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TMI Blog1943 (6) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ers accepted the view put before them by the Revenue; and their finding is contained in paragraph 13 of the case, where they say this: Having considered the arguments and evidence adduced before us, we held that the society was not a body of persons established for charitable purposes only, and we refused the society's claims for exemption from income tax . The preliminary argument presented by the Solicitor-General was to the effect that that finding was, or involved, a finding of fact which was binding upon this Court. He quoted some observations of Lord Hanworth, when Master of the Rolls, in the case of Inland Revenue Commissioners v. Yorkshire Agricultural Society [1928] 1 K.B. 611; 13 Tax Cas. 58, from which it would appear that in Lord Hanworth's opinion the question whether or not a body of persons was established for charitable purposes would, in certain circumstances, be a question of fact. With all respect, I cannot accept that view. It is the business of the Commissioners to find facts. It is a question of law whether, upon the facts so found, the particular body in question is a body established for charitable purposes. That is a question of law; and in no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mmissioners rightly came to that conclusion. Macnaghten, J., held that they did not; and I agree with him. The respondents are a body of ten gentlemen who carry on the work which has been carried on since 1871 by the unincorporated body originally named the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society . In the petition to which I have referred the history of the society is set out and the method in which it was conducted; and the work which it was doing is given in some detail. That was in the year 1927. In the case it is stated that the objects specified in a later document drawn up in 1939 have been the objects of the society from the date of its foundation. In point of fact in 1939 a constitution and rules were drawn up, and the respondents carry on their work to-day under that constitution and rules. The object as they are there set out are, as the Commissioners find, precisely the same as the objects for which the society has been carried on from the date of its foundation. The objects as stated in the petition were for the purpose of providing choral concerts in the said hall -that is to say, in the Albert Hall- and generally for the encouragement and advancement of choral singing i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... urpose for which this society was established. I think that this proposition is incontrovertible. It was then said that the purpose for which it was established may be regarded from three points of view: first of all, the purpose of the ten gentlemen who constitute the society; secondly, the purpose from the point of view of the choir which is trained and performs; and, thirdly, from the point of view of the public who go to hear the performances. It was said that, when those are all looked at, the real purpose must be taken to be not one which is educational or otherwise charitable, but one which is of pure entertainment. The public goes to be entertained; the singers sing in order to have the pleasure of singing; and the ten gentlemen encourage and assist those operations in order to have the pleasure of running a choir and listening to the performances. Those, it was said, were the real purposes for which this body was established. With all respect to the argument, nothing, in my opinion, could be a greater travesty of the facts. Curiously enough some people find pleasure in providing education. Still more curiously, some people find pleasure in being educated; but the element o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e can become instructed listeners with a trained and cultivated taste. In my opinion, a body of persons established for the purpose of raising the artistic taste of the country and established by an appropriate document which confines them to that purpose, is established for educational purposes, because the education of artistic taste is one of the most important things in the development of a civilised human being. In the case of artistic taste, one of the best ways of training it is by presenting works of high class, and gradually training people to like them in preference to works of an inferior class. The people who undergo this process go no doubt with the idea of being amused or entertained; but it is not the state of mind of the people who go to the performance which matters for the present purposes; it is the purpose of the people who provide it which is important. If the people who are providing the performance are really genuinely confining their objects to the promotion of aesthetic education by presenting works of a particular kind, or up to a particular standard, it seems to me that that is just as much education (and in fact, having regard to the subject-matter th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... c could be learned . He also said: The society during its existence has made a large contribution to the higher forms of music which have to do with choral singing. The work of the society is a good means of making the country musical. He thought the vast majority of the performers joined the society because they wanted to exercise their musical faculties and wanted to get to know musical works . Then he refers to and agrees with the evidence given by Sir Hugh Allen, another member of the society, before the Joint Select Committee. Picking out one or two paragraphs from the report of that evidence, Sir Hugh Allen says this in answer to the question: Do you regard these performances as a valuable element in the musical education of the country? (A) I do. Then he says: I would like, if I may, to say to your Lordships that the Royal Choral Society during its fifty-five years of existence has made a very large contribution to the higher forms of music which have to do with choral singing . Then he says: It is my opinion that singing in general is the best means, especially the singing of choral societies, for making this country musical . Then he is asked: From that point of v ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r any useful purpose would be served by going through them. But I ought, perhaps, to mention one paragraph in Tudor on Charities and the two cases there referred to ; because it seems to me that that paragraph in Tudor is inadequate and, indeed, if read in a certain sense, misleading. The passage is on page 39 of the 5th edition, and says: The fine arts, however, are probably not regarded as objects of charity, and a gift to encourage artistic pursuits was held not charitable; but it is otherwise if the element of instruction is introduced. A gift for an art school is good . I do not know what that passage means when it says: The fine arts are probably not regarded as objects of charity . Does it mean that education of artistic taste is not education in the charitable sense? If it does, I dissent from that most vehemently. There is not a particle of authority in support of such a view. If it means that the only way you can bring the fine arts into the charmed circle of charity is by setting up a class to teach executants, whether to teach actors to act, or painters to paint, or musicians to perform, again I dissent most vehemently from any such proposition. Accordingly, in my opi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ould consider charitable: for instance, in merely providing perhaps for one or two individuals paints and paint-brushes, or a grant piano with which they could play in their drawing-room. I apprehend nobody would say that was a charitable object; but the money could have been spent for some such purpose as that. So far as authorities are of assistance, I find considerable support for the view I have ventured to put forward in the decision of P.O. Lawrence, J., as he then was, in the case of Shakespeare Memorial Trust, In re***. I do not propose to take up time in referring to the facts of that case; but, in many respects, particularly from the point of view of public education in matters of art, it falls into line with what I myself have said earlier in this judgment. In that case there happened one of those curious things that frequently happens where the Crown is concerned : for there the Crown, appearing by the Attorney-General, was asserting that the Shakespeare Memorial Trust was a charity, as the Attorney-General was appearing there in support of the alleged charitable intention. The learned Solicitor-General in the present case, appearing for a different branch of the adm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ich is set out as the evidence of Sir George Dyson as being accepted by the Commissioners. That has made our task a possible one; but if we had been asked to say that we must assume that they only accepted part of it, and rejected part of it, then I for myself should have thought that we might have to remit the case again to them. It may be (I hope it is not so) that the Commissioners do not always understand what the object of a case stated is. I say that because I thought there was a suggestion in the argument of the SolicitorGeneral which, if they heard it (though it was not so intended, of course) might mislead the Commissioners. The Solicitor-General said that their conclusion must be supported if there was any evidence to support it. He suggested, if we could find any evidence to support it, we must treat their decision as analogous to that of a jury. With respect, their decision is quite different from that of a jury. When an appeal comes from a decision of a jury the position is this. The jury have, at any rate as a general rule, been correctly directed as to the law; and one, therefore, assumes that the jury know what the law relating to the particular matter in hand wa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... were not applied to a charitable purpose only. It might properly be called to show that the apparent charitable intention of the rule had not been used as a cloak for the carrying on of entertainments, or pursuits of one sort or another which were not charitable at all. If one looks only at the rule, I am bound to say that it seems to me to be clear on the face of it that the trust was established for charitable purposes. I have tried to think what would be said by any lawyer to a person disposed to assist with his money the cause of one department of music. Supposing that a wealthy man had said to a lawyer versed in such matters: I attach enormous importance to choral singing, and I want to establish a trust which will encourage that; will that be a charitable trust? I can hardly imagine any lawyer would have said: No, certainly not. I should have thought that the answer would be clearly Yes . Then supposing he had gone on to say: When large numbers of people have been trained -and in this case we are dealing with a choir of over 800 people- my idea is that they should sing in public and that the public should be admitted, which will serve another purpose, because not on ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... asure and enjoyment to those who were under their instruction, they must know that they were failing in their duty. The other matter seems to me nothing to the point at all. That is the suggestion, as Sir George Dyson said, that audiences derived educational benefit from first-class musical performances, because it is the object of this trust to provide first-class musical performances. To say that it is also possible to derive educational benefit, as it is called, from entertainments produced by a producer working for commercial profit, seems to me to have nothing in the world to do with the point. Anybody who endows education, in the sense of education given at the universities, is undoubtedly setting up a charitable trust. It is quite true to say that there are people employed as a result of that who are not doing anything charitable at all, but who are working for their private profit and gain, who teach, and I dare say impart education which is possibly in some cases not less valuable than that imparted by the universities. All that is quite irrelevant to the question whether the object of the trust is a charitable object. For these reasons, I agree that the learned Judg ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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