UNIMPROVED VALUES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 82, 8 April 1931, Page 10

UNIMPROVED VALUES.

I was pleased to read in TuesdayV. "Star" a letter from a, disgusted ratepayer showing the iniquity of what is called rating on unimproved values. Most evil things have a little good' in them if you can only find it, but racing on unimproved values is bad ev f ery way that you look at it, unless we decide that it is a good thing for the poor man to help the rich man to pay his rates. I have the misfortune to own a very small allotment, with a large, four-roomed cottage on it in a district where this system is in vogue. When the vote was taken I naturally thought [ my rates would be reduced, as the land was eo small, but they are about £1 higher. It is simply the poor man helping the rich man to pay his rates. The only fair way to assess rates is on the value to let, then everyone pays on what the property is worth to them. The rating on capital value is also bad, as no one can say what the capital value really is. One valuer would give a value double what another one would. I saw in a late paper that Otahuhu had progressed under the present rating. It might have gone ahead far more had the other rating been in vogue. The fact i-3 that rating has nothing whatever to do with it. The sooner this legislation is repealed the better it will be for everybody. NOT A SINGLE TAXER.