The Gazette 1975

Correspondence

payment is to be made out of the proceeds of sale and when the request is in order, the payment draft is signed by me within two or three days of the receipt of schedule or request and frequently earlier. When of stock, of encashment of bonds or of withdrawal from deposit the draft is signed by me on the day on which I am notified by the Bank that the cash has come to credit. This has been the routine procedure during the past year and a half; and I have received no complaint during that time from any Solicitor regarding a payment delayed in this Office. If you are aware of any specific instance I should be obliged if you would let me know. I would be only too glad to investigate the matter immediately to ensure that the system in operation in this office does not fail in any particular case. Regarding the closure of my books at the end of the Long Vacation for the purpose of an annual balance, the practice is that a date is fixed in the third week in August by which date schedules to Court Orders made up to the end of Term and requests for payments under the Rules are required to be lodged in this office. All such schedules, requests, etc., received are dealt with immediately. The effect of this arrange- ment is to expedite payments and to provide a period of three or four weeks during which ledger trans- actions are reduced in number as much as possible and the accounts can be balanced as of the 30th September. This balance is essential to the safe and accurate keeping of the accounts; and a period of three to four weeks is the minimum required for the work. I have some 6,700 accounts in my books. In some 5,800 of these there are holdings of stock as well as cash and there are several transactions in all these accounts every year. The annual balance entails ascertaining the stock and cash balance in every account, extracting these balances and proving the totals against the control figures. The end of the Long Vacation, when all Court Orders have been dealt with in so far as they refer to funds in Court, provides the time necessary and the conditions suitable for this work which could not be done with the same facility at any other time of the year. This office is, of course, open to other business during the whole of the Long Vacation. All lodgments and deposits are accepted and brought to credit. Privities and certificates are issued and correspondence is dealt with. The public office is open to deal with enquiries and to issue drafts which have already gone through the ledgers. During the months of August and September this year 639 payments amounting to £435,406-28 were issued by me. The only case where a delay in payment can occur is when the necessary schedule or request is not lodged by the end of third week in August. The number of such cases must be very small considering the large numbers of schedules and requests received by me in August. 31

The Editor of the Gazette. Re Leave of Absence of Apprentices for Study Dear Mr. Gavan Duffy, The Court of Examiners has recently received representations from the Apprentices to the effect that some Masters were reluctant to allow Apprentices sufficient leave of absence from the office to enable them to study for the Society's examinations. While the Court of Examiners is surprised that this situation should arise and is confident that the criticisms apply to a very small number of Masters it has asked me to write to you so that the attention of Masters may be drawn to the matter. The relationship of Master and Apprentice is a bilateral one and while the Apprentice is obliged to serve his Master faithfully and diligently so equally is the Master obliged to do his best to ensure that the Apprentice has a resonable opportunity of learning the practice of the law and passing the Society's examinations. The standards of these examinations are maintained at a high level and the Court of Examiners is satisfied that an Apprentice requires a reasonable period of whole time study in preparation for these examinations in order to be sure of passing them. The Court of Examiners has no wish to have to prescribe minimum periods of leave of absence from the office in such cases and feels that once the matter has been brought to the attention of Masters in this way that reasonable leave of absence will be given to Apprentices to study for the Society's examinations and also for such other examinations as are required of an Apprentice. Yours sincerely, J. F. Buckley.

Accountant's Office,

The High Court, Dublin. 19th December 1974.

James J. Ivers, Esq., Director General,

Dear Mr. Ivers, I am in receipt of your letter of the 17th inst., regarding the issue of payments from this office and the closure of my books for the annual balance. The position regarding payments is that, since my appointment as Accountant in June 1973, schedules to Court Order directing payments and requests for payments authorised by Rules of Court are put in hand in this office either on the day they are received or on the following day. When the cash is to credit