SETTLERS' HARDSHIPS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 101, 30 April 1914, Page 3

SETTLERS' HARDSHIPS

EXCESSIVE VALUATION RELIEF TcTbE GIVEN. (B* TELEGRAPH— SPECIAL TO THE POSf.) COROMANDEL, This Day. A reference to the disabilities under which many settlers in the North Island labour owing to land having been overvalued when they took it up from tho Crown was made by the Prime Minister in his speech here last evening. He baid that instances had come under his notice of men having taken up bush land which was assessed at, say, £3 an acre, but which was not worth more j than 30s an acre. After the settlers had put their labour into the land and expended their capital in improvements, the value of the land was only equal to the valuation which was placed upon it in the fir#t instance. Thus, when they tried to raise a loan on their land they were unable to do so. This might be considered an extreme position, but it had happened in the cases of dozens of settlers in the North Island. The position was one that must be remedied, and he had made arrangements whereby the settlers so affected would be able to obtain a revaluation. Mr. Massey also said that an amendment of the Valuation of Land Act, giving settlers improved facilities in respect to appeals against assessments, would probably be introduced next session.