. ,46 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE Mr I have is Thomas Britton, glover; lie is valued at 71, and he assured us that Richard Gould. he ys ) 4 /. reut; he satisfied us of it when we were there. 4 ' q r- 6 When was that ?— Since we received the summons to attend the Com- - March 1838. 4 He is vaiued at 71, in the eity- rate books. T£ J1. , , When - I believe it was at the valuation of 1828. I find him valued under ' the name either of William Gamble or William Mahoney ; he has one of those houses now. I find both of those valued at 71, and I find that Thomas Britton pays 10/. a year rent. 4208 Do you mean to say that Thomas Britton s house is exactly the same sort of house as John Collins's ?— It is a better house, I think; and it has the advantage of being near a potatoe- market. 4299. But still you valued that house, which now pays 10/. a year rent, at 7 Z. in the year 1828?— Yes. . . p 4300. Was the house better or worse 111 1828 than it is now ?— I should tlnnk it ought to be better, the situation is improved, and I think it is just as valuable now as it was then; the house certainly must deteriorate something. 4301. It appears that when you were valuing in 1828, you did not take much pains to ascertain what the rents were ?— If we were to ascertain the rent of every house, we really would be deceived. 4302. How came you to ascertain the rent of this house when you were going to give evidence before this Committee, and not to ascertain it in 1828, when you were sworn solemnly to perform your duty for the city of Cork ?— We conceived that, if we preserved the scale in the valuation, it did not matter whether that scale was high or low, so that we preserved the scale. 4303. You mean to say that it made no difference to the local taxation, whether you valued a house at //., or 14/., or Avhat ?— If we preserved the same scale. 4304. That is a scale of a difference of 100 per cent., is not it?— If we kept up the relative value that was enough. 4305. Do you mean to say that, relatively, through the city of Cork, you allowed 100 per cent, abatement from the real value?— Certainly not; we allowed a very liberal per- centage in the poor districts, but in the centre of Cork we valued them very high. 4306. Do you mean to say that, in those poor districts, you allowed 100 per cent, in that valuation of 1828 ?— In some particular cases we may have done so ; but all the houses are valued in the same proportion. 4307. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] Are you able to say what the liberal scale is of which you speak ?— We had no liberal scale; we gave the most liberal con- struction to the Act of Parliament, as was always done. It was no rule of ours ; it had been acted upon for years before, since the passing of the local Act; and it is a very great hardship that those houses are exempted, because it comes then on us to pay. I may mention, to show how high business- places are valued, that I took a concern the other day for 56 /. a year, and that is valued in the city- rate books at GO/.; we valued the business- places very high indeed. 4308. Mr. Lefroy.] Upon that valuation you were understood to say you did not make the rent a test of value ?— No, we did not. 4309. How came it that you did make the rent the test of value when you went lately for the purpose of giving evidence before this Committee ?— Because we conceived that the rent paid would be a greater guide for this Committee than any nominal value; and when we ascertained the actual rent we put it down, thinking that was the most conclusive evidence. 4310. Why did you not think it would be equally satisfactory evidence of value 111 the former case r— In the former case we conceived that, without reference to the rent, if we preserved the scale, whether it was high or low, it would be doing strict justice. 4311. How could you preserve the scale without ascertaining the value?— If we ascertained the value of one house in a street we were able to guide our Wgment by that, and we endeavoured to keep the scale, and to have no par- Beamish Are there any others returned in Mr. Lane's list as not ™ ^ lch are Jahfd ?- There are some others, there is George Nevill Daly, * ? f • HC l! ret7ned as not be ™ g rated; and I can satisfy in the TM^ P f M V ^ rated sufficiently high. He is rated No. 70, m the name of Mary Murphy, who was his mother- in- law, at 12 /. 4313. Mr.