The Gazette 1909-10

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland,

[DECEMBER, 1909

54

pointed out to him that of course the Local Government Board, under the provisions of these Labourers Acts, were bound to protect Solicitors as well as Rural District Councils, he agreed to the omission of these words and similar words—that is. words which would have the same effect in different parts of the Order. For that, gentlemen, I am obliged to the Vice-President and the other members of the Board (hear, hear). But then we came to the schedule of fees. and with regard to that Schedule there was, of course, great difficulty. There is no doubt that when the Labourers Acts passed, the Legislature thought that the costs and charges of carrying out that Order—of carrying out the provisions of the Act—would be reduced, and no doubt it was with that object that they directed the scale of fees should be prepared by the Local Government Board. But the Legislature could have reduced the amount of work (hear, hear) necessary in proving titles and in making titles to each of these plots. They did not do that, save in the case where the purchase money is under £60. In those cases an attempt was made in the Act to reduce the work, but in other cases the work remains—each Solicitor must carry out just the same work, although the compensation was small, as if lie was carrying through a sale for a very large amount. However, knowing the members of my profession, I believed I was justified in agreeing to take a reduced scale of fees, because I know the profession would wish to encourage the carrying out of this Act which is of such advantage in the rural districts throughout Ireland. As you will see in the schedule of fees contained in the new. Order, you will have owner's and lessee's costs, and though the scale is not according to the fair scale which has been fixed in other similar matters, and does not give the Solicitors their full remuneration, I believe I was justified in accepting on behalf of the pro fession those charges as they are set out in the Order, and in this the members of the Council agreed with me (hear, hear). There was one matter besides owner's and lessee's costs in which further difficulty arose. It is with regard to the costs of the occupiers. This is not yet in a satisfactory way. There is only a small fee allowed—a small fixed

here under the provisions of the Bill it is proposed to value the entire land—every holding—and if that is done and that valua tion comes out, as it must, over Griffith's Valuation and over the Poor Law Valuation, in future you will find that this country will have to pay income tax on the basis of that valuation. I do not like to occupy your time too long in discussing the provisions of this Bill, but I mention these two instances for the purpose of illustrating what I referred to at the opening of my statement, that the Bill contains a number of provisions which require a trained mind to understand (hear, hear), and if, as I say, we have a chance of getting the public to understand these provisions we will be doing our duty, I think, to our country (hear, hear). There is one other matter referred to in the Report that I would like to call your attention to—it is the reference contained in page 8 to the Labourers (Ireland) Act, 1906. Under the provisions of the Labourers Acts the Local Government Board prepared a draft Order, which they subsequently issued on the 2nd July, 1909. When that draft Order was prepared the Local Government Board communicated with me, as President of the Incorporated Law Society, andafter consulting the Council I had an opportunity of meeting the Vice-President of the Local Government Board and the other members on several occasions, and I must say that the Vice-President went to much trouble and took a great deal of pains to understand the many objections which I had to put forward on behalf of the profession to what was contained in the draft Order. Before I refer to the schedule of fees which appears in that Order, I would like to mention that the draft contained clauses and pro visions which were, I think, most objection able from the professional point of view. For example, there was a provision in it that a Rural District Council could pay the Solicitor a fee to the amount mentioned in the Order for attending inquiries, or such lesser sum as should be agreed upon. Well, the insertion of these words made it probable that Rural District Councils might induce a Solicitor to tender for their work, and it is right to state that when I drew the attention of the Vice-President to these words and explained the nature of our objection, and