LAND VALUES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1914, Page 10

LAND VALUES

TO THB EDITOR. Sir, — 'vvijiio v,p are •WcVfc'ii-; 'ct She L<lvf;.l i'iiny, iiiidui' Die k.tdnsy:-;) oi fcrir Joseph Ward,- to propound a sulievro oi lti r id taxation that shall be effective in breaking up the big estates and [■■••. - ■venting future aggregation, it nn^it h-r us well to ask ourselves why rusal It:'!'' is bo much undervalued. Why, 'or irjstance, when the Government nunJi.i;-''" 1 , an estate tinder the Landr iVr Pettlpfnent Act, should the Government cilir/.'CJon invariably prove to have Ihvil vtn'y much under what the owner asserts lo bn tlio value of the property? Srov.ly tlie Govcmment valuation, upon whirh the owner is rated, should at ln." K t< f^p{T'oximato the selling value de-naridod

by the owner? It is the f-arrih ; '!'d(ti'ciilly in every dij-tiirt. Wl>ilr ji'li^n and suburban lands aic valuer! op .■> the lop notch, and in bomo cases lipyoni their sale value, a peculiar Ipiiihvv swras extniided to rural prppert'cr. Tluip, at Levin. 1 find owners demanding up to from £45 to £65 per acre lor land valued at fiom £25 to £30 i>c acre, and tho same applies right up the West Coast so far as 1 have gone. Hefore initi'iting hib scheme of land taxation. Sir Joseph Ward would do well to enquire into this discrepancy, with a view to its being remedied.—] am, etc., X.