The Gazette 1964/67

far has produced no results. This question of legal education and training is a matter that is receiving constant attention and is being dealt with by a special committee. If nothing concrete has emerged since last I addressed you it must not be assumed that nothing is being done. The work is of necessity slow, entailing as it does consult ation with other bodies including the Bar. My personal view is that we should try to achieve a common system of basic legal education with the Bar and that students having passed a certain stage would then specialise in one of the two branches. New regulations have been made dealing with the Preliminary Examination to bring it into line with the entrance examination to the Universities. Three subjects, viz., Mathematics, English and Latin, are necessary together with any two of four optional subjects. The rush of students seeking apprenticeship continues and is a source of deep concern to the Council. Over crowding of the profession could lead to many and varied abuses, all of them detrimental, and steps will have to be taken to prevent such a situation from arising. Solicitors' Benevolent Association Once again I commend to you all the excellent work performed voluntarily by the Solicitors' Benevolent Association. The charitable help dis pensed quietly and unostentatiously by the As sociation to our less fortunate brethren and their relatives too often passes unnoticed. No words of mine should be necessary to exhort every member to become a subscriber. Costs Your Council is fully alive to the need for proper remuneration if services are to be satis factorily and properly rendered. Overhead ex penses which all of us have to face are increasing relentlessly year by year. The difficulty of meeting these commitments is increased by inadequate scales of costs which have failed to keep pace with the rise in expenses. I would like to assure you all that it is not through any neglect or default on the part of the Council that such a position exists and that the pressure to have the matter remedied is constant and continuing. International Bar Association Your Society is a member of the International Bar Association and as your representative along with the Senior Vice-President Mr. O'Donnell and your Secretary Mr. Plunkett I attended the bi-annual meeting of that Association in Lausanne last July. The topics dealt with were most inter esting and informative and gatherings of this

Jurisdiction As you are aware, the report and recommend ations of the Committee set up by the Minister to investigate the question of increased jurisdiction for our District and Circuit Courts is now in his hands. We await his decision with interest and I trust that on this occasion suitable scales of costs acceptable to the profession will accom pany the bringing in of any order increasing the respective jurisdictions. Representations in that regard have already been made by me to the Minister on your behalf and I believe were sympathetically received. The Succession Act On the 1st January next the Succession Act will come into force. This will have very far- reaching effects both for our profession and for the members of the public. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all persons who have made wills prior to that date to review the position with their solicitors in the light of the provisions of the Act. I feel I cannot stress this too strongly as it would be placing an impossible burden on the profession to expect its members to notify each individual testator. I would ask the members of the press present to draw partic ular attention to this matter. In connection with this Act and other Statutes which have been passed recently or are in process of being enacted I would like to pay an ap preciative tribute to the work and enterprise of the Society of Young Solcitors in arranging two seminars—one in Mullingar and the other in Cork—both highly successful and splendidly at tended, at which lectures were given and study groups held dealing in detail with the new legis lation. In addition, a series of lectures on various legal topics are being held. The dearth of text books is becoming more and more evident and is to be deplored. Due to the size of this country publication of such books is quite uneconomic and unless something is done very soon by the Government in the form of a subsidy a serious situation will result. Efforts such as those I have referred to help in some measure to fill the need but of necessity they must be limited. I do, how ever, thank most sincerely those responsible and congratulate them on the success already achieved. Legal Education and Training The Council is very conscious of the dis advantages and shortcomings of the present sys tem of legal education of apprentices. A memor andum dealing with this subject was submitted to the Commission on Higher Education and to the Department of Justice some years ago but so