Rabbit Board Has Difficulty In Rates From Crown Lands

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 76, 31 July 1950, Page 5

Rabbit Board Has Difficulty In Rates From Crown Lands

Lengthy correspondence with the Lands and Survey Department (Hamilton) and the Director-Gen-eral of Lands (Wellington) asking the Department to arrange pajunent of rates on temporary tenancies amounting to £4l 9s sd, was tabled at the monthly meeting of the Pongakawa Rabbit Board. The board’s secretary (Mr A. H. Dukeson) stated that a cheque had been received from the Hamilton office in settlement of part of the rates, amounting to £6 7s, but the Department said that it was not liable for the balance. The Hamilton Department’s accountant had advised the board that 5585 acres on the demand was unoccupied Crown land and, therefore, not liable for rates, and that various small areas should have been rated direct.

Mr Dukeson pointed out that the board’s demand was forwarded to the Department on September 1, 1949, and that it had been prepared in accordance with the areas supplied by the Department. “It was not until ten months after the demand had been rendered that the Department questioned the accuracy of it,” he added. The board approved the secretary’s letters to the Department, and it was decided to discuss the question again at the next meeting when it was hoped to receive- a reply.