RATING PROBLEMS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 245, 17 July 1928, Page 6

RATING PROBLEMS

«. COMMISSION IN FEILDING

EVIDENCE OF TOWN CLERK

Fcilding, July 16., For the purpose of inquiring into matters affecting the classification of borough lands for rating, and into other questions affecting the problem of borough rating, the commission set up by the Government sat in Feilding this morning, Mr. R. M. Watson, S.M., presiding. Associated with Inin were Messrs W. Strand, Mayor ot Lower Hutt, and W. Nash, general secretary of the New Zealand-Labour .Party. Some time ago this commission sat at Otaki, but the. report resulting from investigations there was too much coloured bv local conditions to be taken as a panacea for the rest of the Dominion, and the Feilding borough , was selected as being a typical example of the classes of lands concerned, without the abundance of purely local conditions at Otaki. . , Several applications for an adjournment of business were put-forward by counsel,, it being stated' that the short notice given had been quite inadequate to enable evidence to be collected. In reply Mr. Watson said it was true that the notice given had been very short, and the Commission was desirous of seeing that every one interested uad adequate time to prepare. “I would like to make it plain, he said, “that we are here to find out the most equitable method whereby the funds necessary for the carrying out of the functions of municipal'boroughs may be obtained. This commission has no fixed idea on the problems to be put before us, said Mr. Watson. "We are a commission of inquiry.” The selection of Feilding as the place of inquiry, he proceeded, would seem to have been determined by the fact that the borough had big areas of lands of various definite types, and particularly farm lands. It was central and convenient, and, therefore, a . place where the general principles of rating could well be investigated. r . The Commission suggested that evidence of an informative nature, covering the general principles of the question involved, be heard, and if when that was concluded, more time was still desired, the applications could be renewed. , . Following a short adjournment evidence was heard from Mr. N. C. Hard-, ing, town clerk of Feilding. The total rates on farm lands in the borough tins' year, he said, had been £2114 l<s. 4d., or approximately Is. 9d. of the ±lB,OOO total rates struck in the borough. Replying to a question, the town clerk said that the borough had not been revalued for ten years up to the date of the last one, which had increased the value ot the borough capital valuations by nearly half a million pounds. The amount of work done by the borough jn the northern eml of the town, which embraced some of the excluded portions, .had not been very great since he had been in office. The council had collected a considerable sum in rates from that area and had spent very little by way of improvements, except at the cost of the ratepayer. The council had refused to lay water and sewerage on there. Services received by ratepayers in farm areas were small compared with those received by ratepayers in the inner areas. Replying to Mr. Strand, witness said that some properties adjacent to the mains paid half water supply rates, and big areas paid none. Any extension of sewerage to that portion of the borough would entail raising a loan, and consequently a rise in rates in those portions.