SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. , ^ j / J / j 175 voters' houses " Lthat, paLticU, ar St,' m; ^ many voters' houses'did you value in that particular February , 838. LtrnarnT ^^ that P0^' beCaUS6 " be rated - der some 4017. You have stated that you and Mr. Meagher valued all the articular — ' street ?— Seven. 4018. Did it occur to you to inquire at what rates on the city books any of those houses were valued r- No; I had not the least idea that the city valuation wouId be taken at all as a criterion to ascertain the value of those houses 4019. You think the valuation for the purposes of taxation has no relation whatever to the valuation for the purposes of voting?- I am certain of it for x have had a good deal of experience. 4020. That is to say, that houses may appear above the value which ou- ht to entitle them to be registered, and houses may appear under the value which° ought to entitle them to be registered upon the city books ?— Certainly, that is my opinion. 4021. With reference to the general rate of valuation in that district, what value would you set upon the house of this Joseph Ahern?— I think he ought to be valued at 61. or 7/. certainly, in proportion to the idea I have of the rate° that other houses were valued at. 4022. Then your idea is, that from 20 to 25 per cent, is the difference between the valuation amount and the real value of the house, generally speaking ?— When I was upon the valuation jury, we allowed a great deal more than that in some cases. There is a local Act in Cork exempting houses let to poor tenants, and the most liberal construction was always given to this Act by the grand juries, valua- tors, parish constables, and all; and when I was upon the valuation jury in 1828, the last general valuation, we gave a most liberal construction to this ; we passed houses without valuing them that would have been worth more than 10/., hun- dreds of houses. 4023. What year was that in ?— In 1828. 4024. You have not been upon it since ?— No, I have not. 4025. In that jury, at what rate of allowance did you put the houses gene- rally below their real value ?— We kept a scale. We valued a house in a street without reference to the rent, and then we valued other houses there in proportion to that. If one house was valued at 5/., and we conceived another house to be a pound or two more, we kept up the scale, without reference to the rent. 4026. What was your scale with reference to the real value ?— We had no fixed scale. We made a valuation of a house, and we kept up the scale. We valued houses of that description a great deal lower than we did more valuable houses. 4027. You were sworn upon that occasion ?— Certainly. 4028. What were you sworn to observe upon that jury?— To do justice, I pre- sume j and we did. It was a very equitable valuation. I was forced to be upon that jury. 4029. You were bound to value, and ascertain distinctly and separately the yearly value of each house, and so forth ; were you not?— I believe so; and we did it. 4030. In what way did you proceed to ascertain the yearly value of each house or premises ?— We ascertained, to the best of our knowledge, the different places. Our object was to keep a scale that one man should not be valued higher than ^ 4031.' Was it not the object of the Act of Parliament, that you, as valuators, should nut the real value upon each house or premises?— I think not. 4032. Then what was the object of the Act of Parliament ?— 1 do not know whit the object of the Act of Parliament was ; but what we conceived we were bound to do was, to make an equitable fair valuation, and we certainly endeavoured to ^ Ooo^ Were you not sworn, to the best of your knowledge skill and judgment, to execute the office of valuator without favour or affection or ill- will to any person also required, under this Act to value and ascertain dis- tinctly and separately the yearly value of each house ?- Not as between landlord ^ oT^ en you did not ascertain the yearly value of each house:?- No I do not think we did. There were fourteen of us; we had no object but to do justice. We put an equitable proportionate value upon each house. ^ 0.46. z 4 Mr. Richard Gould.