Nwe offices, purchasing additional ground, imposition of heavy taxation.

Chapter XX.

The tenure of the old offices on Ormond Quay, in which space was very limited, having only a few years to run, and accommodation being urgently needed for the records which had accumulated to an immense extent, as well as more room being required for the augmented office staff consequent on the great increase in the number of forms and records necessarily kept, the Cemeteries Committee secured, through the successful negociations of one of its members, Mr. Lombard, the present extensive offices, 4 Rutland Square, possession of which was obtained on the 16th October, 1894.

They were opened for the transaction of business on 1st July, 1895.** **The fine paid for the premises, which are now subject only to a nominal rent of £11 18s. 2d., is noted in a preceding chapter. The structural alterations - which included the building of two spacious strong-rooms in the basement - office fittings, new sewers, etc., painting, and architect’s fees, amounted to £1,797 17s. 4d. The building portion of the work was executed by Mr. Kiernan, and the office fittings by the old and well-known firm of T. & C. Martin - all the work being carried out according to the plans and specifications, and under the supervision of Mr. William H. Byrne, Architect.

Necessity having arisen for additional ground for ordinary non-vested burials, the Committee, since acquiring their new offices, have, as already stated, extinguished the heavy annual rent which was payable out of the lands of “Violet Hill,” by purchasing the fee thereof, which, with law costs, reached the sum of £4,304 14s. 7d. Of this amount £4,250 was obtained as a loan from one of the Dublin Banks; but the sum has by instalments been reduced, and only £3,250 now remains unpaid. In addition, a head-rent of £14 2s. 8d., which was payable out of the same lands was, as before noted, extinguished by payment of £566 19s. 0d.

These lands are now being enclosed by a boundary wall - the contract entered into for its construction exceeding £3,600. The large payments now specified do not, however, terminate the expenditure necessary to make this ground suitable for the purposes of burial. For the laying-out of the grounds, when enclosed, by walks, planting, levelling its uneven surface, and constructing the necessary sewers for its drainage will, it is estimated, involve a further outlay of several thousand pounds. When these lands are enclosed the extent or area of Glasnevin Cemetery will comprise 86a. 1r. 21p. statute.

During the period (from 1895 to 1900) that these large payments were being made, the Committee were only able to make grants out of their revenue to Charitable Educational Institutions to the amount of £271.

In the year 1899, at the hearing, before a Parliamentary Committee, of a Bill promoted by the Dublin Corporation for extending the boundaries of the city - so as to include Glasnevin Cemetery and the lands adjoining owned by the Board - the Committee endeavoured to have either the premises excluded, or a clause inserted giving differential rating as regards the Cemetery and those lands. The proceedings involved an expenditure of some five or six hundred pounds in Parliamentary costs.

With the view to improve the surface’ of a portion of the ground of Glasnevin Cemetery, the Cemeteries Committee obtained, in 1899, from Mr. Ramsay, nurseryman and landscape gardener, a report on the subject. Immediately on receiving this report, a number of extra workmen were employed for a lengthened period under the supervision of Mr. Ramsay, to carry out the works recommended by him - which included the removal of several trees, extensive pruning of others, levelling of the ground, spreading over the surface fine clay, extensive sodding of borders of walks, and placing upright several hundreds of headstones which, for want of foundation walls, had fallen out of the perpendicular. These improvements were carried on for nearly 15 months at an outlay of about £1,100, and added much to the pleasing appearance of the grounds of the Cemetery.

In 1895-96 the Glasnevin Cemetery, which for a period of nearly 50 years previously had not been liable for rates, was now sought, by an aggressive movement of the Valuation Department, to be assessed. Some time before inquiries having been made by the North Dublin Union Guardians, as to why the Cemetery had been exempted, a letter of the late Sir John B. Greene, Commissioner of Valuation, dated February 19th, 1892, addressed to the Clerk of the North Dublin Union, and published in the newspapers, stated:- “The exemption of this property (Glasnevin Cemetery) has now existed for the last 40 years, and it is probable that the exemption in the first instance, arose from the fact that the profits arising from burials were stated to be devoted to charitable purposes, and that there was no private or personal emolument arising therefrom. In this view of the case, Glasnevin Cemetery is different from Mount Jerome, the profits of which go directly to the shareholders.”

The action taken by the Valuation Department came on for hearing before the Right Honorable the Recorder, who, after the case was argued by Counsel, gave a decision adverse to the contention of the Cemeteries Committee, which was that the Glasnevin Cemetery should, as a Charitable Institution, still continue to be exempted from assessment. From the decision given in the Recorder’s Court, the Cemeteries Committee brought an appeal “In the High Court of Justice in Ireland, Queen’s Bench Division.” The case was argued in that Court with great ability by Counsel-representing respectively, the Cemeteries Committee and the Valuation Department - and on 8th June, 1896, the majority of the Court, consisting of Mr. Justice Holmes and Mr. Justice Johnston, delivered judgment, which substantially confirmed the adverse decision of the Recorder. The other member of the Court the Honorable Mr. Justice William O’Brien, however, dissented, ‘and in a judgment of great ability, legal *acumen *and lucidity, recorded his opinion that Glasnevin Cemetery should be, as it had been for the last 50 years, exempted from assessment.

The result of this adverse decision has been that a new impost or tax of considerably over £400 annually, has been permanently fixed upon the Cemetery, and the Charitable Educational Institutions in and near the city of Dublin deprived of this large amount, which otherwise would find its way towards their maintenance and support.

O’Brien & Ards, Printers Dublin.

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