The Gazette 1944-46

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 That Act continued in force until repealed in the year 1898 when a new Act was passed which gave the Society the custody of the Roll of members and the record of apprenticeships with full control over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. 49