LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 2, 2 July 1943, Page 4

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

"THE RATEPAYERS' BURDEN"

Sir—There has been so much incorrect propaganda in connection with the hospitaf rite that it is surely time something was said on the other side. In view of the solicitude expressed foi "home-owners" and citizens generally, it is well to remember who are the promoters of the agitation—the New Zealand Farmers' Union, the New Zealand Sheepowners' Federation, the New Zealand Counties Conference, and the New Zealand Municipal Conference, supplemented by the efforts of various lesser bodies, such as the Wellington City Council and the Wellington Ratepayers' Association According to the latest edition of toe Yeai Book, the gross capital value of the rateable land in New Zealand is £605 306,885, of which the unimproved value is £261,070,437. The propagandists demand that this vast fund, owned by a minority of the population, should contribute nothing whatever to hospital rating, but that like the socalled Social Security system, hospitals should be financed entirely by the taxation of wages, salaries, and income, the greatest item of which, of course is wages. There are at least thirty million sheep in New Zealand, and every man whoVns sheep necessarily own other stock as well as land and othev fixed property. The Sheepowners Federation demands that these owners should be exempt as such from hospital rates and that the.deficit should be repaired by taxing wages. Tne Farmeis Union formerly demanded -deraUng until the late Mr. Coates. told them that their, demands were TOff kle m that the next step would be the deratin* of urban land. As for the.counttie^ conference, it seems .to forget that ratepayers. are but a minority of the citizens it is supposed to How this 'monstrous proposition would'work but'in practice may be readily ascertamed by any ratepayei who cares to exercise the right con- • ferred upon him by law to inspect the Rate. Book, in his In this city of Wellington there are 47 hotels, the aggregate capital (or gross) value _of which is £1,227,670, and' the unimproved value £621,885, being an average unimproved value of £13,232 each. The hospital rate for the current year is 1 689-800 din the £, and thus a simple calculation will show that this means an average remission exceeding £100 a year to each of the 47 hotels! The most valuable estate m this city, using round figures, is valued at £303,000, of which the unimproved value is £148,000. The. remission of the hospital rate in this case means an annual saving of £1148! Were space available I could multiply instances. Wellington valuations are eight years old. Today, of course, they are much higher, and so the gains to land monopoly are really much greater than I have set out. .. * Finally, it is interesting to add that, despite all the publicity given to it, the Wellington Ratepayers' Association is an unregistered body, and hence we are unable to ascertain who composes it, -beyond the name of the president and secretary. Its numerical strength is indicated by the. fact that at a well-advertised public meeting held in: this city on Monday, May 18 last, fewer' than 30 people attended! Yet this is the body that circularises members of Parliament and organises deputations to Ministers of the Crown! Of coursei the propagandists will-grab eagerly whatever concession they can ! get, and, although they evince no ! gratitude to the Labour .Government for the concession revealed by the last Budget, they use it as a precedent for further advance. In view of the attack on popular rights, the concession granted can only be characterised as a capitulation to land monopoly.—l am, etc.,

A CITIZEN.