§ MR. M'COANasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the action of the Land Commission in, this year, calling in the half-yearly tithe rent-charges a month earlier than has hitherto been required by the Church Temporalities Commission, that is to say, on the 31st of March instead of the 30th of April; and, whether the Government have sanctioned such action, in view of the present agricultural depression and state of rent payments in Ireland?
§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISHIn the absence of my right hon. Friend, I have been asked by him to answer this Question. The Irish Land Commission have demanded payment of tithe rent-charge five months after it was due, instead of six months. They have done so because their accounts are now made up for the year ending the 31st of March, instead of for that to the 31st of December, as heretofore; and they did not wish to have to state in their annual accounts that the bulk of moneys due five months previously were still in arrear. For this reason they have changed the date of lodgment for the November 1815 tithe rent-charge from the 30th of April to the 31st of March. This will not cause any real hardship, as large numbers of those liable have already paid their November rent-charge without question, and no application on reasonable grounds to defer payment until the 30th of April will be refused.