FEILDING VALUATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 99, 28 April 1909, Page 9

FEILDING VALUATIONS.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING OBJECTIONS. fßx TELEGRArn.— Sfeciax to The Post.] / PALMERSTON X., This Day. Apropos the complnints regarding the Feilding valuations,' Mr. Robert Gardner, ot the local Valuation Department, has made a statement to the press from the valuer's points of view. With the exception of the year just passed, he acted a& valuer for Feilumg ior thirteen years. Three years ago, he said, he made 1284 valuations there, the sum total of these amounting to £553,000. There was a similar outcry then. Public meetings were held, and he had to meet 318 objections at the court. The valuations, he had explained, were made on the capital value of the properties-, which means, according to the Act, the sum which the owners of estates or of interest therein, if unencumbered by any mortgage or interest thereon, might be expected to realise at the time ot valuation if oftered for sale on tuch reasonable terms and conditions as a bona fide settler might be expected to require. Under this Act there was ample justification for the valuation made, and it should be borne in mind that the valuer was always ready to meet landowners, and discuss matter* with them, and, if pos&ible, amend any inaccuracies. In the case of the 318 objectors alluded to, after meeting them the valuation was reduced by about £8000, and subsequently the court mad© a reduction of £2731, but at the same time there was an increase made in the valuation of some of the properties to the extent of £1800, so that, after all the fuss, there was really only a reduction of nearly £9000 on the total of £553,000. There had been an abnormal increase in land values in Feilding. In 1904 the valuations totalled £33b,000, and in 19Q6~they attained a total of £553,000, showing an advance of about 50 per cent. The objections raised by owners were in many cases absurd, and in this connection he stated that a settler from Fitzherbert went into the court at Palmerston, and swore a valuation of £4273 on his property was out of reason, and almost immediately after he sold it for £7805. In another instance an owner from ths Oroua County objected in the court at Feilding to a valuation of £14 per acre, while he was at the same time negotiating, to sell the farm for £25 per acre. Mr." Gardner produced tabulated statements to i-how that in many other in- ■ stances properties had been sold at figures very much in excess of the valuations. He held that tho majority of objectors had uo reaton lo complain of the present valuations. j