OUTSTANDING RATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 168, 17 July 1924, Page 7

OUTSTANDING RATES.

WAITEMATA COUNCIL WORRIED REBUFFED BY GOVERNMENT. "THE KING CAN DO NO WRONG." The difficulty in receiving rates is a source of anxiety to the Waitemata County Council. At to-day's meeting of the council the clerk reported: "Since last meeting I havo made a great effort to get in outstanding rates, , and am very much worried at the posi- , tion. On searching the titles it is found , that many of the rates are owing by returned soldiers who have mortgages to the Crown under the "Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act," and I served the necessary notices on the Commissioner of Crown Lands. He replies that his department will not accept any liability for any general rates that have accrued prior to January 1, 1924. This decision means that a very large sum will have to he written off in respect of returned soldiers who have walked off their farms. ''Section 112 of the Local Bodies Loans Act, 1913, provides that in any case where land liable to any special rate is acquired by the Crown, the Crown shall be liable for payment of such rate for any year during which there is no occupier on the land within the meaning of The Rating Act, 1908. As the Crown is liable for loan rates at least, in respect of property resumed by them under soldiers' mortgages, I maue application herein, hut met with the usual rebuff that the Crown will not pay. "The Government evidently will not observe their own laws, and as it is a recognised local maxim that "the King can do no wrong," I think that the case seems pretty hopeless. "Regarding the rates due hy the Europeans, on searching the titles I find that many of the defaulters had left the properties and could not be found, and I therefore applied to the mortgages. The result was that for the short period I was able to devote to this work the sum of £627 11/ was paid by mortgagees, who in many cases wrote or rang up and thanked mc for not taking action against the property and piling up the costs which they would have eventually had to pay. I might state that since the balance date I have collected £1696 18/9 through this source, and have not even fired a single shot by way of issuing summonses. There is no doubt that I will have to do a lot of suing during the next two months, as many of those ratepayers who have been allowed time to pay are getting into their third year of default, and the council's claim will be ' Statute barrod if action is not taken." Regarding the position of outstanding rates the clerk quoted in a table showing the rates outstanding in each riding: — Wainui, £154 9/2; Takapuna, £442 19/3; Titirahgi, £85 1/5; Birkenhead, £210 18/2; Kaukapakapa, £254 8/7; Kumeu, £447 14/2; Mairotahi, £327 19/4; Waitakere, £809 15/2; Waikumetc, £361 1/6; Pukeatua, £250 5/7; Waipareira, £620 14/4; a total of £3965 6/8.