VALUATION COMMISSION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 150, 22 December 1914, Page 8

VALUATION COMMISSION

ESTATE IN HAWKES BAY SITTING IN WELLINGTON. A further sitting of the Valuation Commission was held in Wellington to-day. The members of the Commission present were : Messrs. T. F. Martin (Chairman), J. G. Rutherford, and E. A. Campbell. i Mr. C. P. Skerrett, K.C., representing the trustees of the will of the late Mrs. Donnelly, addressed the Commisfiion with reference to the valuation of the Mangaohane estate, Hawkes Bay. The estate contained 16,000 acres, and was situated forty-five miles from Taihape and eighty miles from Hastings. It carried 7500 sheep and 100 head of cattle. The capital value, according to the Department, was £46,000. When that valuation was made Mr. Donnelly neglected to lodge an objection, and the valuation therefore stood at the present j time. The estate was held in truot for Mrs. La Mort, a daughter of the late Mrs. Donnelly, and the value placed upon it by the trustees was only £30,000. The trustees now desired to sell the property, and they could not approach the Supreme Court to sanction a sale unless they obtained^ a revision of this valuation. Other reasons for objecting to the valuation were that, Mrs. La Mort owning other properties, the excessive valuation of this brought her under graduated taxation. (The trustees desired only to obtain a fair valuation, and as trustees they could not consider this to be so. They had applied to the Department for a revaluation, and this the Department had granted, intimating at the same time, however, that the same valuer would be sent as previously. Mr. Skerrett drew attention to the provisions of the Act under which no appeal was allowed unless an alteration were made in the roll. If the same valuer were 6ent, and affirmed his previous valuation, the trustees had no further remedy. After addressing the Commission, Mr. Skerrett called evidence. Oscar Monrad, farmer and valuer, of Palmerston North, said that he made a recent valuation of tho property- in question. Ho placed the full capital value at £30,341 12s 6d, and showed in detail how he arrived at this. Hugh Mills, head shepherd on the estate, gave evidence as to its stockcarrying capacity. Mr. Skerrett put in the Government valuations as follow: 1907, capital, £22,444; unimproved, £16,244; improvements, £6200; 1914, capital, £46,245; unimproved, £36,500; improvements, £9745. This snowed an increase in seven years of £23,800 in the capital valuation. Mr. C. J. Lovatt, on behalf of the Valuation Department, said that the Mangaohane estate was valued when the valuations for Erewhon Riding, Hawkes Bay, were being revised. The valuationroll was open for inspection, and a copy of the new valuation was also served upon the owner, but no objection was lodged. He would suggest now that the trustees, if they considered the valuation excessive, should apply for a revaluation. This would be made in due course and the trustees advised so that they could make objection in the ordinary way if they wished to. Mr. Skerrett had stated that no appeal was allowed unless an alteration were made in the roll, but that was not the practice of the Department in' such a case as this. The last valuation was made by the District Valuer at Hastings, Mr. G. H. Lloyd, and it was the usual practice of the Department to send the same valuer when a revaluation was ' asked for, unless special circumstances made this inadvisable. Mr. Skerrett: Do you not think it would be wise to send an independent valuer in this case? Mr. Lovatt: That is*a question for the Valuer-General. Personally, I do not see why the same valuer should not be employed, as the owner has the right of appeal. Mr. Skerrett said that the revaluation would probably be a merely formal matter unless another valuer were sent. H© would ask that the Commission recommend the appointment of a special valuer to make the revaluation. This concluded the business of the sitting, and the Commission adjourned sine die.