Irish Church Act, 1869, Amendment Act, 1872

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IRISH CHURCH ACT 1869, AMENDMENT ACT 1872

CHAPTER XC.

An Act to amend the Irish Church Act, 1869. [10th August 1872.]

[Preamble recites 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.]

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as “The Irish Church Act (1869) Amendment Act, 1872.”

Interpretation.

32 & 33 Vict. c. 42.

2. In this Act words and expressions to which by the Irish Church Act, 1869, meanings have been assigned shall have the same meanings respectively.

The term “principal Act” shall mean the Irish Church Act, 1869.

Extension of section 16 of Irish Church Act, 1869, to the commutation of annuities payable to diocesan schoolmasters.

3. The provisions of section sixteen of the principal Act, authorising the Commissioners, with the consent of the Church body, to cause the value of the life annuity of any clerk, sexton, or officer of the said Church to be estimated and paid to such annuitant, or to such annuitant and the Church body in such proportions as they shall agree, shall be deemed to extend and shall extend and authorise the Commissioners, with the consent of the said Church body, to cause the present value of the annuity payable to each schoolmaster of any diocesan or district school in Ireland, as ascertained and declared by order of the Commissioners under the provisions of the said section, to be estimated, and to pay the same to such schoolmaster or to such schoolmaster and Church body in such proportions as they shall agree.

The provisions of the said section of the principal Act shall be construed as if the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four were substituted for the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two in the said section.

Commutation of annuities. 32 & 33 Vict. c. 42. ss. 44, 45.

4. The Commissioners may estimate the value of any annuity declared by order pursuant to the provisions of the forty-fourth and forty-fifth sections of the principal Act, and may pay such estimated value to the person entitled to such annuity in satisfaction of the same, if such person shall be willing to accept it and they shall consider it expedient so to do.

Payment of moneys received for dilapidations to Church body in certain cases.

5. Whenever a glebe house shall be purchased by the representative body of the said Church, any moneys which shall have been received in respect of dilapidations of such house from the incumbent by the Commissioners shall be paid over to such body for the repair of the same.

Amount of tithe rent-charges to be fixed.

1 & 2 Vict. c. 109.

6. Whereas a statement under the seal of the Commissioners of the amounts of the annual tithe rentcharges, which accrued due in respect of each benefice, dignity, or ecclesiastical corporation in Ireland on the first day of November one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, and of the owners chargeable therewith, has been deposited in the Record Department of the said Commissioners, and it is expedient that the half-yearly payments of tithe rentcharge to be made from time to time by such owners should be definitely fixed and ascertained: Be it therefore enacted that,—

(1.) The said statement (except as herein-after provided) shall be deemed to be and shall be conclusive evidence of the amount of tithe rentcharge chargeable upon the lands (in respect of each such benefice, dignity, or ecclesiastical corporation) in respect of which the owners set forth in such statement have paid the same, and the amounts therein set forth shall from time to time be paid and payable, and such statement shall, in relation to such amounts as aforesaid, be binding upon the persons liable to the payment of the same; provided always, that it shall be lawful for any owner whose name is set forth in such statement as liable to rentcharge, or for the legal representative of such owner, to lodge with the Commissioners an objection in writing to the liability so set forth, and the Commissioners shall have full power to make an order amending such statement as to them seem fit, having regard to the facts in each case without reference to any defects or technical difficulties in the original applotments of tithe composition.

(2.) The Commissioners shall lodge in the said Record Department, on or before the thirty-first day of March in each year, a further statement of any tithe rentcharge which may have become payable to them in the preceding year ending the thirty-first December under section thirty-three of the principal Act, or otherwise, and the provisions of this section shall apply to such statements and tithe rentcharge.

(3.) It shall not be lawful for the Commissioners nor for the persons liable to tithe rentcharge to take any proceedings under section 32 of the Tithe Rentcharge (Ireland) Act, 1838, to vary the rentcharges with reference to the average price of corn, and the said section is, and all other provisions for such variation are, hereby repealed so far as relates to all tithe rentcharge vested in the Commissioners:

(4.) It shall and may be lawful for any owner or his legal representatives, upon a division of the lands held by him or them, either by sale or otherwise (except by lease or demise at rack rent), to make an application in writing to the Commissioners signifying the desire of such applicant that the tithe rentcharges, payable half-yearly and chargeable on such lands by said statement, or the annual rentcharges substituted for them under section thirty-two of the principal Act, or section seven of this Act, then charged or chargeable on such lands by the merging order issued by the Commissioners, pursuant to the said section, shall be divided and apportioned upon parts of such lands, or shall be charged upon certain of such lands exempting the residue from any liability in respect of the said rentcharge, and thereupon in each and every such case the said Commissioners shall and they are hereby authorised and required, by order, to divide or apportion the whole or any part of the said tithe rentcharges, or rentcharges in lieu thereof, as aforesaid, in such manner and proportions as by such application may be required, regard being had to the security of the several parts or proportions of such rentcharges; and after such apportionment the tithe or other rentcharges so apportioned shall be charged and payable in such parts and proportions, and chargeable only on such proportions of the said lands as shall be so declared by the Commissioners order to be liable to the payment thereof respectively, and said original merging order and all apportionment orders under seal of the Commissioners shall be deemed and shall be conclusive evidence of the liability to the said rentcharge of the land set forth in said orders respectively.

Sale of tithe rentcharge to owners of land charged therewith.

1 & 2 Vict. c. 109.

7. The Commissioners may sell any rentcharge in lieu of tithes vested in them under the principal Act to the owner of the land charged therewith, in consideration of a sum equal to twenty-two and a half times the amount of such rentcharge, less such sum in the pound as such owner shall be ascertained by the Commissioners to have been on an average of five years preceding the passing of the said Act entitled to deduct for poor rates from the tithe rentcharge payable by him; and upon any such sale being so made, the Commissioners shall by order declare the rentcharge to be merged in the land out of which it issued, and the same shall merge and be extinguished accordingly.

Upon the application of any owner so purchasing, the Commissioners may by order declare his purchase money to be payable by instalments, and the land out of which such rentcharge issued to be accordingly charged as from a day to be mentioned in such order for fifty two years thence next ensuing with an annual sum calculated at the rate of four pounds nine shillings per centum on the purchase money, or for such less number of years as may be agreed upon at an equivalent annual sum, so as to discharge the principal and interest in such less number of years. The annual sum charged by such order shall have priority over all charges and incumbrances, except quit or crown rents, and shall be payable by the same persons, and be recoverable in the same manner, and be subject to the same charges, if any, as the rentcharge in lieu of tithes heretofore payable out of the same lands.

“Owner” for the purposes of this and the next preceding section shall mean the person for the time being liable to pay rentcharge in lieu of tithes under the provisions of the Tithe Rentcharge (Ireland) Act, 1838.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Purchase of surrender or assignment of subsisting lease of tithe rentcharge.

8. The Commissioners may, when purchasing the surrender or assignment of any subsisting lease of rentcharge in lieu of tithes made by an ecclesiastical person or corporation, where such lease has, previous to the passing of the principal Act, been renewable by custom, treat the same as a renewable lease for the purpose of estimating the value and fixing the purchase money thereof.

Value of lease of rentcharge to be settled by arbitration in certain cases.

9. Where any person, being a tenant of rentcharge in lieu of tithes by virtue of a lease heretofore customarily renewable, made by an ecclesiastical person or corporation, feels aggrieved by the value set by the Commissioners on such lease, or on his interest therein, he may, if he think fit, refer such question to arbitration in manner prescribed by the principal Act.

Duty on sale of tithe rentcharge to be paid by Commissioners.

10. The amount of duty payable upon any order made by the Commissioners upon the sale of tithe rentcharge shall be paid by the Commissioners out of any funds at their disposal.

Deduction in respect of income tax in certain cases.

11. Where the repayment of any principal sum, together with interest thereon, is payable to the Commissioners by annual instalments, it shall be lawful for the Commissioners to make an allowance in respect of income tax on such part of such instalments as are payable in respect of interest according to the scale in the Schedule to this Act annexed.

Power to tenants under leases from ecclesiastical corporations aggregate to apply for perpetuities.

12. The immediate or inferior tenants of lands, tenements, and hereditaments held under leases from ecclesiastical corporations aggregate in Ireland, dissolved by the principal Act, where such leases were renewable by custom, may make application for the purchase of the fee simple and inheritance of such lands, tenements, and hereditaments, and shall be entitled to the conveyances of the same upon the like terms, in like manner, with the like rights, and subject to the like conditions and liabilities in every respect as if such immediate or inferior tenants held the said lands, tenements, and hereditaments under leases from sole ecclesiastical corporations in Ireland, and were therefore entitled to make such applications under the Act of the session of the third and fourth years of King William the Fourth, chapter thirty-seven, and the Acts amending the same, but subject to the limitations in that behalf contained in section thirty-one of the principal Act.

[Ss. 13, 14 rep. 56 & 57 Vict. c. 54. (S.L.R.)]

SCHEDULE.

Sect. 11 .

Fixed Annual Instalments for purchase of Rentcharges in lieu of Tithes.

Fixed Half-yearly Instalments under the 52nd Section of the Irish Church Act, 1869.