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CCCLXIX.

LANDLORD'S COUNTERCLAIM FOR NEGLECTED FENCES, &c.—
AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS ACT, 1883.

(For Replies to this Query, see p. 317.)

A tenant who has occupied a large mixed farm for the last 30 years is now leaving, and makes a claim under the Agricultural Holdings Act. There is no agreement between him and his landlord as to the cultivation of the farm.

Can the landlord sustain a counterclaim for gappy and otherwise bad condition of fences, broken gates, neglect of proper cleansing of ponds and drinking pits, foul state of land, excess of stubble land, and other items of bad husbandry?

In the tenant's claim is a large bill for seeds for one or two year's lay. Can he recover for such seeds? If so, how is the value to be assessed? Some of the seeds are weak, and the land on which they were sown is not clean. They have not been grazed since November.

CCCLXX.

COMMON QUARRY-RIGHT OF WAY-RIGHT OF SUPPORT.
(For a Reply to this Query, see p. 318.)

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A has purchased a plot of land abutting upon a common or free quarry" (allotment quarry under an Act dated 1789) and fronting on to a public road.

1. Has A the right to traverse the quarry roadway and make an opening through the fence wall into his plot ?

2. Has A right of lateral support to his land and premises adjoining the quarry in the event of stone being worked near the quarry boundary? 3. Supposing an "impecunious person worked the stone and jeopardised A's premises, how could he be restrained?

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4. After the stone is wrought out of a common quarry in whom is the land or surface rights vested? The Act referred to gives no direction as to this. The District Councils usually, I believe, claim the land, but apparently cannot sell, lease, or let same to any person.

REPLIES.*

Reply to Query CCCX. (Vol. VIII., p. 26).

LONDON BUILDING ACT, 1894-DEFINITION OF "FORECOURT."

By obtaining a certificate from the district surveyor, the buildings to be erected on A and also on B (if the outbuildings can be considered buildings or structures under the Act) may be carried out to the same building line as before, but the buildings on the open space C must be kept 20 feet from the centre of the road and the garden wall pulled down.

J. D. MATHEWS, Fellow.

Reply to Query CCCXIII. (Vol. VIII. p. 28.)

LESSEE AND LESSOR-LIABILITY TO MAKE GOOD DEFECTIVE

STONEWORK.

It is not clear in the question by whom the objection was taken to the kind of stone used. If, for instance, Portland was required by the freeholder's surveyor, and, at the urgent request of the lessee's surveyor, Bath was allowed, in case of failure the lessee and of course the sub-lessee (if holding on the same covenants) would be liable. Supposing the stone required by the freeholder's surveyor was used and fell into decay (whether it was inferior or not) the lessee would still be liable under the usual maintenance and repairing covenants.

J. D. MATHEWS, Fellow.

Reply to Query CCCXXXIII. (Vol. VIII., p. 167).

DILAPIDATIONS.

In my opinion the fact of the lease being a renewable one does not in any way lessen the lessee's liability to repair.

W. BENNETT ROGERS, Fellow.

Replies to Query CCCXXXIV. (Vol. VIII., p. 167).

VICT. III., CHAPTER 15, SECTION 20-COLLECTION OF TITHE

RENT-CHARGE.

A.

All rent-charges in lieu of tithe are due and payable half-yearly. In

Replies must, in all cases, be authenticated by the name of the Member supplying the information asked for.

some cases the half-years are due 1st January and 1st July respectively, and in others the 1st April and 1st October.

The half-year due on the 1st January in any year is calculated on the tables published in January of the preceding year, the other half-years, due respectively 1st April, 1st July, and 1st October, are calculated on the tables published in the January preceding these dates.

The following note published at the foot of pages 3 and 4 of Willich's 1896 tables correctly defines the method of calculation as fixed by the statutes.

"These tables regulate the tithe commutation rent-charge due for "the respective half-years ending 1st April, 1st July, 1st October, 1896, "and 1st January, 1897."

I am not aware of any provision in any of the Tithe Acts for changing the dates of payment that have been fixed in the apportionment.

A. BUCK, Fellow.

B.

I know of no custom by which tithe is calculated quarterly. If halfyearly, as is usual, then it would be right that from October 1st, 1895, to April 1st, 1896, the amount should be based on the average of the year

1895.

J. R. EVE, Fellow.

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C.

The questioner is wrong in assuming that he can collect the tithes quarterly. 6 and 7 William IV., c. 71, sec. 67, enacts: "And such yearly sum shall be payable by two equal half-yearly payments on the first day "of July and the first day of January in every year." And the section which he quotes (3 Vict., c. 15, sec. 20) confirms this in dealing only with every half-yearly payment."

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The majority of tithe rent-charges, in my experience, are payable on the first day of April and the first day of October, which is somewhat peculiar seeing how absolutely the Act of William enacts that they shall become payable on the 1st January and 1st July only.

E. A. RAWLENCE, Fellow.

D.

The applicants for the tithe rent-charge were wrong, and their mistake arose from their splitting up the half-yearly payment due on 1st April, 1896, and treating it as if it were a quarterly payment, and the agent to the landowner was right in declining to pay the year's tithe rent-charge due on 1st October, 1896, so calculated.

Tithe rent-charge is a half-yearly and never a quarterly payment, as by the Tithe Acts it is made payable "by two equal half-yearly pay"ments."

These half-yearly payments fall due on 1st January and 1st July, or on 1st April and 1st October, as the case may be (but on no other days), and whichever half yearly dates were fixed at the commutation of the tithes of any parish or township they are now unalterable. When in the parochial agreement or award made at the commutation no dates were named, the tithe rent-charge is payable on 1st January and 1st July.

The averages published in the London Gazette in January, 1896, would govern the value of the year's tithe rent-charge that became due on 1st October, 1896, and it would be wrong and unwarranted by anything in the section quoted (or in any other section) to split up the half-yearly payment due on 1st April, 1896, into moieties, or to calculate the value of any part of it on any but the 1896 averages.

The amount of the half-year's tithe-charge payable on 1st January, 1896, would be governed by the averages published in January, 1895, that being "the January next preceding such half-yearly day of payment." HARLEY M. GRELLIER, Fellow.

Replies to Query CCCXXXV. (Vol. VIII., p. 168). BRICKFIELD-CHARGE FOR CUBIC YARD IN LIEU OF ROYALTY.

A.

It is necessary in arriving at a reliable estimate of the price per cubic yard that may be charged for clay, to be acquainted with the brickyard, and to have information as to the cost of carriage and accessibility to markets for the disposal of the manufactured article. The rate of wages paid in the district, and the quality of the clay, whether it requires much washing or the addition of chalk or any other substance to adapt it for the purpose of manufacture, are also important points to be considered. Without this information, therefore, I can only say that the price per cubic yard appears to me should range from 18. to 2s. according to the particular circumstances of the case.

F. CRONK, Fellow.

B.

This is a question that can scarcely be answered without knowledge of all the conditions. Assuming the usual conditions, and that nothing is reckoned in the rent for the clay, then sixpence per cubic yard would be a fair price, the tenant also paying for getting, use of tram line, &c.

Jos. JOPLING, Fellow.

C.

I can only give an approximate answer to the question without seeing the ground and knowing the quality and amount of the earth.

From the fact that the earth is suitable for bricks, drain-pipes, and chimney-pots, it would appear to be of a good quality, and it is evidently easily accessible to the maker. There should therefore be a demand sufficient to make the earth worth about 18. 3d. (one shilling and threepence) per cubic yard.

J. L. CROUCH, Professional Associate.

Replies to Query CCCXXXVI. (Vol. VIII., p. 168.)

PUBLIC HEALTH ACT, 1875 (SECTION 277)-POWERS EXERCISABLE

UNDER.

A.

The powers given under Section 277 Public Health Act, 1875, are not applicable to an urban authority; but under Section 279 the urban authority has full power to deal with the question raised. For any other purposes of this Act is a very elastic provision, and Section 283 deals with the item of expenses incurred.

CHARLES JONES, Fellow.

B.

These powers are confined to rural authorities, and are not exercisable by an urban authority.

DANIEL CLARKE.

C.

Section 277 of the Public Health Act, 1875, does not apply to urban sanitary authorities. A similar result to that effected under the section in rural districts may, however, be procured in urban districts by the authorities of such districts dividing their districts for the purpose of sewerage, water supply, or other works authorised by the Public Health Act, 1875, under Section 211 (4) of the Act.

R. CUNNINGHAM GLEN, Associate.

D.

Not the same but more extended powers are given to urban authorities by Section 211 sub-section 4 of the Public Health Act, 1875, which enacts that an "urban authority may divide their district or any street therein "into parts for all or any of the purposes of this Act, and from time to "time abolish or alter any such divisions, and may make a separate 66 assessment on any such part for all or any of the purposes for which the 66 same is formed."

J. H. REDMAN, Associate.

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