CROWN LAND RATES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 172, 17 April 1937, Page 10

CROWN LAND RATES

Reply to County Councils MR. SAVAGE EXPLAINS A short time ago the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. AL J. Savage, stated in an interview that there was no need for anxiety about the Government paying rates on Crown lands, meaning that the Government would pay rates in municipal districts in which its housing schemes were being carried our. Some county councils interpreted the statement to include the payment of rates on all Crown lands. However, to clear up any doubt, the New Zealand Counties’ Association asked the Prime Minister, before he left for England, whether or not all rates on Crown properties would be paid by the State. In reply, the Prime Minister stated: “From certain letters received from local authorities it appears that certain remarks made by tue have given rise to the impression that the Government had decided to accept full liability for rates on all Crown properties. That is, however, not so. My remarks were directed to the position of boroughs in relation to rates on houses erected in such boroughs under the Government bousing scheme and intended to be let, and to the liability of the State Advances Corporation for rates where it hereafter makes advances on the security of privately-owned land. '“ln the first place, the Government has agreed, in connection witli such houses (in the same way it does in connection with any Crown-owned property in a borough let on short tenancies) to protect tlie boroughs for rates iu respect of the period during which the houses are occupied by the tenants, and in the latter case the legal position is that the corporation as mortgagee in respect of any loans hereafter made by it is under the same liability for rates as is a private mortgagee. “There has been no change in the attitude of the Government in connection with payment of county rates on Crown property.”