CATCHMENT BOARD RATING

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27670, 28 May 1955, Page 2

CATCHMENT BOARD RATING

Inclusion Of Hill Lands

APPEAL TO BE MADE BY COUNCIL

Members of the Heathcote County Council objected last evening to the North Canterbury Catchment Board s proposal to reclassify the rating areas of its district and bring the hill areas of Heathcote under a rating classification. The council decided to appeal against the proposal. “The hills cannot be flooded by the Waimakariri river,” said Mr F. W. Freeman, the chairman. “They propose going to the summit of the hills —why don’t they include Lyttelton as well? If thfey were permitted to strike a rate it might be.very small at first, but in other parts it has been shown that where the amount collected was once measured in hundreds of pounds it is now thousands.” The last day for appeal by individual ratepayers of the county was June 17, reported the County Clerk (Mr R. W. Morris). Mr Morris quoted in his report sections of a decision by Mr R. M. Grant, S.M., in upholding the appeal of 170 ratepayers against the classification of their land by the Manawatu CatchI ment Board. The rating powers of that board might be employed only against lands that received or were likely to 'receive benefits from the board’s works, the Magistrate said. He quoted Mr Justice Callan and Mr Wyvern Wilson as saying that hilly country did not require drainage and its quality remained unaltered by board works. One of the classifiers of that land, a Mr J. MacD.onald, said at the hearing of the Manawatu appeal that he was classifying lard for the North Canterbury board and that he proposed to include the Cashmere Hills in the rating area, Mr Morris’s report said. “First we should let our ratepayers I know about this,” said Cr. R. A. Young. I The classifier had his decisions re- ■ versed in Manawatu and yet he was apparently doing the same thing in Canterbury. The appeal would put ratepayers to some expense, and it seemed that on the precedent set at the earlier appeal an appeal by Cashmere people would probably succeed. “I think Mr MacDonald has gone too far. The council owns land and I think it should appeal. As far as possible we should take our ratepayers under our wing.” It was decided that the council should lodge an appeal against the classification of its hill lands as a rating area.