SAVING ON RENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 253, 26 October 1933, Page 9

SAVING ON RENT.

CROWN AS TENANTS.

POLICE EMPLOYEES' HOUSES.

GISBORNE COUNCIL PROTEST.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

GISBORNE, this day.

An extension of the difficulties which have already been experienced by local bodies in the collecting of rates on properties in which the Crown is interested is threatened if action taken by the Police Department in Gisborne is adopted generally by the Government. A case was brought to the notice of the Gisborne Borough Council where the Police Department had rented a house for one of its employees and then applied to have the name of the Crown entered on the valuation roll as the occupier, •in order to avoid payment of general ■rates, and notified the owner of the property that the rent was to be reduced by the amount of the difference between special and general rates. When a report by the town clerk was read the deputy-Mayor, Mr. H. E. Maude, pointed out that the Crown. Was utilising the provisions of the law .with the object of obtaining reduction of rent at the expense of the council. They had previously lost revenue through the non-payment of rates on property reverting to the Crown, and now it was found that methods were being adopted to obtain the same result in cases where public servants were tenants of houses. If the practice were persisted in by all Government Departments, the effects would be farreaching and local body finances would be seriously disturbed.

It was decided to adopt the town clerk's recommendation, which was as follows: "As the matter is one of considerable. concern and the practice one which is likely to increase, I would suggest that the facts he placed before the member for the district to be brought under the nofcica of Parliament."