LAND VALUATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20025, 5 September 1930, Page 10

LAND VALUATION.

CRITICISM OP SYSTEM. OVERHAUL WANTED. [THE PRESS Special Service] WELLINGTON, September 4. Some outspoken criticism was levelled at the present system of land valuation when the accounts of the Valuation Department were under consideration by the House of Representatives today. Mr D. Jones (8., Mid-Canterbury) considered it was brutal and unjust, and several speakers who followed him were almost as severe in their criticism of tho present method. Unfairness Alleged. "The present valuation system is brutal," declared Mr Jones. "It is most unfair. We have a system to-day that is crushing farmers out of existence in some parts of New Zealand, while others in other parts are not taking their fair share of taxation. When wo impose taxation we should assume that it is going to bear fairly on whom it falls. It is high lime the Government recognised that something has got to bo done to meet thfe position when we have men taxed five, six, and seven times over other farmers on a sheep basis. It is high time we took action to rectify it. It is high time wo took action to alter the system of unimproved valuation in tho country to-day. This question is going to be a burning one for the next General Election. The present system is unjust. It is a cruel injustice on half the fanners, and the others are running away with no taxation at all."

The Acting-Prime Minister and the Minister in charge of the Valuation Department, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, said there had been no change in the valuation system since the present Government took office. The attack made by the member for Mid-Canterbury was equivalent to an attack * on the lato Administration.

Mr Jones: The system of taxation has altered.

Valuers' Conference.

The Minister said he had not at that juncture intended to refer to the report of a conference of district valuers from all parts of the Dominion. In view of the attack, however, he would do so. "The conference .vas unable to suggest any basis of valuation that would be likely to give more satisfactory results," said the Minister, quoting from the report. "The provisions of the Valuation of Land Act provide for the right of objection to every valuation that is to_ be used for rating and taxation. Uniformity in valuations or tliP lack of it has been much discussed during the year. The valuation of land Is not an exact science. To meet all the varying conditions the system must be clastic, and the final result must largely depend on the experience and . .e soundness of the judgment of the persons making the valuations. Canterbury's Case.

Much of the criticism has been on the ground that the land tax payable in certain portions of the Dominion is much higher than on land of equal carrying capacity in other districts. This is certainly true, and cannot be otherwise while land tax is levied on unimproved values. In this connexion Canterbury has been cited as a district which is carrying an undue proportion of land tax when compared with the North Island, on a sheepcarrying basis. There are reasons for this, the principal one being the fact that Canterbury possesses Bome of the best, if not actually the very best natural grazing land in the Dominion, land that required but a comparatively small expenditure on improvements to bring it up to full carrying capacity.

Statement Denied. "Many critics of the Department have stated that the Department has two standards of valuation, one for rating and taxation, and another, a lower one, for loan purposes. This is not correct. It is impossible to speak of valuations without reference to time, as they are never stationary, but valuations made at the same time are the same, whether for the district roll or for loan purposes. The present Act has been evolved from the experience of many years, and the conference was of opinion that it would be difficult to improve on its general principles. Whether taxation that is imposed on valuations made under its provisions is eqnitable or otherwise, is not a valuation matter, and the conference did not discuss it." The Minister said that all members were anxious to assist the primary producer. Comparison between one district and another was not helpful.