Page:Tithes, a paper read at the Diocesan Conference at Rochester, May 31, 1883.djvu/17

 dealing with the extraordinary tithe we are bound to keep it as it has hitherto been, absolutely distinct from the ordinary. Redeem it or compound for it if you will; and probably this would be done upon terms favourable to the tithe-payer; but in any such scheme the lands subject to extraordinary tithe should bear the cost of it; and if it be commuted into a fixed payment, that payment should be divided rateably among those who under the old system would have been liable for extraordinary tithe. No one will dispute that hops are cultivated with a view to larger profits than can be made by ordinary tillage; and taking an average of the last seven years, such profits have been made. Is it not manifestly unfair that A, an owner of poor land in any parish, or at all events of land which could not possibly be planted with hops, should be called upon to pay extra tithe for B, whose land may be thoroughly suited for them, when he is not in any way to share the profits of such cultivation? "Whatever might have been done at the commutation, to throw the burden now of extraordinary tithe upon the ordinary is to my mind to intensify the evil. I have never been able to understand how it is that the extra tithe, which in the award is declared to be so much per acre, should follow the corn averages, and fluctuate with them. If nothing else be done, I consider that it ought to be the sum per acre fixed by the Act without any variation. Am I satisfied with the present state of things? I am not. I do not consider, as I said, that the intention of the Tithe Commissioners was that extraordinary tithe should go on increasing ad libitum, and I should wish to see a limit put to it. The Act of 1873, which declares that extraordinary tithe shall only be charged upon newly cultivated market ground, where such extra tithe was distinguished at the time of the commutation, points in that direction, and rather, I think, aggravates previous inequality. The mere accident of living in a parish subject or not subject to extra tithe ought not to determine the liability of newly cultivated gardens. Having admitted the principle that newly cultivated gardens in parishes not subject to extraordinary tithe should not be charged, the same principle should be adopted in parishes subject to it; hops or fruit gardens newly cultivated should not be made to swell the amount of