. ,46 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE Mr. Richard Gould. 28 February 1838. entirely governed by them ; it was not for us to deviate from the plan that had ^^^^ S- nent requiring that all houses in the city of Cork not under the value of $ 1, and which were not public buildings, should be valued, were you not departing from the Act of Parliament when you omitted to value houses worth 7 a year, in your judgment ?- We did not conceive hat we were deviating from our duty; we did not conceive it was our duty to value any place up to its extreme value j a house worth 7 L a year in the poor districts was valued at 5 / There are very few houses in the middle of the city not worth 7 /. a year; if it was valued at 5 I- it would not be any great reduction. 4146. Would not you, in estimating the value of a house, take into your con- sideration the situation ?— No doubt of it. 4147 Taking the situation into account, and finding, notwithstanding the situa- tion that the house was really and bona fide of the value of 7 /. a year, and that it was'not a public building, surely it would be your duty, under the Act of Parlia- ment, to value that house ?— If we found the situation likely to be a rising one, and we thought we could conscientiously value the house at 7 a year, I dare say we would feel it our duty to value it. 4148. Were you governed by that principle ?— We were governed by no fixed principle, but in our consciences we adhered to the scale that we commenced with, that there should be no partiality ; and there were very few complaints of our valuation, except in the middle of the towli, where the scale was high. 4149. Had you any fixed scale or rule to govern you ?— The only fixed principle we had was to keep up the same scale throughout; we did not adhere strictly to the rent, or to the extreme value, but we kept up the scale according to the yearly value of the house; we had no object in the world but to do justice; we were not influenced by politics in the least degree. Nobody thought at the time that there would be any work of this sort about it; and when Mr. Meagher and I went about this last valuation, we had no idea that those books would be held as a criterion ; if we had, we would have come prepared to show the Committee that there were hundreds of houses in Cork worth 10/. a year, mostly let to poor tenants, that are not valued. 4150. Mr. Beamish.'] Did you visit the house of John Buckley, of Bishop- street, No. 701 in Mr. Lane's table?— We did. 4151. Did you examine it?— Very minutely. 4152. Can you state what you conceive the value of his premises to be ?— I con- ceive it to be worth 10 /. a year, and I will give my reasons. From the situation, we were not so sure of that as we were of Ahern's house, and we went into the particulars to satisfy us. We went into Buckley's house ; we went first into his next- door neighbour's, Haly's house, who is also a voter; they are both pretty much alike, and we ascertained the value of Haly's house. Then we went into Buckley's house, and Haly went with us. The memorandum I have here is, " A better house than Timothy Haly's, with the addition of a back- house." We conceived Timothy Haly's to be worth 10/., and we conceived this to be a better house, and conse- quently worth as much. They are both next- door to each other. 4153. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] How many apartments are there in the house of Timothy Haly — He has two tenants that pay him 1 s. a week each, that is 5/- 4s.; he has his own apartments, that he valued at 61.; and he has a workshop that he showed us, where his men were at work, worth 2/.; making the'valuation 13/. 45. We conceived that that was worth 10/. Then we went into his next- door neighbour's house, and we found it a better house, and we did not think it necessary to go into particulars in Buckley's house, it being a better house than Haly s, with the addition of a back- house. - Very good ; they are new there are few houses up 4154. What sort of repair is Buckley's house in? houses, built by themselves. 4155- Did Buckley occupy the whole himself?— No there occupied by the people themselves. 4156. They are all let out to lodgers ?— Almost all. 4L57- How many apartments did Buckley let?— I do not know. 4158. Can you state whether Buckley occupies the house himself, or lets it out to lodgers /— He lets part of it out to lodgers. H° W ™ uch of it?~ 1 cannot say ; it is a very good slated house, with a ground- floor and an up- stairs, and a back- house in the rear of it. • 4160. Is