THE EARL OF BELMORE,in asking the Lord President, If the type of the Return of Owners of land in Ireland is still standing; and, if so, whether any steps can be taken to amend the inaccuracies in the Return? said, the names of persons had been inserted as owners though they were merely trustees of property; and in other cases persons had been defined as owners in fee though they merely held leases for 99 years, or were renewable, or were rent-charges. He thought that the definition of owners would lead to many mistakes. There were errors in the case of his own property. If the book was intended to be of any real value the numerous inaccuracies should be corrected, and if the type were not broken up that might be done without any very great cost. He 944 should be glad to hear that the type had not been broken up, and that the errors could be corrected.
§ LORD SELBORNE,referring to the Returns of owners of land in England, said, he could hardly conceive a document of less value. It was full of mistakes, instances of which the noble and learned Lord pointed out.
§ EARL GRANVILLEsaid, that in his own case he was put down as owning 600 acres of agricultural land in Staffordshire, and that he derived an income from it of £10,000 a-year, or £16 an acre rental, which was certainly the highest rental for such land that he had ever heard of.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYwas understood to say that in his case the Return was altogether erroneous; but it was not surprising that there should be inaccuracies, for there was the greatest difficulty in getting the Returns, and very often they had to be got as they best could from vestry clerks and other parish officers not of the most educated class.
§ LORD BLACHFORDsaid, it was the same as regarded himself.
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND AND GORDONregretted extremely that the Irish Return was inaccurate; but from what they had just heard it was not singular, as the same injustice had been perpetrated in regard to the Return for England as for Ireland. The type had not been broken up; but he understood that it would be inconvenient to correct the Blue Book as it now stood. It was now proposed, after some time had elapsed and all the errors had been brought to light, to print an addendum, showing the corrections which had been made.
THE EARL OF LIMERICKsaid, that there could be no doubt that there were very great inaccuracies in the Return for Ireland, and he referred particularly to the Return for his own neighbourhood.
§ House adjourned at a quarter past Six o'clock, to Thursday next, half past Ten o'clock.