2jf> MINUTES QV EVTDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE watch and other duties, fines, penalties, and so on, all the sums applicable to the police establishment, as well as the parliamentary grant paid into his hands, to lodge such receipts whenever they amount to 1001, in the bank of Ireland, to draw orders on the bank for payment of all salaries and incidents, to take receipts and then to pass accounts quarterly before the police magistrates of the head office, and annually before the commissioners of imprest accounts. Do you know what the salary of that officer is ?— Five hundred pounds a year. Is that salary charged upon the police establishment, or upon the watch esta- blishment?— Upon the police establishment. How is the watch tax collected, under what authority ?— Under the authority of the magistrates of the head office of police, as directed by the Act of the 48th of the late King, vesting in the police the power of the former superintending magis- trates, which I believe are under the 39th and 40th of the late King. Whom do you employ to collect them ?— Six collectors of watch- tax, who are by Act of Parliament authorized to deduct a poundage not exceeding one shilling in the pound, which sum they accordingly receive ; there is also a supervisor of watch- tax. Do you not conceive, that a general office for the receipt and collection of all the local taxes, paying over to the police that portion of the local taxes belonging to them, would be an alteration of the system most beneficial to the public?— I should consider it both convenient and economical; for I take it for granted, that if the taxes were consolidated, so that a good deal might be received at the same time at one house, it would put an end to repeated importunities, and by one individual collecting the whole for a certain district, would enable the collection to he made at a lower rate of poundage. What is the rate of poundage charged by the collectors of the watch and other local taxes?— I believe the general rate in Dublin applicable to all the local taxes, is one shilling in the pound. There is no such per centage upon the amount of the Parliamentary grant?— Certainly not. Have the police officers much difficulty in procuring proper persons to collect the money ?— No, I believe not; I believe there are always candidates for that office. Have you never known any losses in consequence of insolvencies ?— Never, but in one instance ; I had occasion to hear of one instance which took place very soon after the establishment of the police, and I believe there has been no recurrence of it; it was the case of a man of the name of Roberts, who was appointed imme- diately after the establishment of the police, and he absconded with the sum, I be- lieve, of about 2201. Was that sum lost to the public ?— It was; and as I have heard, the defaulter lost his life, that he was pursued to Liverpool, and in absconding from thence to America, fell overboard. Is there any security taken for the due discharge of the duties of those collec- tors?— There is. Were Roberts's sureties sued or proceeded against?— I believe so. WTas the amount recovered from them ?— No; it so happened that one of them I have heard was a person of the name of Fox, who was a very extensive butcher in one of the markets, another was his father- in- law, who was a respectable person at the time that he became his surety ; the security was for 200 /. each, both having failed, the proceedings were unproductive; there was a very great and general failure and mercantile distress in the year 1810. Of what class in life are those collectors ?— I have never had any thing to do with the appointment of any one of them ; I do not believe any removal has taken place since I came into the office, but I see respectable looking individuals coming in and passing their accounts. You have no kind of doubt, that if the whole were consolidated, you could get a higher description of persons to perform the duty ?— If the whole of the local taxes, the minister's money, the watch tax, the paving tax, and the various other local dues, were collected together, unquestionably a superior description of per- sons might be procured, and it would probably be worth the while of those respect- able individuals to take a lesser poundage; but at the same time with respect to the collection of the watch tax, nothing has occurred in the way of deficit to the public, except in that single instance. What powers of recovery of arrears are there under the watch tax?— The power of distress on a warrant. Who