THE TITHE WARFARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1936, Page 22

THE TITHE WARFARE

PROTEST BY FARMERS

THE ORIGIN OF THE TAX

• We've cheated the parson,1 We'll cheat him again; - For why should the parson Collect one in ten? "■ Carrying large banners and placards, 5000 husky British farmers recently jammed busy Whitehall streets in London and marched towards No. 10 Downing Street to lay their protests against the age-old church tithes which they, wish revoked before Mr. Stanley Baldwin's Cabinet, says the "New York Times." ...... , ■'~.' Banners shrieked: "We shear sheep; the Church shears us!" "Churchmen, be sportsmen. Pay for your religion." Groaning- .under the . burden of "Queen Anne's Bounty," the yearly payment representing one-tenth of their income, Which the Crown transferred in favour'of the Church in 1704, farmers renewed the century-old battle. Tithe-owners, mostly churchmen, are opposed to its cancellation, contending that such action would hamper their spiritual and educational work. Unable to get satisfaction from the Government, English farmers armed themselves with sticks and guns, dug trenches around their farmsteads, and fought off bailiffs sent to seize their cattle. Joining the farmers' cause, Lady Evelyn Balfour, daughter of th? famous statesman, was recently cited for "unlawful assembly" when she helped Essex and Sussex strikers battle against police escorting bailiffs. A POLITICAL ISSUE. Championing striking tithepayers are members of the Labour Party and the Opposition Liberals in the House of Commons;' Conservative Lord Hugh Cecil defends the claims of tithebwners, bitterly jealous pi their rights. They fall into two classes: Queen Anne's Bounty, a church organisation which collects and distributes tithes in the interest of clergymen, and the tithe-owners, largely •omposed of universities, colleges, church charities, and individuals. With more than 5500 unpaid tax claims before the Courts, a Royal Commission began two years ago to study the1 problem. : This year ' Parliament took up its findings and devised a Bill which'reduced the tithe rent charges payable on October 1, cancels them thereafter, and holds farmers liable only for unpaid arrears. . • The Bill also provides that1 titheowners are not to be compensated by a Government stock issue of £60,000,000, redeemable in sixty years at a- lower rate. To come to the immediate relief of needy clergymen, £2,000,000 will be appropriatea and distributed among them." : ■■■■■. ' . ■'■."' ■. • '\- . Inherited from Biblical, times, the tithe institution worked its way into England from Continental Europe, where the- Christian Church levied it as belonging to God for blessing the crops with abundance. In England as early as 786 A.D. tithes were exacted from all lands.except those belonging to the Church and the Crown, payable in services or profits. ■ FIXEb CHARGE NOW. Under, the present Tithe Acts of England a fixed charge has been substituted fori tithes to support parishes. The rate is-1 a percentage of the rent of houses, shops, and other properties. By the Commutation Act of 1836 tithed land was made to bear a charge based on the imoney value of the corn: or other products. Since then, although farm lands have been left uncultivated as; grass lands, husbandmen are made to pay tithes on corn which they could Hay raised on them. > • . "In the Middle Ages the tithe levy represented the Monarch's right to his subjects': "first ■ fruits." Later it shifted to one-tenth of a' farm's produce, and eventually'to a land tax which the Church collected. After the Reformation in the sixteenth century many .laymen acquired tithes by purchase and Royal' gifts? Today* private- owners get a yearly income of £1,000,000, while the Church takes in £-2.200.000. .! :. .