xxxvm REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED TO VI.
Remedial Measixbes.
Apphtment and collection of Cess.
Bases upon which it may be founded :— Poor Law Valua¬ tion ;
Mr.
Griffith's General Valuation.
Course for obtaining a general equal applotment.
Eevision of Poor Law Valuation, where General Valuation-not com¬ pleted.
Applotment in townlands, and collection from each tenement.
work whatever it may be.
We think too that a right of appeal should bo given to a sufficient number of landowners in cases where the keeping open or shutting up of any line of Road maybe in dispute.
Applotment and Collection of the County Cess.
It has been suggested to us that all Local Rates should be regulated according to the Valuations made under the Poor Relief Act (2nd & JJrd Vic.
ch.
50), but it does not appear to us that the Poor Law Valuations are made upon any settled principle, equally applicable to all parts of the Country^ They are in general much below the letting value of land, and arc in some Unions under it in a much greater degree than in others.
Therefore, if lands of a County, belonging to different Unions, were respectively charged with the County Rate, according to the value set upon them under the Poor Relief Act, the distribution of the bur¬ den might be very unequal and consequently very unjust.
Under the General Valuation Act, which Mr.
Griffith is carrying into execu¬ tion, the case is different.
The quality of tho soil of each parcel of land is first carefully examined; an estimate is then made of tho value of the produce it is capable of yielding, taking all permanent improvements into consideration, according to a Table of Prices for agricultural produce, settled by Law, and a rent is afterwards set down for it which is calculated with reference to the estimated value of the produce, and to local circumstances according to one general rule.
The Valuation of all parts of the Country is thus sure to be relatively equal, and consequently, forms a basis upon which any distribution of charge, between district and district, may fairly and justly be made.
For these reasons, we think tho Law which directs all County Rates to be levied according to the Valuation made under the General Valuation Acts ought not to be disturbed; but as some years must elapse before the (J en oral Valua¬ tion can be completed throughout Ireland, and as, in the moan time, the exist¬ ing system of Applotmcnt in many places, is felt as a crying grievance, we have inquired of Mr.
Griffith whether he could cause a prompt revision to be had of the Poor Law Valuations, in those Counties in which the General Valuation has not been perfected, so as to adjust any differences that might be complained of between those of different Unions in the same County, and, by correcting errors, to render it safe that the County Rate should be applottcd for the present accord¬ ing to them, and he is of opinion that he could.
We therefore recommend—
That a time shall be fixed, within which the Finance Committee of any
and corrected; and fhat the Lord Lieutenant shall be authorized, by any order to be by him made in Council for the purpose, to cause the same to be revised and corrected accordingly, and that he shall also be authorized, so soon as such revision shall have taken place, or if no petition praying for a revision shall have been presented within the time prescribed by Law, then, so soon as the said time shall have elapsed, to order that the County Cess, in each County in which the General Valuation shall not have taken place, shall,'until it shall have been effected, be applottecl upon the several Townlands thereof, by a poundage Rate, according to the value set upon each under tho Poor Relief Act, or under such revision as aforesaid.
As a Townlancl may comprise several distinct tenements, it is necessary to provide when such is the case, that the sum applotted upon the whole Townland shall be collected from the occupants of the several tenements which it may so comprise, by an equal Rate, according to the value of each tenement; and as the whole of each Townland must be in some one Poor Law Union, and as the Poor Law Valuation, as between tenement and tenement therein, must therefore be considered fair and just, we think the collection from each several tenement should be according to the Poor Law Valuation,
