Rate rise of 39% blamed on Service

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 1

Rate rise of 39% blamed on Service

I Inangahua County’s 39.76 per cent rate increase is mainly caused by the failure of the Forest Service to help meet reading costs, according to the County Clerk. Mr A. H. Rogers, last evening. Mr Rogers said that the council believed that the Forest Service had to give money from timber sales to local authorities under the Forests Act, 1949. “To 1974 the service did this, then stopped. The council has since worked on a deficit balance, hoping that the Forest Service would eventually pay. But it has failed to do so. It reckons it has found a loophole,” he said. “Our bank overdraft has risen to the stage where it needs to be corrected. We have waited hoping that the

! Forest Service would honour;; I its legal obligations.” I The council has filed a l ' iwrit of discovery against thejl [Forest Service to determine( [how much it is making from 11 I the logging of native timber p in the area. i “For every native tree, h one-fifth of the purchasers price has to be paid to thelocal authority. This helps toil pay- for reading damage;: caused by Forest Service ve-ii hides,” Mr Rogers said. (■ “But until we have the i i I information we do not knowij

i how much the Forest Service shocld be paying us. It ‘has not made this information public.” : According to the officer in ; charge of the Inangahua forjests, Mr S. T. Harrison, the [Forest Service feels it i should pay only on timber Isold at a profit. \ “The council feels that the ’Forest Service should pay i rates on all the timber. If ;the service has made profit (since 1974, it has paid the (council some money for that iyear,” Mr Harrison said.