56 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE R.
Griffith, Esq.
tion of the farms in the county of Cork was made by computation, but I have heard
that great objection has been made to it in some places.
14 May 1836.
687.
Chairman] What time would you recommend to be fixed for a periodical
revision of this valuation?—I
think from 21 to 25 years.
I would make a revision of the general valuation at that time; but at the expiration of 10 years a parochial revision might take place on application from the parties interested.
688.
Would you conceive that this scale should be binding on individual houses for that length of time ?—I
do not think that the detail of the valuation given in the valuation field-books limits the applotments on houses—the valuation merely ascertains what the value of the land and houses was at the time it was made, and the taxation will be levied on the gross amount of land and houses; should a house be burned or removed, its value must be assessed on the land, and per contra.
If a new house be built on any townland subsequently to the com¬ pletion of the valuation, it should be assessed according to its relative value, and a proportionate reduction be made in the assessment on the original houses as well as on the land of the townland ; but the gross amount of the assessment on the townland itself will retain the same relative position in respect to other townlands until a revision of the valuation shall take place.
689.
Mr.
Jephson] What time would the revision take to go over it—would you recommend a revision similar to the check valuation at present or a new survey?
—I think the extent and necessary detail required for a revision might be ascertained by the county appointing a committee to investigate the facts, and that the Lord Lieutenant should appoint a valuator to attend this committee who would consi¬ der the matter and regulate the revision by check valuations according to the extent that was found necessary.
I merely throw out this as a crude idea which I have not considered.
690.
Mr.
Plunkett.]
You have used the word parish and townland; are the boundaries in any degree commensurate, that is to say, will the boundary of a townland, for example, be the boundary of the parish?—The
boundaries of parishes are always boundaries of townlands; that is to say, one townland cannot be con¬ tained in two parishes ; it sometimes happens that an estate may lie on both sides of the boundary of a parish, and that the townland in each parish is called by the same name, and is considered to be one townland, but in such cases I have always divided the townland, and added the word upper or lower, east or west, to the original name, to serve to distinguish them.
As each parish will be separately assessed, it is necessary that no confusion should arise as to the boundaries of any denomina¬ tion or division belonging to it, consequently in all cases the boundary of a parish must likewise be the boundary of a townland as far as that parish or the county assessment is concerned.
691.
Therefore no confusion can arise from the circumstance of a townland being situated in more than one parish ?—Certainly
not.
692.
Chairman] With reference to the county of the town of Drogheda, is the survey sufficiently advanced to allow the valuation to commence there?—The
survey is very nearly completed, but the maps are not yet engraved.
6g3.
Mr.
Plunkett] Houses will of course be valued in that case?—The
houses will be valued in a similar manner to those of any other county or town.
694.
Are you at all aware whether the complaint which is made in the petition from Drogheda is a general complaint from the counties of towns, the complaint being that the land is heavily assessed in consequence of the houses not being subject to taxation?—I
do not know the case with respect to Drogheda; but I know many instances of land in the neighbourhood of old establishments similar to Drogheda, where the land is very heavily assessed compared with the county at large; and as the county of the town has always establishments in itself belonging to itself, for the support of which the lands within it are assessed, of course there is uniformly a much higher assessment on the land in a small county of a town than on the surrounding land; but that assessment will be very mate¬ rially alleviated as soon as the houses in the town are valued and assessed.
