FAULTY LEGISLATION PAYMENT OF WATER RATES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 53, 30 August 1913, Page 5

FAULTY LEGISLATION PAYMENT OF WATER RATES

[BY TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THB POST.] DUNEDIN, This Day. As far as can be seen, the effect oi Sir Joshua Williams's decision in the Mosgiel water rate case, given on Thursday, is that boroughs which have adopted the system of rating on .unimproved values, subsequent to the passage of the Rating Amendment Act of 1911, must fix their water rate on the unimproved and not on the annual or capital value, but, having done so, it appears that by an oversight in the Act mentioned they have no legal power to enforce payment. Power to enforce payment of water rate 3 is conferred by section 83 of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1908 ; but this . applies only to water rates based ow annual or capital values. There are boroughs rating generally on the unimproved system who legally collect water rates under that section, but they had adopted the unimprov.ed system prior to 1911, before which time it was specific-" ally laid down that certain rates, including water rates, must still be levied on the annual or capital value unless the ratepayers by a poll decided otherwise. It is quite evident that some very faulty legislation requires immediate attention, the position seemingly being that in certain cases the law compels corporations to adopt means the law has itself left imperfect, to the exclusion of the only , means by which the end might be ob- | taineti.