| For notice of the application | Ten shillings. |
| For making the order | Fifteen shillings. |
Remark on the Tithe Act, 1891.
I. i. The main principle of this Act, is that the tithe rentcharge is in future payable by the owner of the lands and not by the occupier, unless he is also owner. The same principle existed in the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. But unfortunately the 80th section of that Act, out of which landlords contracted themselves, says that “any tenant who shall pay any such rentcharge, shall be entitled to deduct the amount thereof from the rent payable by him to his landlord, and shall be allowed the same in account with his landlord.” Very few tenants deducted the tithes from their rents according to this section. It therefore became the general practice for the tenants in their leases or agreements, to agree to pay certain rents to the landlord, and also the tithe rentcharge to the tithe-owner. This Act carries out the intention of the Commutation Act in making the landowners liable to the payment of the tithe rentcharge. The Lords made a wise addition to subsection 1, viz. that, “Any contract made between an occupier and owner of lands after the passing of this Act, for the payment of tithe rentcharge by the occupier, shall be void.” The Bill on leaving the Commons, provided, in subsection 2, for contracts made before the passing of this Act, but made no provision against contracts made after the passing of the Act, thus leaving the door open to contracts which may be made after the passing of the Act.
The owner of the lands is now the collector of the tithe-owner. And the great advantages which the tithe-owner derives from this Act increase the market value of the rentcharge fully 25 per cent; and it will materially increase the value of the rentcharge when redeemed.
I. 3. It gives power to the owner to distrain for the sum equivalent to the tithe rentcharge paid by the owner of the lands and due by the occupier under a contract made previous to the passing of this Act, according to section 85 of the Act of 1836. The present Act thus transfers the unpopular system of distraint from the tithe-owner to the owner of the lands. No doubt section 85 was framed with a view of preventing tenants escaping payment by removing produce and stock from one field to another.
II. 1. To recover the tithe rentcharge through the County Court is new machinery. It is a new buffer between the tithe-owner and tithe-payer; it removes all immediate friction between the clergyman and his tithe-paying tenant. The subject of “fees” and “costs,” was the most contentious point in passing the Bill through Committee of the House of Commons. The Lords introduced the amendment, that “costs” should be recovered as in the case of an ordinary action in the County Court. This amendment will be extremely irritating to the small landowners, especially in Wales. It will also be a fruitful source of irritation to tithe-payers and of legal persecution by tithe-owners through their agents. The Lords’ amendment, introduced by Lord Selborne, was truly compared by Sir William Harcourt to “tares sown among wheat.” The Tithe Act of 1836 gave 21 days to the occupier to pay his tithe after it had fallen due, but this Act gives three months to the owners of the lands. This is a reasonable time, for the landlord has often to wait six months and even longer for his rents.
II. 2. By this, the tithe-owner can, in default of payment on distraint, take possession of the lands, and derive all the advantages of the tillage, and keep possession for years without rendering any compensation to the occupier. This is but one of the many cases which show that the Act was wholly framed in the interest of the tithe-owner, and disadvantageous to the tithe-payer. The security and stringent means for recovering tithe rentcharge are all advantages to the tithe-owner.
II. 5. The tithe-owner has a prior claim to all other creditors.
II. 9. The owner of the lands, or the occupier, cannot be imprisoned for non-payment of the tithe rentcharge, but may be fined or imprisoned as regards other matters in the execution of County Court warrants.
IV. The object which the framers of this section in the House of Lords had in view was to prevent collusion, as stated in their debates, between the owner of the lands and the occupying tenant. They based the assertion on the groundless assumption that certain landowners and farmers would enter into a conspiracy to defraud the tithe-owner. This discovery was reserved for the Lords. So section 4 contradicts section 1 subsection 1. The last proviso in section 4 was added by the House of Commons to protect the occupier by giving him a remedy against the landowner. The landowner may have been impecunious, and therefore let his land free of rent for some years, on condition that the tenant should erect certain buildings on the farm or put the farm and fences into better order; or he may let his lands for a sum down with a small rental; or the lands may have been let on beneficial leases on payment of a fine with a small reserve rental. But all these are common arrangements without any reference to collusion. The Lords, however, thought differently. But the most important point for consideration is, that this section upsets the main principle of the Act, namely, that the landowner, and not the occupier, should pay the tithe rentcharge. This section makes the latter pay it under certain circumstances, but which he can recover from his landlord in the manner stated.