House of Assembly on Friday.

The House passed The Conveyancing Amendment Act 1995 and The Supreme Court Amendment Act 1995.

Both were steered through by Labour and Home Affairs Minister Mr. Quinton Edness .

The main effect of the Conveyancing Amendment Act 1995 was to allow those making voluntary property conveyances to pay their stamp duties by instalments without creating legal problems, Mr. Edness said.

Under the Conveyancing Act 1983, the voluntary conveyance had to be registered within six months of conveyance with stamp duties paid.

But for a variety of reasons, the stamp duty sometimes could not be determined or paid within the prescribed period, and "uncertainty'' remained about the unregistered conveyances.

Under the amended law, the conveyance must be registered "within 30 days of its being duly stamped in accordance with the Stamp Duties Act 1976,'' meaning that the clock did not start ticking until the stamp duties were fully paid.

The old law was modernised in other ways, with requirements eased about what a deed had to be written on and the need for a seal to validate a deed. A requirement that authority for another person to deliver a deed also had to be granted by way of deed was also removed.

Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister Mrs. Lois Browne Evans said increases in stamp duties were making them prohibitively expensive, especially in the case of conveyances when properties were passed from parent to child to avoid even higher death taxes.

Typically, stamp duties amounted to $6,500 or more, she said.

The "unconscionable'' increases were due to Government's lack of a fair taxation system, she said.

Works & Engineering Minister Mr. Leonard Gibbons said Bermuda continued to move toward land title registration, and surveyors at Works & Engineering were now using a national grid.

The global positioning satellite system would be useful in bringing in the system, and models in Canada, St. Lucia, and the Cayman Islands were being looked at, he said.

Information and Technology Minister Mr. John Barritt said the changes to the Conveyancing Act would "bring administration of some property-related matters more into the 20th century.'' Before making a voluntary conveyance, people should find out what the real estate commission fees, legal fees, and stamp duties would amount to, he said.

It was not always possible to know the stamp duty in advance, until a value had been placed on the land, but it should be possible to provide a "ballpark'' estimate, Mr. Barritt said.

In wrapping up, Mr. Edness turned back to Mrs. Browne Evans' remarks, saying there was no point in talking about taxation unless she was going to offer an alternative.

"If the honourable member wishes to say that we need to have income tax, then she should say it,'' Mr. Edness said.

"Don't even say it,'' Shadow Human Affairs Minister Dr. Ewart Brown shouted back. "You know that's a bad word.'' "We all know, Mr. Speaker, for many years the Opposition Party has talked around this issue of income tax,'' Mr. Edness said.

"Payroll tax,'' interjected Dr. Brown.

The act was passed without objection.

Moving to the Supreme Court Amendment Act 1995 , Mr. Edness said it also came at the urging of the Bermuda Bar Council.

It was to clear up inconsistencies about the documentary evidence lawyers needed before they could be called to the Bermuda Bar, he said.

Barristers and solicitors in England, for example, could not be called to the Bar until they had served specified training periods. Therefore, there were Bermudians who had passed their Bar exams in England but were unable to provide proof of their record and standing as a barrister or solicitor, as required by the Supreme Court.

Under the amended legislation, the person who trained in England would only have to deposit with the Supreme Court proof of having passed the relevant final exams.

Mrs. Browne Evans expressed concerns about the lack of immigration protection for Bermudian lawyers, noting that the number of years non-Bermudians had to practise with a local firm before they could be called to the Bar had been cut from three to two to one.

The bill "doesn't address the real problem,'' and she repeated her earlier call for a Bar committee to be formed to look at the whole question of who was being admitted to the Bermuda Bar.

Information and Technology Minister Mr.

John Barritt , a lawyer, said the intent of the amendment was to put Bermudians on the same footing, whether they trained in the United Kingdom as barristers, or as solicitors. Barristers in the UK had to train for six months after passing their exams, while solicitors had to train for two years.

Mr. Trevor Moniz (UBP), a lawyer, said he was the chairman of the Bar Council committee formed at the urging of Mrs. Browne Evans, one "to review the future of the profession.'' A draft report had been completed, he said.

Mr. Moniz said one of the reasons the time requirement for non-Bermudian lawyers to be called to the Bermuda Bar was reduced to one year from three years was to help the Island's smaller firms.

When Bermudian lawyers were scarce in the 1970s, the large firms were able to outbid for those who were available and small firms had to look outside the Island, he said. But it did the small firms little good to hire foreign lawyers who could not go to court.

The Bermuda Bar had grown to about 209 lawyers today from 104 in 1982, he said.

The two largest firms employed 71 lawyers between them, while another six medium-sized firms had eight to 13 lawyers each. In all, Bermuda had 28 law firms, the MP said.

Some lawyers worked outside the private sector. The Attorney General's Chambers employed 20 lawyers, and another 14 worked inside Government but outside the AG Chambers, including nine judges. Five more lawyers worked in quasi-Government bodies like the Registrar of Companies and the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

The Bank of Bermuda employed eight lawyers, while the Bank of Butterfield had four, and the Bermuda Commercial Bank had at least one.

There were about 85 Bermudian law students studying overseas, Mr. Moniz said.

And the number of Bermudians being called to the Bar each year had risen, with 18 called to the Bar so far in 1995.

To date, "I don't know of a situation in general terms where returning Bermudians are not able to find opportunities,'' he said.

Mrs. Ann Cartwright DeCouto (UBP) said she supported the bill.

But she decried the growing lack of courtesy and professional ethics by lawyers in Bermuda's courts.

In the larger firms particularly, it was important for senior lawyers to take new ones aside and teach them the rules of etiquette, she said.

"I call on members of our profession to pull up their socks,'' she said.

Education and Human Affairs Minister Mr. Jerome Dill said he agreed with Mrs.

Cartwright DeCouto. Lack of courtesy, particularly toward the judiciary, "can't fail to bring the legal profession into disrepute,'' he said.