The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-20 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS

BILL.

' By this Bill it is intended that once in every year
' an account shall be taken for England and Wales of
the quantity of land sown or planted with wheat,
barley, rve, oats, beans and peas, potatoes, turnips,
carrots, beet root or mangold wurtzel, tares or vetches,
clover, lucerne, and other artificial grasses, meadow
and pasture, fallow, wood, waste and other crops, if
any, and also the number of bulls, oxen, cows and
sheep. The registrar-general of births, deaths, and
marriages, in England, is to have the care of super-
intending the taking of such account and of making
such preliminary inquiries as may be necessary,
and to prepare and cause to be printed., for
the use of the persons to be employed in
taking such account, such forms and instruc-
tions as he may deem necessary, and to issue the
same to the persons for whose use they are intended.
On or before the twenty-fifth day of :Tune next, and
from time to time thereafter, whenever a vacancy
shall occur, every superintendent-registrar in Eng-
land and Wales is to appoint a competent person in
each registrar's district under his superintendence to
be the agricultural enumerator for such district, and
to perform the duties therein mentioned ; that every
such enumerator is to hold his office during the
pleasure of the registrar-general, unless he desire to
be discharged. Every enumerator, on or before the
tenth day of July next, and on or before the first
day of June in every succeeding year, is to prepare
a list in writing of the names of all persons occupy.
enumerator,tywithinvv
in
the districtganylandtxc f,r whicheeding three
he l
acres in
ivanti
arranged according to the parishes or to •nships,
or parts of parishes or townships, wnithqin such
district ; and for the purpose of preparing or
correcting such list, every such enumerator shall, at
all reasonable times, have access to the several rate-
books of the parishes and townships comprisedin the
district of which he is enumerator, or into which
such district extends. Every such enumerator, on or
before the said tenth day of July next, and on or be-
fore the said first day of June in every succeeding
year, is to leave or cause to be left at, or to transmit
to the usual or last known place of abode of each
and every person named in the said list, a blank
form, giving the before-mentioned particulars.
Every person on whom any such blank form has
been left, or to whom it has been sent, or some
person acting under the authority and by the di-
rections of such person shall, within fourteen
days after such blank form has been so left or so
sent, fill up the blanks in the same to the best of his
power, so far as regards the land in his own occu-
pation, and shall sign the same; and if he be any
person other than the person to whom such form was.
addressed, shall state that he has filled up the sasne
by his directions, or under his authority, and shall
return the same, so filled up and signed, to the enu-
merator from whom lie received the same. On the
return of the forms the enumerator is to examine
them, and cause any defects or inaccuracies which he
may perceive therein to be supplied or corrected, so
far as may appear possible. Upon the receipt of such
forms so filled up, every enumerator is to make out a
table, arranged, so far as, may be, according to
to the townships comprised in his district, or into
which his district extends, and in the form set forth
in the schedule ; and is to transmit the same so
filled up, on or before the 10th day of August
next, and on or before the Ist day of July in every
succeeding year, to the superintendent-registrar
of his district. The superintendent-registrar
is to examine all the accounts so delivered to him, and
to satisfy himself how far the enumerators have duly
performed the duties imposed upon them, and to cause
any inaccuracies to be corrected so far as may be pos-
sible, and on or before the twentieth d y of August
next, and on or before the tenth day of July in every
succeeding year, is to return all the accounts which
have been delivered to him to the registrar-general
for the uie of the Lords of the Committee of Privy
Council appointed for the consideration of all matters
relating to trade and foreign plantations. The Lords
of the said Committee may from time to time, by any
order or orders under their seal, alter or vary the
forms set forth in the schedules to the Act; and if it
appear to them desirable that the information sought
to be obtained should not be collected in any particular
year, they are on or before the first day of May in such
year to notify the same to the registrar-general, who
is thereupon forthwith to issue the necessary instruc-
tions to the superintendent-registrars, in order that
no steps for such collection may be taken in that year.
The Lords of the Committee of Privy Council are
to prepare a table of the allowances to be made to the
several enumerators, superintendent-registrars, and
other persons to be employed in carrying out the
provisions
of this Act ; but the allowance to be made
to any enumerator is not to exceed the sum of two
pounds ten shillings for every hundred occupiers of
land within the district for which he is enumerator,
and so in proortion for a greater or less number of
occupiers ; and the allowance to be made to any
superintendent-registrar is not to exceed ten pounds
for every one hundred pounds of the total allowance
made to all the enumerators within his district, and
so in proportion for a greater or less sum than one
hundred pounds ; and such table of allowance is
to be laid before both Houses of Parliament
so soon as the same has been approved by
the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury,
if Parliament be then sitting, or if not, then
within fourteen days after the opening of the next
session of Parliament ; and all alterations in the said
table are also in like manner to be laid before both
Houses of Parliament as soon as may be after they
have been made. The Bill then provides for the mode
of application for remuneration by the different par-
ties entitled to it under the table of allowances, and
then provides that the guardian, or whare there are
no guardians the overseers of the poor, are to pay the
superintendent-registrar of their district out of the
moneys in their hands, as such guardians or overseers,
the whole amount of the allowances to shish the
superintendent registrar and the enumerators in that
district are severally entitled, or in case any such
district shall contain parishes or places, or parts of
parishes or places, all of which are not comprised in
the same union, then so much of the whole amount as,
under certain appointments therein mentioned are
payable by such guardians or overseers, and each
superintendent-registrar is to pay over to the enume-
rators in his district the allowances to which they are
severally entitled according to the table of allowances.
It then provides for the mode of apportioning tie
amount of the allowances am:ng the different parishes
in the sill erintendent-regi,traet, district, and requires
that such payment by guardians, overseers, or trea-
surer, shall be certified to t le registrar-general within
one calendar month. It then imposes a penalty of
5/. on the superintendent•registrar or enumerator, and
on occupiers of lands, of 1/. fur each neglect of duty,
or a penalty of 51. the latter if they wi fally make
any false statements, or wilfully suppress aay infor-
mation which by the blank form left with them they
are required to supply, or wilfully deface, injure, tear,
or lose such paper. But none of these penalties are to
be sued for except by dire( time of the Board of Trade,
or registrar-general. The remainder of the Bill is
confined to the mode of rd co;,•riruz penalties.

THE GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND RAILWAY.-..
We are happy to understand that the directors of this line
are taking active steps towards its formation. From the
report of the town council proceedings it will be observed
that a communication was laid before them to the effect,
that a working survey was about to be made, and the lin:e
marked off previous to contracts being advertised for. Fol-
lowing up this communication, a party of surveyors a.' Aberdeen arrived here on Friday last to commence
p:1111
tl-
tions. The engineers have also been at work in the
neigh_ra-
bourhood of Fo-res, marking off the line. The Forres Gazette
says—" The railway enters the town's lards at the east, after
crossing the fields near the obelisk, and runs in almost a
straight line from that, through the town's parks in the
direction of Hedgefleld, and crosses the Findhorn a little
below the present suspension bridge. We observe it cuts
the roads in the close vicinity of the town, iu five different
places, and unless viaducts at these crossings are built, will
very seriously interfere with the safely wad comfort of the
lieges. The Councillor's walk, the most frequented in the
town, is intersected by it in two place,s; so is the Bogton-
' road, the Iledgefield-road, and the W=aterford-road, near the
Lee-bridge. It is expected that tbe working plans will be
commenced in October.—lnverness Courier.
ready in a few weeks, and opetatimis, it is calculated, will be
WILD FowL.—The makiy beautiful aquatic birds
that, during the last long winter, were to be seen in every
vanished to their homes and breeding places on the
have all
bog and creek of the Moray. Beaulv. and Cromarty friths,
Western Islands and hill lochs. All sorts of gay plumaged
tribes which switn the broad waters, or dart en their tinny
prey from an aerial height, wk.re more than unusually abun-
dant.geese. the golden eve, velvet
greygoo saanidmberr,entinvi.gan
,er, millard,
widgeon, and teal; of other kinds there were cormorants,
grebes, cootes,solan
duck, BFhl eolcdkrsako fe
,
goose, swai is,herons,guillemots,
golden plovers, the redshank, and several kinds
of sandpipers.
The little auk, or sea dove, from
the Arctic rrgions, was
among the rarer ,1119•
mirrrat. IThe most successful sport in
wild-fowl shooting, in this quarter, is generalh got by John
Hay Mackenzie, Esq., of Cromertie;from his insular little
watch-house, as roans- as fifteen wild
ducks, s ix geese, and
numbers of plovers. have been shot in the course of an hour
and a half. The author of " The Wild Sports and Natural
History of the Highlands," Charles St. John, Esq., is also
in a fine locality for the sport; he shot last winter a swan
weighing 191bs , and with extent of wing seven feet seven
inches, besides many varieties of ducks and geese H. W.
White, Esq., and A. Mackenzie, Esq., have mounted gunning
punts—the latter was occasionally seen gliding silently along
the water, until the boom of the long gun swept its charge
into an unwary flock.—lnrerness Courier.
ATTEMPT AT POISONING.—BURY ST. EDMUND'S,
TURSDAY.—Yesterday, at the police-office of this town, the
young womax, Hannah Rouse, who had beta apprehended
on suspicion of being
concerned in the poisoning of the en-
tire family to which ~he belonged. consisting of six persons,
was brouuht up before Messrs. Probart and Le Grice, bo-
rough magistrates, for examination on the serious charge.
At the close of the evidence, the ketch observed that there
could be no doubt that a very wicked attempt had been
made on the lives of the family, but there were no facts
elicited that would warrant them in detaining the accused;
and, therefore, she would be liberated on entering into her
own recognizances to answer any charge that might be
hereafter made against her. This was done, and ahe was
discharged.
PREFERMENT.—We are requested to state that the
Rev. W. D. West, 8.A., of St. John's College, Oxford, and
curate of Presteigu, has been appointed to the Head Master.
hip of the Church of Er Eltuld 6C491 at ffackileY.