The Gazette 1940-44

before my year of office had ended this Bill would have been at least introduced, and that we could have looked forward to its early enactment.

has been amended by reference. I presume that we will all agree that this method of legislation is very unsatisfactory and imposes a very con siderable burden of checking the various sections in former Acts of Parliament, which have been amended in this way and this burden affects not alone the members of our profession, but the general public. In addition, we are now faced with a very extraordinary growth of Depart mental regulations under various Acts of Parlia ment, and particularly the growth, since this Great War started, of the regulations under the Emergency Powers Acts. We must recognise that during the emergency, such as we are faced with at the present time, it is necessary to entrust certain powers and duties to the various depart ments, but at the same time, there should be published, at least annually, a complete and proper index of the various Emergency Powers Orders, to enable all those interested, to ascertain immediately what particular regulation affects their business or profession. I would suggest that this method of Legislation by Order, should receive early attention and that as far as possible, it should be abolished. It is practically im possible at the present time, for the legal practi tioner much less an ordinary member of the public, to follow the enormous amount of Emer gency regulations that are being made from time to time. There has been a growing practice, in recent years, of publication in the press of the value of estates of deceased persons, and in many cases, an epitome of the Wills. This frequently leads to very misleading information being conveyed to the general public, and occasions, frequently, very great pain and anxiety to the relatives of the deceased person. I quite realise that in many cases there may be news value in the paragraph in question, but the amount of news value can only apply to very large estates and I would suggest, with very great respect to the members of the Press, that they might consider the abolition of these items of news having regard to the dis tress which they cause in many cases. I regret to have to report to you that there has been no further progress as regards the Bill for the better regulation of the Profession, which we submitted in draft to the Department of Justice for their consideration. I understand that the Bill is still receiving the consideration of that Department and also the other Departments which might be affected by it. I had hoped that

There is another matter that I wish to refer to, that there are very few of our intending appren tices who are candidates for the Overend Prelimi- ary Scholarship, as most of these candidates are exempt from the Preliminary Examination. I trust that, in future, solicitors will direct the attention of intending apprentices to the fact that this Scholarship exists, and that the compe tition is at present very limited. The Scholarship is worth approximately £21 and I believe if the attention of intending apprentices were drawn to it, that there would be keen competition for the Scholarship. It seems to me that the members of our Pro fession do not take their place in the public life of the country ; particularly in provincial areas a Solicitor holds a very important position and he should, in addition to his professional activities, play a more active part in the public life of our country. His qualifications and his training amply endow him with the necessary attributes for public life and our profession could play a much more important part than they are doing to mould the destinies of the country to which we belong. I hope, therefore, that the younger members of our profession will take their places in the future Counsels of the nation. There is, at the moment, a great effort being made from all quarters to revive our national language. It has. been made an essential subject for every apprentice, who must pass his " First" and " Second" Irish Examinations before being admitted a solicitor. I would appeal to these young men to play their part in the revival of the language, and by their example to spread it in the districts in which they live. You will note that during the current year, the membership of our Society increased by forty members, compared with the previous year. There are 1,422 solicitors practising in the Twenty- Six Counties, of whom 68 also practise in Northern Ireland. This leaves a possible addition still to our members of 542, and I would again urge, as my predecessors have urged from year to year, that every solicitor should be a member of our Society. It would strengthen the Society in every way if we could say that every practising solicitor was a member of the Society. 40