Dec. 1894.] 



REMISSION OF TITHE RENTCHARGE. 



155 



IV.~REMISSION OF TITHE RENTCHARGE. 



The Board of Agriculture have reason to suppose that owners 

 and occupiers of lands used for agricultural purposes only are, in 

 many instances, unaware of the provision made in the Tithe Act, 

 1891, for remission of such part of the tithe rentcliarge on such 

 lands as exceeds two-thirds of the assessment of the lands under 

 Schedule B. of the Income Tax. The Board desire, therefore, to 

 draw attention to this provision, and to the mode prescribed by 

 the Act for giving effect to it. 



The Act provides that, for the future, direct payment o£ 

 tithe rentcharge shall be by the landowner ; that where an 

 occupier is liable, under a contract made before the passing of 

 the Act (26th March 1891), to pay tithe rentcharge, then he 

 shall repay to the owner such sum as the latter has properly 

 paid on account of the rentcharge ; that a contract made after 

 the passing of the Act for payment by the occupier shall be 

 void ; and that recovery of the rentcharge shall be through the 

 County Court of the district, when the sum due is in arrear not 

 less than three months. 



After making provision for the procedure in the County Court, 

 the Act proceeds as follows : — Section 8, sub-section 1 : Where 

 " a sum is claimed on account of tithe rentcharge issuing out of 

 " any lands, and the County Court is satisfied that, if the sum: 

 " claimed is paid, the total amount paid on account of the tithe 

 " rentcharge for the period of twelve months next preceding the 

 " day on which the sum claimed became payable, will exceed 



two- thirds of the annual value of the lands as ascertained and 

 " entered in the assessment for the purpose of Schedule B. to 

 " the Income Tax Act, 1853, or as certified as herein-after 

 " mentioned, the Court shall order the remission of so much, 

 " whether the whole or part of the sum claimed, as is equal to 

 " the excess, and the amount so ordered to be remitted shall not 

 " be recoverable : and if the Court is satisfied that neither such 

 " remission, nor the liability thereto, has been taken into account 

 " in estimating the rateable value of the tithe rentcharge, the 



Court m.ay remit such amount of any then current rate 

 " assessed on the owner of the tithe rentcharge as appears to 

 " the Court to be proportionate to the amount of the remission 

 " of tithe rentcharge." 



It is to be noted, however, that by section 8, sub-section 8, 

 remission is confined to rentcharge on lands used solely for 

 agricultural or pastoral purposes, or for the growth of timber or 

 underwood. And where lands were at the commutation the 

 subject of a special apportionment, that is, where the tithe rent- 

 charge in respect of a larger area was, by the desire of the 

 landowner, specially apportioned on a smaller area, so that the 



