A DEFLATION VIEW OF VALUERS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 32, 6 August 1921, Page 4

A DEFLATION VIEW OF VALUERS

The Acting-Prime Minister's de? fence pi: the Valuation Department, in the course of bis reply tb a de^ putatioQ, was, we think, justified. [ A little while ago the Department was being criticised for under^ valuing; now it. is being criticised for over-valuing ; i and these two. criticisms, which destroy each other, must both be, interpreted in terms of the great and sudden fall in prices and values—an event 1 which justifies the Valuer-General's persistent policy of caution. A de-> flation outlogl? easily recognises as too high that which was, the day before,. too low ; and a borrower and a taxpayer seldom agree about farm values, even when they are the same man. We believe that the Acting-Prime Minister,, Sir Francis Bell, was substantially right when he stated:

He could not agree tbofc present valuations were excessive. As a matter of fact, it was notorious that the Government valuations were far below actual values. It had never been the policy of the Government to bring its valuations up to selling values. Ordinary valuations, on which financial institutions lent money to the fanners, were farm excess of the Government valuations, with a few rave exceptions.

Government valuations as a rule do, not provide a sufficient basis for the extended, credit that has in^ volved so many people in embar: rassment, but it is perhaps in ac^ cordance with human nature that, when embarrassment arrives, the Valuer and everybody else should be held blameable.