WELLINGTON'S BEAUTY SPOTS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14988, 8 June 1914, Page 6

WELLINGTON'S BEAUTY SPOTS.

WHAT RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES HAS DONE. (SFECIAI, TO "THE PREKS.") WELLINGTON. June 7. Owing to the system of rating on unimproved ' values which has prevailed hero for some years past, one after another of the beauty <spots of the city m the shape of private gardens lave disappeared and the city has been deprived of "lurg3" that, though owned privately, were really a public asset. There were several very p:etty gardene of considerable extent witbin the citr boundaries a few years ago, but the owners could not affotd to keep them going under such a taxing syetem, and so beautilul flower-beds and well-grown trees have baea sacrificed to bricks and mortar or to the still piaLuer wooden houses. What is practically the last of the gardes« has iust been cold; It '« 'tuated in JBowen street, just opposite Parliament House, iiLd has ou it a wellknown dwelling in which is housed the finest lib.ary of New Zealand literature in tho Dominion. It is ui;derotood that a well-known doctor here is the purchaser. Tho present dwoiling is tho wr* bablv be pulled down and several of the fine trees in tho grounds will have to be chopped down to make room for more houses.

Rating on unimproved values has certainly been a bad thing so far as the amenities of Wellington are concerned, and public opinion is beginning to fif> dead against it.