Much dissatisfaction continued to be expressed with regard to the apportioning the charge of relief upon the several electoral divisions. Those in which the rated property was large, and the number of poor inconsiderable, complained of the proportion they had to pay towards the common charges of the union, whilst the amount of relief required by them was so small. The divisions on the contrary in which the number of paupers was considerable, and the amount of relief bore a large proportion to their rated value, complained of the high rate of poundage to which they were subjected, in comparison with the other divisions. The change now made in the law may help gradually to reconcile although it does not remove these distinctions. As new admissions take place, the proportion charged upon the union at large would most likely increase, and there would thus be a closer approximation towards an equal rating of the whole union. But many boards of guardians expressed themselves as not satisfied with this gradual and partial change, and declared themselves favourable to a union rate, whereby all charges would be borne by an equal poundage-rate over the several electoral divisions. That these guardians took a correct view of the question seems hardly to admit of doubt. They had seen the evils of divisional chargeability, and wished to apply the obvious remedy by bringing the law back to what was originally proposed; but the time for so doing had not arrived, and the evils and inconveniences were still to be continued, although perhaps in a somewhat mitigated form. [Sidenote: Collection of the rates.] At the date of the present Report (1st May 1844) resistance to the collection of the rates was in great measure overcome, and the authority of the law vindicated. The general results of the collection are stated to have been as follows—In 98 of the unions, in which the rates made previously to the 24th August 1843 amounted to 605,864_l._, there remained uncollected on the 1st January 1844 only 46,322_l._, or something less than 8 per cent. of the entire amount. But it must not be supposed that even the whole of this arrear was collectable. All tenements, whether occupied or not, are usually included in the rate, the infinite number of small tenements making it impossible to distinguish with certainty what are unoccupied at the time the rate is made; and it is only the occupied tenements which pay. Public property legally exempt is also often included in the rate, and the arrears in the South Dublin union amounting to 4,479_l._, are likely to include sums of this nature. On the whole therefore, it appeared to the commissioners, that “considering the great difficulty of collecting the rates from the occupiers of very small tenements, on which class a large portion of the entire rate is laid, these results would not be regarded as unsatisfactory.” [Sidenote: Auditors appointed.]