§ 51. Viscount SANDONasked the Minister of Agriculture whether the necessity of indirect collection of tithe through the regional agents can be waived when the interest charges thereon amount to more than the cost or relative equivalent in loss of time would involve to the incumbent, as for instance in such cases as where there are only a very few tithe-payers?
§ The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Mr. Guinness)During the passage through Parliament of the Tithe Act, 1925, which transferred ecclesiastical tithe rentcharge to Queen Anne's Bounty, the question of the collection of tithe rentcharge by individual incumbents was exhaustively discussed, and it was considered desirable to effect a divorce in the direct relationship between the clerical titheowner and the tithe payer, subject to the preservation of the right of an existing incumbent who was already himself collecting his tithe rent-charge, to continue to do so. I am informed by the Bounty that the present system is working satisfactorily, and that the average cost of collection throughout the country is now reduced to £3 4s. per £100 tithe rentcharge.