all members paid £1, then it was decided to make the subscription for country members 10s., and to give to those who paid 10s. the right to vote for a Provincial Delegate, and the additional right of voting for ordinary mem bers of Council, to those who paid one pound. In 1888 the entire matter was gone into, and there was then provided a permanent country representation on the Council of ten members. There were now in addition two country members elected amongst the ordinary members, by which they really possessed a very large and effective representation. The whole Council was forty-one, so the country representatives were now considera bly more than a fourth. They were now asked to allow the country members to vote for ordinary members of Council for 10s. sub scription, the country members were even to get more votes, and the Dubjin man was not to have a vote for the country delegates. The country member could vote for the whole lot by paying 0. For the 10s. a year they got all cases of dispute settled by the Council ; costs questions settled, appeals taken in proper cases and expenses indemnified, per sons unlawfully practising proceeded against, they had the prestige of the Society, the use of that Hall and Library, and so on. Referring to the difficulty of country members attending meetings of the Council, he mentioned that there had been last year 24 meetings of the Council and 54 meetings of Committees, and the cost >f coming up to these meetings would be prohibitive to country representa tives. MR. W. T. SHERIDAN thought the claim

should pay as a member of this Society ten shillings a year, and that for that he should be entitled to all the privileges of membership of the Society. At present there were ] ,562 registered solicitors in Ireland, and only ab )ut half that number were members of this Society. Instead of being a society repre sentative of the entire profession, the Society was a mere Leinster provincial council, and was entitled only to the influence of a pro vincial council. The country was on the eve of far-reaching developments, and on that account he asked the Society to take a broad view of the matter, and to remember that the general welfare of the Society was superior to any individual advantage. There was nothing in his proposal of which the}' need be afraid, for Dublin would always be the centre of the legal business of Ireland. MR. JOHN MOLONEY (Midleton) seconded the motion. He held that id was of the utmost importance to the interests of the whole profession that every solicitor in the country should be a member of the Society. If all solicitors had been members of the Society, the Society would not have made so many futile protests as they had made in the past. In the country they had to put up with unqualified persons acting in court, the part which solicitors only were qualified to play and ought to have possession of. He protested against the Solicitors' pro fession having to pay an annual fee to the Government, while all other professions went free. MR. JAMES BRADY said that in his judgment Mr. Rooney was not going the right way about reforming the membership of the Society. The solicitor who cavilled at the payment of fourpence a week—£1 a year —as a contribution to the Society was not worthy of membership. Mr. Rooney, in reducing the subscription to twopence a week, seemed to be starting a sort of gun-running expedition, but it would never be a success at twopence a week. The country members had the absolute right to elect ten of the forty-one members of the Council, and they had twelve at present, and he thought that was enough for them. While country solicitors paid only £6 a yeai to the Govern ment, the city solicitors paid £9, and yet the country solicitors benefited enormously by the legislation of recent years. For himself