The Gazette 1958-61

pension annuity insurance for themselves. If at a later date some method is discovered of setting up a group insurance scheme with improved terms this will be done. I am also glad to say that the Minister of Finance has accepted a submission from the Society that the law should be brought into line with the existing law in England so that the parent of a person serving under indentures of apprenticeship shall be entitled to the full income tax child allowance for such apprentice. Previously this was only given during full educational training which did not include service as an apprentice. I have always been keenly interested in the welfare of the local bar associations. The Council fully realise the important work which they are perform ing. When I commenced practising 36 years ago there were very few bar associations operating in the country and in many areas the relations existing between the local Solicitors were hostile in the extreme. The formation of the local bar associations has developed a much improved spirit amongst the members throughout the country. The local bar associations are often better able to deal with a local problem than the Council, and are also able to supply most valuable information to the Council. The social functions organised by the bar associations play a most important role in promoting a friendly, professional atmosphere amongst the members and in many Counties the local bar associations have been instrumental in checking that great curse of our profession, touting and price cutting to attract business. One of the most pleasant functions of the President of this Society is attending the various social occasions of the local bar associations. I have enjoyed, like my predecessors, much delightful hospitality from the bar associations and if there is anything that either I or the Council can do to help and further their activities we shall be most happy to do so. The vast majority of the Counties have now active and efficient associations and I am glad to say that some associations which had temporarily lapsed have recently been revived and I wish them every success, but it is a tragedy that there are still one or two areas where there is no local bar association. Some of the local bar associations have given us a lead in making rules that their members shall not act for both vendor and purchaser in a sale unless the purchase money is quite insignificant in amount. The Council have stated that it is un desirable that a solicitor should act for both vendor and purchaser but it has been pointed out to us quite correctly that a statement such as this is useless unless it is enforced by regulation. Personally I would like to see a regulation on these lines en­

forced throughout the country. I am certain it would be in the interests of both the solicitor and the public. No man can serve two masters and every one of us has had experience of cases where the vendor and purchaser were on the most friendly terms at the time of the signing of the contract and there did not appear to be any likelihood of conflict between them and then some dispute has arisen before completion which has placed the solicitor acting for both parties in an impossible position besides being most unfair to the vendor who has then no adviser on whose advice he can completely rely. There is also the grave danger of an action for negligence against the solicitor since no matter how careful and conscientious he may be the requisitions on title and searches are seldom as carefully pre pared and perused when there is no solicitor acting on the other side. Some local bar associations would have adopted the rule but for fear of some local solicitors leaving the bar association and so gaining an unfair advantage for themselves. This could only be prevented by enforcing the rule throughout the State. In other local bar associa tions there has been opposition to the adoption of the rule on the ground that solicitors might lose established clients if a client purchased property belonging to another client. This is true but the few clients which a solicitor might lose in this way would be made good by clients coming to him from other solicitors in similar circumstances. It is most significant that in those counties where the rule is enforced, even if there has been some initial opposition to the adoption of the rule, it has worked well and solicitors who were formerly opposed to it have been converted by experiencing it in operation. I had the honour as your President of being invited to propose the adoption of the report of the Solicitors' Benevolent Association at their annual general meeting and I would like to com mend to you the work being done by this Association which is one of our remaining links with Northern Ireland, since the Association, I rejoice to say, still operates throughout the entire country. I think every solicitor should be a subscriber to the Benevolent Association. Most of us subscribe to some charity and surely our own charity which provides assistance for members of our profession, who perhaps through ill-health have fallen by the wayside, and their relatives should have first priority. In my opinion the annuities and grants now being paid by the Association are quite inadequate, having regard to the depreciation in the value of money, but they cannot be adequately increased until more funds are available, so I would ask the local bar associations to advocate the claims of the Solicitors 5