HARBOUR BOARD RATES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 10

HARBOUR BOARD RATES

Sir, —Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon hopes there will be no squeals against the rates which may be levied to finance the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s prospective improvements. If the contributions from the different areas, were on an equitable basis, this might be so; but it is unreasonable, other things being equal, to expect the ratepayers of a well-developed area to carry a greater part of the burden than those who have not improved to any great extent. Surely the obligation should be in proportion to the unimproved value of an area, and not to its capital value. It is an anachronism that, although unimproved value rating may be in force in each contributing rating area, the levy must still be proportional to its capital value. Does Mr Mac Gibbon think his hopes are well-founded?—Yours, etc., SOCIAL RENT. Ashburton, August 30, 1946. [The chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour Board (Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon) said that in his original remarks, on which apparently the correspondent’s letter had been based., he had said that when Auckland went in for very big capital expenditure, the Auckland people did not object to the threat of future rates. “And being bold enough to go in for a big capital expenditure, they are undoubtedly reaping the benefit, to the detriment of the south,” Mr Mac Gibbon added. “The reasoning set out by the correspondent is not easy to follow.”]