Select Committee on Local Taxation of the City of Dublin: first report, minutes of evidence and appendix

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A&ol7*h„amd}:lI^ is"ffact^d» that the Cjbjief GfSW^reand^siio^ JWvjf Qaur^yojafay^aliot any sum,^ money to be paidilkwMiar several Incumbents within the city a^t^Hb^r^sj^ of Dublin, aJwlLftberfcieg> thereunto adjoining, and other cities and towns^ cefpoirate,"having actual cure of souls, out of each house belonging to the^ patsiify by apportioning the money according to the yearly value of eactyi house 6r otherwise, not exceeding 12 d. 
in the pound of the yearbj vjakf^ of each house; such value to be ascertained upon oath by persons nomi-ndted and authorized by commission under the great seal by the direction of« the Chief Governor; but no house shall be returned by th« ?c«mmis-
sioners at above 60/. 
per annum ; and such commissions shall be returnee! 
under the hands and seals of the commissioners, to the clerk of the. 
council; and such allotment when approved of by the Chief Governor and Council, shall be a charge upon each house, and be received by the Churchwardens, and by them paid to the respective Incumbents by four equal portions in every year, viz. 
the feast of the Nativity, &c. 
the feast of the Annunciation, &c the feast of St. 
John the Baptist, and the feast of St. 
Michael the Archangel; and in case of the delay or refusal of any inhabitant to pay the sum allotted at any of said days, the church-wardens may levy the same by distress and sale ; and the churchwardens, if they fail to do their duty, shall be punished as the Governor and Council s^I jhink fit; but such punishment shall not, by sec. 
7, exceed a fine of $7. 
and imprisonment for one month. 
By sec. 
2, no commission shall issue into any parish for valuation of any houses hereafter to Jae built, oftener than once in three years. 

®^* ****** tfreThe adoption of the minister's money as the basis on which to found local taxation, first took place, as appears by the evidence of a Member of Your Committee, in the reign of George I. 
since which it must be obvious that the greatest variations in value must have taken place, many parts of the city which in the early part of the last century were the favourite residences of the most opulent classes of the community, are now occupied by the poorest, and the extension of the city by the erection of its finest streets and squares in districts formerly unoccupied, has contributed to increase this inequality. 
All the fixed taxes of Dublin are calculated according to a certain poundage, on the valuation thus made at a remote period, and their pressure becomes proportionally unequal upon the various classes of the inhabitants. 
Many of the most valuable houses and streets of the city of Dublin, as it stood in the reign of George I. 
have fallen into decay, and are now inhabited either by the most abject poor, or at least by the humblest traders and the poorer description of mechanics and artisans. 
The strongest illustration which Your Committee can give, of this severe inequality, is a comparison between the taxation of Fitzwilliam-square, one ~*of"the most modern and valuable parts of Dublin, and that to which High-street in the old city of Dublin is subject; the best houses in Frtz-william-square pay from 12 s. 
to 30s. 
in minister's money, under the 17th and 18th Charles II. 
and are rated in city taxes to the extent of 27/. 
6s. 
4d. 
"whilst a house' in High-street pays 2/. 
14s. 
in minister's money, and in local assessment 54/. 
3s. 
4d.« 
\|&f valuable house in College-green, for which a fifie of 1,000/. 
and a rent of 100/. 
is payable, is taxed at 25/. 
a i year, whilst a house in High-street, of which the rack-rent does not exceed i^i^J^ontributes W& to:-the public services of the city, w? 
«tf **M' ^ <»> £/Such is the practical injustice of lh^ preslirit^'system, which Your ommittee consider equally indefensible on more abstract and general i grounds; for it cannot but appear unjust that a permanency in the nonli-nal, when combined with a change in the real value, is a false principle of taxation, whicn *cainn6t be too soon corrected. 

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