We are about to ask at your hands a Rate of Three Pence in the Pound, for the requisite Annual Expenses of the Parish and two District Churches, (St. John and St. James). As it is anticipated that the Government will set this question at rest in the next Session of Parliament, we trust that no unkind feeling will be entertained towards us on this, we hope, FINAL occasion of appealing to our friends and fellow parishioners. We are equally anxious to do our duty, and to preserve the peace of the Parish, and, whilst we solicit the assistance of our friends, we deprecate the hostility of those parties, who, if placed in our position, would find themselves legally compelled to adopt the same line of conduct.
J. C. BROWNE, D.C.L.,
SAMUEL PRICE,
DANIEL JORDAN,
Vicar.
} Churchwardens.
May 10th, 1853.
March, 1853. The Small Tenements’ Act of the 13th and 14th Vict. had for some time received serious consideration at the hands of some of the most thoughtful ratepayers as to its adoption in this Parish. A public meeting was held recommending the immediate adoption of the Act, when it was shewn that £2,500 per annum would be saved to the poor rates by such a procedure. The poor rates for Dudley parish during the last three years had been four shillings in the pound, for 2,347 houses were excused payment, and, as the general trade of the town and district was in a shockingly depressed state, we had 1,536 houses void. Under this Small Tenements’ Act, all houses rated to the poor and highway rates (and rated at under £6 per annum) were to be paid for by the owners not occupiers as hitherto. The owners of small tenements had previously held properties which paid no rates at all, inasmuch as their tenants were too poor to pay them, and got put themselves upon the excused list; but it was found out that the rapacious owners reaped the benefit, by compelling the poor tenants to pay them a bigger rent, because they were excused paying rates. When the large employers of labour became incensed at this unfair taking the burden from off the backs of landlords and placing it upon them, or anyone else who grumbled and paid, it soon became a settled opinion that the Act must be adopted, so that we had a three days’ poll of the whole parish on March 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, held in the Vestry at St. Thomas’ Parish Church, to determine this vexed contest.
What is the Meaning of the Small Tenements’ Rating Act?
A FEW FACTS—For Poor Working Men!
A Bill has been circulated by Gentlemen opposed to the introduction of the Small Tenements’ Rating Act, many of them Owners of Small Houses, all of them being desirous of being considered “The Poor Man’s Friend!”