PAPARUA FIRE PROTECTION

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27690, 21 June 1955, Page 12

PAPARUA FIRE PROTECTION

LEVY INCREASED TO £1519 Contributions by the Paparua County to the Christchurch Fire Board will total £1519 this year, according to advice received by the council at its meeting last evening. The .fire protection levy over the whole Christchurch area would total £38,894, the board’s letter said. Last year the county’s share was £ll42 —£377 less than the current demand, said the County Clerk (Mr A. Kelly). The county council, in its estimates, had provided only £l2OO for its contributions. The change in the assessment was caused by the revaluation of properties in the area. At present, because Paparua had been revalued before other districts, it was paying more than its fair share. The amount would be less when Waimairi, Heathcote, Riccarton Borough and Halswell were revalued, Mr Kelly said. “When the other areas are revalued we will begin to pay our fair share,” said the county chairman (Mr W. F. McArthur), “but we will have been paying an unfair share for four years. Only in the very remote possibility that valuations are reduced would we regain our loss.”