GOVERNMENT TRADING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 171, 20 July 1923, Page 6

GOVERNMENT TRADING.

— ■■_- __m i a ■ . —i PUBLIC TRUST AND INSURANCE. EXEMPTION FROM RATES, . (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Thursdays At ihe Municipal Conference to-day, Mr. G. J. Wallace, Mayor of Timaru, moved that all Public Trust offices be made ratable. He said Public Trust offices carried on business in the ordinary way and were not in the same posl- , tion as other Government departments. Another delegate expressed the opiniont I that the Government Life Insurance . Department should also be rated for its i buildings which were frequently sub-let j to tenants. The chairman, Mr. J. A. Flesher, Mayor of Christchurch, suggested that the remit should be altered to provide that all buildings owned by the Publin Trust office or other Government trading departments be made ratable. I A delegate said he thought the remit should be allowed to stand in its original form. The conference had a very 6trong case against the Public Trust office, wjuch bad picked out the best sites in a number of towns. He thought if they widened the scope of the remit too much thej| would probably not gain anything. Mr. Wallace said to make the remit comprehensive it should include all Government trading concerns, but he waa prepared to leave the matter for the conference to decide. i An amendment that all buildings | owned or occupied by the Public Trust or other Government departments whose business competes with any private bus* ness be made ratable, was carried. _ I