The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3558, 4 December 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1882.

Thb Wairoa County Council having petitioned the Governor to proclaim the whole of the county under the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act, the following information which we have extracted from the Evening Post will be found to be of general interest :—" The Crown and Native Lands Ratitig Act waa one of the new measures for the improvement of local government finance passed by Parliament last session. The subject is one of material interest and importance to every borough and county in which Crown or native lands exist, and it is as well to clear away all doubts and misunderstandings where these arise. The Act is very clearly worded, and there seems little likelihood of misconception as regards its general purport, but the provisions respecting native lands appear to be in some instances misunderstood, and we may, therefore, offer a few words of explanation. It is provided that in boroughs lands belonging to natives shall be rateable in the same manner as those belonging to other persons. The Governor in Council has power to proclaim, from time to time, districts, not beiDg boroughs, in which native lands shall be liable to rates as other lanfls are. The most important provision in the Act, so far as Maori property is concerned, is that contained in section 4, which enacts—" The Governor in Council may from time to time proclaim districts in the colony to be native rating districts under this Act, and may, from time to time, alter or revoke such proclamation." No decision has yet been arrived at as to the districts which will be proclaimed, but they will be limited by an exception (No. 11) in clause 6, which exempts native lands situate more than five miles from any public road or highway open for horee traffic. Native lands in these districts will be valned by the property tax assessors at the full value to sell for cash, and it will be open to persons interested to object in the usual way to valuations placed upon them. It must be understood that native lands occupied by Europeans will be liable to rates under the provisions of the Rating I Act, and the occupiers will have to pay. The first rates to be levied under the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act will be for the year ending 31st March next but local bodies are not to make any demand for payment until the rolls which will result from the assessment now in progress has been completed. When it has been ascertained which rates are chargeable under the Act, the Colonial Treasurer will publish in the Gazette, in the Maori language, a notice of the sums due in respect of each block, and the natives will then have an opportunity of paying them. But should they neglect to do so for three months then the Colonial Treasurer will pay the ratea to the local bodies entitled to receive them, and the money so disbursed will be a charge on the land to be recovered when it should be either sold or leased._ In some districts, notably at Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, a belie! has been entertained by the natives that tbe Government must pay the rates, and register a lien for them against the land, thereby, in some degree, encumbering the owner's title. From the foregoing summary of provisions of the Act it is clear that if the natives desire to contribute their share of local taxation without the intervention of the Government, they can do so ; and it is the opinion of persons who have had good opportunities forjudging, that many natives, who possess large and valuable tracts of country, will very willingly discharge thdr proportion of the imposts of local bodies."