ENGLISH TITHE WAR.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18849, 20 January 1933, Page 2

ENGLISH TITHE WAR.

FARMERS IN REVOLT.

LAW A DEAD LETTER. ENFORCEMENT IMPOSSIBLE. (From a Correspondent.! LONDON, Nov. 22. A serious situation has been created by the widespread refusal of farmers to pay tithe under the sjstem set up by the Stabilising Act of 1925, writes the special correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. The system of tithe-collecting has been paralysed throughout whole districts, thousands of orders for the payment of tithe have been made by the courts •within the past two years and have not been carried into effect, and the effects to collect Tithe by the sale of the distrained property of recalcitrant farmers have failed.

At the present time there is in operation a successful passive resistance' movement to the payment ol lithe- over a large part of rural England,, notably in Kent, Sussex, 'Wiltshire, Norfolk, Suffolk,. and EssexThe position is naturally giving serious concern to the Government and the ecclesiastical authorities, but no way out has yet been suggested, and fresh legislation would be needed to change the financial arrangements in the Act, which arc regarded by a large number of farmers as so onerous as to. justify a form or rebellion. A Formidable Movement.

This formidable movement has been organised by the National Tithepayers’ Association, whose president is the Rev. R. M. lvedward, formerly Liberal M.P. for the Ashford Division. The association is non-political and is said to have between nine and ten thousand members, most of them farmers against whom orders have been issued. The great majority of the revolting farmers are owneroccupiers. • The history and methods of the movement were explained by Mr Kedward. He said that the contention of the farmers who are refusing to pay their tithes is that the financial terms of the 1925 Act are, in the present condition of agriculture, extremely onerous. The history of tithe, in this country is long and complicated, but for the present purpose it is sufficient to recall that in 1836 Parliament altered the system of paying tithes in kind to a system of money payments. These money payments were arranged on the basis of the market prices of the chief cereals at that time, and were to vary in iiic future in .accordance with the movement of prices on a kind of sliding scale. In this way the tithe-owners became sharers with tlie agriculturists in their depression or their prosperity. The 1925 Act changed all this and based tithe on corn prices 5 per cent in advance of the prices prevailing in 1836 and added to this a compulsory charge of £4 10s per cent per annum ior the redemption of tithe over a feriod of 85 years. By this arrangement the land will become free of tithe at the end of 85 years, but it is complained by those who are opposed lo it that the redemption scheme lays an Impossibly heavy burden upon the present generation of tithe-payers for a benefit which neither they nor their (Children will enjoy.

£70,000,000 Churoh Endownment. ‘‘lt means,” said (Mr Kedward, ‘‘that agriculture during that time will have to provide a capital sum of over £70,000,000 for the endowment of the Church. Agriculturists complain that they were compelled by the Act to buy something they did not want at a far higher price than lithe would fetch in the open market. When tithe is offered . for sale it usually fetches from eight to ten years’ purchase.” The National. Tithe-payers’ Association was formed as a protest against these terms. It. is argued by its supporters that the quantity of corn grown since the valuation of tithes in 1836 —when tithes wore commuted into a money payment—is down by 50 per cent, the price that corn fetches is down by 30 per cent, while agricultural costs are up by 420 per cent. The complaint is made that It is impossible for anyone to value the price of corn over a period of eighty years, and that the whole basis on which the legislation was built has been utterly vitiated by the changed conditions in agriculture, notably the stabilisation of wages.

Representations were made after the passing of the Act to the Government and the ecclesiastical authorities that the tithes, as fixed by the 1925 Act, could not he obtained from the land on which they were charged; that the effect was to drive land out of cultivation. Nearly a million acres are said to have gone out of cultivation owing to agricultural depression and high tithe. In heavily tit lied counties the tithe-rent charged in many cases exceeded iho entire rental value of the land.

The Government gave no hope that the question could be reopened, and the ecelosiaslical authorities, while they were prepared 10 deal with h ud cases after investigation, were not prepared to suggest any alteration in legislation, in these circumstances tithe-payers, led by I lie association, have refused to pay excessive tithe, leaving the owners to collect it if they could by distraint.

Sales a Complete Failure. What has been happening in many parts of the Home Counties after county court orders have been made and distraint effected after clue notice is that agents of the tithe-owners have attempted to sell by auction the goods or cattle of farmers distrained upon, but almost invariably there lias been no genuine bidding. The goods have been hought by Iho farmers themselves by previous arrangement for ridiculous sums. Thus many haystacks have been sold for lis (Id, sheep leave gone for a penny, and in one ease the whole of a farmer's furniture, valued at it Hid. fetched 2~s ml. Owing to the reluctance of local auctioneers to conduct these sales, the county court liailill lias been authorised in many eases to attempt to sell Iho goods. Sales hv auction having been a complete .failure, lithe owners have applied to Hu’ courts for sale by tendei instead of by public aurlion, bill it is staled by Mr Kedward that no genuine lender has ov-c been received. Owing to Hie refusal of whole villages to take pari in the auelions. or. ralher, owing lo Hie. success of the popul.i|jou in making Ud'ni luHle by derisory bids, peopb* have sometimes been sent In from oulside lo buy. \t Mucking*’, in Kenl.- where tills was tried. I lie local farmers punctured (Continued in ucxL coluaw-A

the tvres of the would-be buyers’ motor-cars and they were compelled to lice from the scene with the fanners hooting behind them. Usually these scenes 'have been marked by good humour and much harmless excitement.

When there are forced sales a mccling or the association is usually held on (lie-village green, and there is generally an eiilhusiaslie audience of farmers and villagers. A sort of lilhepavers' hymn of protest, which is sung at llicse lien-lings, c-nulaius such verses as the hdlowing.

nod save us rrom these raiding priests, Who seize our crops and steal our beasts, Wno prav " (live us our dally bread, '■ Mid take’ ll lroni our mouths instead. Extraordinary Feeling Aroused. It is certain that this agitation has roused extraordinary feeling throughout Hie countryside. And .Mr Kedward claims that the refusal to work the Act lias Hie sympathy of agriculturists of all parties. At the moment, .Mr Kedward states, tithe-owners are not proceeding with distraint sales, though they are stilt applying to the courts for orders. Heeently some county court judges have said that they cannot make further orders unless the tithe-owners consent, to appoint their own agents to carry out tin? distraint, as the oltlccrs of I lie* courts arc unable lo make the orders effective. Judge Clements at Ashford suggested that il would be in the interests of agriculturists and tithe-owners if a moratorium could be arranged. This urlicle does not profess lo put the ease for the l!»2C> tilin’ settlement, which was fully explained al the time in the House of Commons, when ,\l r lia Id win argued Dial lie- .Ac! would save Hie lithe-owners some f I i,bb'i - bun. The fact remains Dial llie agitalmn of the fann'Ts again.-.! il lias made the en bo-eem.eu | of Hie \el a ib'iol letter in some of lilt- urns! liras ii\ lillo-d districts, and at Hie iimim-id inone seems to '-now "dul is to bo dune about it.