RATES FROM CROWN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 12

RATES FROM CROWN.

EFFECT OF RECENT JUDGMENT INGLEWOOD TEST CASE. LOCAL BODIES' POSITION. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The concern felt by local bodies as a result of an Appeal Court judgment in the case of the King versus the Ingle wood Borough Council was mentioned in the House this afternoon by Mr. J. N. Massey (Reform, Franklin), who, in an urgent question to the Prime Minister, said the effect was to impose serious disabilities on local bodies in the collection of rates from properties subject to Crown mortgages. The Prime Minister replied that the judgment did not impose any disability on local bodies. "On the contrary," he added, "the effect is to impose on the Crown a liability to bear, for the sake of protecting its securities, a burden of rates which the Crown, prior to the decision, had disclaimed, in reliance on the fundamental principles of rating law under which the Crown is not liable for. local rates." * ' Crown mortgages, it was further explained by Mr. Forbes, enjoyed priority only, over special rates and certairt separate rates created after the mortgage was given, and .over general rates levied after that date. The imposition of further liability on the Crown would involve reconsideration of the basis of rating law and also hamper the operations of the Government lending departments in assisting the development of the country, their operations being conducted not for profit, as in the case <,f private mortgagees, who generally had a larger margin of security and charged a higher interest rate which gave them a margin to meet possible rating liabilities.