Some of the. Irish Registrars seem to have odd notions
of evidence. The Registrar of Ballyshannon, for instance, recently reported that a man died in Belleek at the age of 118, whereupon the Registrar-General called for a special report on the evidence as to the man's age. The reply is delicious :—" I believe his age to be not overstated. My informant, who signed the entry in the register, as being present at the death of the old man, was the son of the deceased. He told me he had, as well as others, fre- quently heard his father say that he was forty-one years old when the French landed in Killala in 1798, and the truth of this state- ment was never questioned. This would exactly bring his age up to 118 years. I may add that there were several persons present at the time of my registering the death, all of whom coincided in the opinion that his age was not or could not be less than that represented to me." This amounts to saying that an exceedingly old man thought himself older than he was, and that his son and neighbours believed him. There is not a tittle of evidence in the statement, and the Registrar himself would not have continued to pay an annuity on it.
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