The Gazette 1967/71

to meet the day to day maintenance, rates and other overheads and a proposed reduction in the amount payable to the Compensation Fund enables us to propose the increase of the annual subscription by the equivalent so that you will not feel it too accutely. We hope also that socilitors throughout the country will be willing to put up some capital to match the price the Government may pay for our premises here in the Four Courts. You will read in the report about our intention to promote a fund-raising effort. International Bar Association: The report briefly mentions that I was the official representative of the Society at the 13th By-Annual Conference of the International Bar Association at Tokyo, It was a very well attended and well organised Conference, the first to be held in Asia. The subjects discussed included: — "The Role of the Lawyer in the next 20 years"; "Automation and the Law"; "Legal Aid in Developing Countries"; "The Lawyers liability for his negligence"; "The Role of non judicial Tribunals in the Resolution of Disputes"; "International marriages and problems of Property Status"; "Practice of Law by non-lawyers". A separate section on business law was set up which will enable individuals, as distinct from Law Societies and Bar Associations, to join and get value from a subscription. The topics which" it is proposed this section will cover illu strate the comprehensiveness and importance of the term Business Law. Members who are inter ested should contact the Secretariat. Government Court Fees: Comments are made from time to time in the press and elsewhere on the high cost of litigation which is a matter of concern not alone to the public but to members of the profession who are conscious of the necessity of ready access to the Courts at all levels. This is an inherent part of our system of Government. It must be pointed out that the State itself can contribute to the expense of litigation by the imposition of high Court fees payable to the Exchequer and also by any failure to modernise and rationalise Court procedure and the Government offices which administer Court business. The Council are con­

cerned at the progressive increase in fees payable to the Government at all levels which ultimately fall upon the litigant although payable in the first instance by the solicitors' profession. In 1939 the Court stamp payable on an originating plenary summons was 10/-. It increased progressively be tween 1939 and 1970 and now stands at £8, or 16 times the 1939 figure. Increases in the lower Courts follow the same pattern. The Court stamp on issuing a Circuit Court civil bill was 2/6 in 1939. It is now £2 10s. The corresponding figures for a District Court civil process are 1/6 and 10/-. A Registry of Deeds memorial which yielded 15/- to the exchequer in 1939 now pays £4. In the area of licensing, fees charged have increased by 500% (£3 for the registration of a club in 1939 as compared with £15 in 1970), while the system has been altered to produce further hidden increases by making the fee payable on the appli cation, not as formerly on the certificate of regis tration so that an unsuccessful applicant pays the full fee of £15 to the Government. Fees of these dimensions are a serious burden on solicitors and their clients because they must be paid at the initiation of proceedings and substantially increase the capital requirements of solicitors' offices. Reformatories and Industrial Schools system: In the field of child-care and the legislation which falls within the jurisdiction of the District Court the Kennedy Commission have just pub lished their report. It points out that the whole aim of the system should be geared towards the prevention of family breakdown with its resulting problems and that the committal or admission of children to residential care should be considered only where there is no satisfactory alternative. Among their major recommendations the Com mission suggest that the present institutional system should be abolished and replaced by group homes and that children of different ages and sex should be placed in such group homes re creating as far as possible the structure and social conditions of the normal family. The present reformatory system is criticised as being inade quate and the Commission recommend the closure of a number of institutions either immediately or at the earliest possible opportunity. Stress is laid upon the necessity of providing adequate educational facilities — a recommendation, indeed obvious in itself but one which will require considerable study followed by action and the 130