Redemption of Tithe-Rent Charge.
The force of this observation is keenly felt when the property is put up for sale. It will be difficult to frame a Redemption Act, for one party will calculate the price at par value; another party, at the current annual value, which is now so much below par. And it is uncertain when the upward turn in the average annual value will occur, and when it does occur, it will be very small and slow. This is what makes the redemption question so difficult to deal with. In the Tithe Act of 1891, the provision for redeeming the tithe-rent charge is omitted and postponed. In framing a Redemption Bill, everything will turn on the meaning attached to the word value. Two values will be the salient points for discussion: (1) Present market value of the tithe-rent charge; and (2) a fair value. The most opposite opinions will be found to prevail on these two vital points. Let us take £100 of the “commuted value,” and put it in the market for sale. The present value (1891) of the £100 is £73 3s. 3¾d. Present purchaser will reason thus: Depreciation, £24; rates and other charges, £20 = £100 - 44 = £56. Having arrived at this amount, the next important question the purchaser will ask himself, How many years’ purchase shall I give? Some will say twenty, but a reasonable man will say twenty-five, and will offer 56 × 25 = £1,400 for the £100 of the “commuted value.” Again, there is a powerful body, and among them the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who would probably not sell at £1,400. They would start from par value and only allow a deduction for rates and other charges, i.e., £ 100 - 20 = £80, and would not sell for less than twenty-five years’ purchase on this value, i.e., £80 x 25 = £2,000. These are the salient facts with which the framers of any Redemption Bill will have to deal. There may be a modus vivendi arrived at by “splitting the difference,” and selling £100 say for £1,800, and other amounts in the same proportion. The Bill will never pass except both parties will agree to a modus vivendi, as above sketched out. But in my opinion, the price should not be less than £2,000.
The following statement is taken from the Tithe Commissioners’ Report, dated 4th July, 1887.
| £ | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Clerical Appropriators | 681,695 |
| 2. | Parochial Incumbents | 2,415,040 |
| 3. | Lay Impropriators | 766,334 |
| 4. | Schools, Colleges, etc | 196,055 |
| £4,059,124 |
The recipients of (1) and (4) are stated in the Appendix.
In 1891, the depreciation is £967,419, and the total gross value is £3,061,705. Assuming £2,000 to be the price by Act of Parliament of £100 commuted value; the Government would advance to the landowners £58,837,965 at £4 per cent., and would hand over stock at £2¾ per cent. to this amount to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in trust for the parochial incumbents and clerical appropriators. They would pay the dividends, amounting to £1,705,200 per annum, to the incumbents, etc., just as they do the dividends on other properties vested in them.
Now, in 1891, the same tithe-owners receive about £1,734,152 net. The depreciation in value of tithe is, we may say, at its nadir. Therefore the income from stock should not be less than this nadir value, and hence the purchasing value should not be less than £2,000. The property is national, and therefore care should be taken to maintain its value, and to prevent landowners, as in 1836, from getting another large slice of this national property.