Griffith's Valuation.

The most minute, exact, and authoritative basis of equitable taxation and of fair rents as applied to the relations of landlord and tenant in Europe, if not in the world. Of this General Valuation of Ireland, which is in the main the authority for the equity of the adjustment of rents under the Irish Land Act, and of which the amount is stated in every published case in the reports of the Land Commission, wo think it of importance to give a short sketch dealing with its origin, and the maimer of its successful completion. In 1825 the Government undertook to make an accurate survey of Ireland, to be followed by an engraved plan showing the exact area of every townland, the outlines of every field, the heights of every hill, the levels of rivers, lakes, valleys, and the contour lines at 50ft. of difference of level. This was mainly conducted by Major-General Colby, to whom it was entrusted by the Ordnance Department. Mr. (afterwards Sir) Richard Griffith, preceded the surveyors as Boundary Commissioner to determine the boundaries of town-lands, and in cases of conflict of evidence to hold a court of inquiry. The boundary survey completed, Sir Richard was then commissioned to make a general valuation of every townland, upon a general and scientific basis, for all Ireland, so that the county taxation for every barony should be assessed on equitable principles. The modus operandi was as follows :—Every separate townland was separately described by the valuator—the constituent or general characteristics of its soil, the geological formation of the district, proximity to or remoteness from market towns, roads, climate, &c., and then, in detail, each 20, 30,100 or more acres, as the diversity of soil or other circumstances warranted difference in value. In the neighbourhood of cities or large towns, a suburban circle was drawn, with a radius of one, two, or more miles, greater or less radius as the influence of the more important large centres of population might require. Houses were all reassessed, and their values determined first by a scale priced Al, A2, A3, &c., as the materials and the construction might determine the class. This being fixed pro tem., the valuation was subsequently submitted to a Board of Appeal (large farmers), the elect of the baronial ratepayers, who, with the concurrence of the Commissioner, or his delegate, altered, added to, or made reduction in the valuation, after which it became the basis of assessments for roads, police and other rates, in the administration of the Grand Jury of each county. The valuation thus made on the basis of uniform scientific detail, and of appeal to the evidence of practical skilled farmers, agents, and proprietors of land, prepared the public mind for an extension of its details to the tenement value of every farm, cabin, house, or homestead assessed to the payment of poor rates and rates municipal over all Ireland.

In the absence of the Parliamentary return, we cannot in exact terms state the actual cost of establishing Griffith's valuation, including (as that should) both Ordnance and Boundary surveys, as well as the valuation procedure; but we know the price per acre for valuation from the contracts made by professional valuators at the time of the tithe commutation. This was, on an average, say twopence per acre. Now that the Ordnance is publishing the plans of the English survey on a scale of six inches to the mile, there remains but to organize a competent staff, and the valuation of the rural districts of Great Britain would not, we are bold to say, exceed one penny per acre. This, for some 36 million acres, would be £300,000, say some £50,000 per year for six years. The cost of the yearly revision of the valuation and survey of Ireland is now £20,000 to £24,000, for there are changes of boundaries, partition and consolidation of farms in every union. To all of these, on notice of any change from the Clerks of Unions, revisors are sent down, and both the plans and the values are made to show, pari passu, the yearly changes in the formation of new streets or houses in towns, and in the partition of the land in rural districts.