AN EXTRAORDINARY TITHE.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4576, 4 September 1883, Page 2

AN EXTRAORDINARY TITHE.

Mr -John Wood, a farmer living at, Orockeuhill, Kent, has written to a journal in his district and explained the facts in the tithe case with which*/his name has been associated. The" main facts are these. About.the year 1860 Mr Wood and his father took 16 acres of woodland, the property of Sir Percival Hart Dj,ke, at a rental of £1 an acre. They grubbed it and planted it with fruit at a cost of £50 por acre. In consideration of this the landlord gave them a 21 years' lease at the £1 per acre, and the Rev. E. F. - Dyke immediately claimed an extraordinary tithe'rentcharge of 7s per '' "acre." over and above the ordinary tithe rent-charge of Is 6d per acre. The cultivation of the six* teen acres has cost on ad average !£2OO a year, and during the last seven, years there has been a loss of about' £100 a year. At la?t Mr Wood resolred he would no longer pay this extraordinary tithe rent-charge out of his capital, and accordingly the Rev. E. F. Dyke, cow of Maidstone, seized the land to pay himself of its produce, and Mr Wood says that " possibly the idea of a public sale was distasteful to the rev. gentleman, who thought to take possession would be a quieter and better plan," and goes- oa to remark that unless the rev. gca» tleman continues to cultivate and risk bis money in such cultivation upon the chance of « good year, this orchard and fruit plantation will go out of cultivation and will relapse.into the condition of waste that it was in when he and his father took it in hand—a result which he very justly considers as *' injar» ious to everyone interested as^weH as to the public," and entirely due>|c^tte extra-' - ordinary tithe. Here is a tSseJSn which the Church steps in and claintsan amount equal to more than oue third of the ren> tal, in a case where the land has been brought into cultivation out of waste, solely by the capital aqd, industry of the tenant; has exacted it through s period when the land brought heavy bases on the cultivator; and seized the land. itself when the tenant refuses to pay the extortion any longer. The •• English system " of cultivating the soil, according to Lord Bramwell, is synonymous with " improvement, " and this caso shows jn>S what the English system improvement really is; the landlord gives a long leafee, and gets the land brought into cultivation? 1 by the labour and capital of the tenant;?, and the parson stops in and claims a ]a*ge share of the iucreased produce. It seems about time the " lacklanders " 'came to the rescue. -. . ' *-..