A CRITIC OF "UNIMPROVED."

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 127, 1 June 1927, Page 6

A CRITIC OF "UNIMPROVED."

(To the Editor.) The new members of the St. Heliers Road Board were put into office on the pledge that a poll should l>e taken as soon a> possible re joining the city. They have received the petition signed by 300 names to that effect, and the ratepayers will expect they will honour their pledge and not allow themselves to be made tools of tho>e who have suddenly discovered unimproved rating i> the only thin-* to save St. HelierV. Tho>e who are go strongly advocating it make themselves ridiculous by thinking that what -was necessary for Sydney is suitable for a little country suburb like St. Helicr'e. To begin with, unimproved rating hit - the poor man. If he has a large area of land and a small house ho will pay as much a> the up-to-date and big bungalow owned by the rich and well-to-do man who has been working for years to acquire that position. If you look at factories and busine-.se-, the small struggling factory would be taxed beyond endurance, while the well-established factory o.- business that has taken years to e>tabli-h would get off lightly. As to their argument that under unimproved rating you will throw sections into tho market, certainly you will, and they will be forfeited and large estates will go bankrupt I At the present time sections are hard to get rid of at any price. You have high bank rates, very little Government money, a tight money market, all these factors Vill stand in the way of people building, no matter how cheap the sections are. Unimproved rating will, therefore, make very little difference to the housing question, and people will still refuse to build in a district where transport is dear. The unimproved rating people pre. tend that land should be put to the best use, and people should have large sections, and would bo able to under their system. The garden cities of the world show from eight to twelve houses to the acre, which is putting land to the best possible use of town planners and leading architects. They say also \re shall have no empty sections "filled with rubbish and kerosene tins, which are a menace to health. That is very childi>h. You have bylaws; you can enforce them and see that sections are cleared. If your by-laws are useless, scrap them. I would advise advocates of unimproved rating to read Henry G'eorge'i "Progress and Poverty."' from which the scheme originated. RUBY E. WATSON. St. Heliers.