The Commissioners may at any time after the first clay of January one thousand eight hundred and seventy-one sell any rentcharge in lieu of tithes vested in them under this 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 ; 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
Upon the application of any owner so purchasing, the Commissioners may by order declare his purchase money or any part thereof 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, 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 this Act entitled to deduct for poor rates from the tithe rentcharge payable by him, 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 section shall mean the person for the time being liable to pay rentcharge in lieu of tithes under the provisions of the Act of the first and second years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter one hundred and nine.