SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. , ^ j / J / j mer of 1837, and that you were, at that period, appointed to investigate the claims of several parties ror exemption from local taxation ?— I Wi fas. 4656. Can you state how many persons you exempted in conjunction with the others who were deputed to examine into it?- I car. The two ^ entlemen who e names I gave m before, and myself, exempted 244 persons froi, ahst of whom I now hand in, containing the names and residences, and the Value 0 each house, as appearing by the rate- book, and returned by my own order by the rate collectors to me. Here is the list of names that we exempted, and the houses and their value ; this book contains a return of all the " poor" and « waste" uo to the spring assizes of 1837. Every single house in Cork is here named • the amount of the house published by the grand jury. [ The Witness delivered in the same. Vide Appendix.] 46.57- Can you state the gross amount of exemptions appearing by that sche- dule ?— In the schedule and the book over 23,000 I. ' 4658. Can you state how many of those whom vou exempted in the summer of were registered electors ?— There are a good manv, but I did not direct mv attention to that; there are houses as high as 32/., and 16/. and 10/. That is what I directed my attention to; I merely wanted to sustain the statement I made to the Committee as to the number that were exempted, and with that view I got the list. There are a great many females upon this list, my object being to show that the exemptions were not confined to houses of 5 I. and io /. value. Here is the city rate- book, and here are the lists, and the Committee can satisfy themselves as to the number of houses, and the value. 46.59. Chairman.'] What is the total number of the houses ?— Two hundred and fifty- four. 4660. Will you state, out of the 254, how many were cases of houses above 10 /. ? — I find that there are 71 houses in Mr. Dunbar's collection, out of 183; then I have the names of persons returned by Mr. Williams, and he has merely put down the names and residences, but not the rents, and therefore I cannot tell as to that, but that can be easily got from the city rate- books. 4661. Then out of the 183 in Mr. Dunbar's collection, there are 112 under 10 I. ?— Yes, there are. 4662. Mr. Beamish.] Can you state how many of those are between 5 I. and 10 I. ?— There are 36 between 5 I. and 10 I. 4663. Chairman.] Then there remain 76 at 5 I. ?— Yes. 4664. Are all those 76 upon the registry as voters ?— No, a great number of widows. 4665. Mr. Beamish.] Can you state how many of those upon the list are regis- tered voters ?— No ; I did not turn my attention to that. My object in doing this was to satisfy the Committee that we did exempt houses without any reference to the rent. 4666. Chairman.] Do you mean to state that in the cases of those 183 persons the rents were of the same amount as the valuation ?— The rents may be greatly more; but those are the valuations in the city rate- books ; the rates are often greatly more. ... , . 4667. Then it was not to show the Committee that you did not regard the rents, but it was to show the Committee that you did not regard the valuation Exactly so. 4668- 0. Do you mean to state that, in your belief, the valuation was or was not correct with regard to those 183 houses ?— It may be in this way : at the tune the valuation of these houses took place, they might have been of this value; and between that and this time many of them have improved Many have improved them wonderfully ; and if the valuators were now to go about tovaluelamcon- vinced that many of them would appear at a much higher value than hey nmv do it is reducing the shop- keeping interest in Cork very materuUy 4.670. Then are the Committee to understand hat gro- d of yo^ ^^ those parties was because you thought they neiu 1 that r £ E 0.46.