RATING SYSTEMS.

Evening Star, Issue 21711, 4 May 1934, Page 1

RATING SYSTEMS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —“ Small Home ” says that owners of small homes in Christchurch complain frequently about the injustices they suffer under the unimproved system in that city. Will he please give us a few cases and state in which part of Christchurch these small homes are situated? We might then be able to judge the value of these complaints. Further, if your correspondent will tell us where lie resides I shall be pleased to tell him bow he will fare, when unimproved rating is carried here. It is plain enough when judged by the contents of your correspondent’s letter that he is. not well acquainted with the benefits of unimproved rating.—l am, e t c ,, M. SILVERSTONE. ■ May 4. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The good people who are opposing the proposal to rate on the unimproved value, from every motive except, of course, self-interest, should get together and agree all to say the same thmo-. Either they should shout with a loud voice “ Hands off the workers gardens ” or parade the streets with banners inscribed; “ Tax enterprise and buildings and reduce unemployment. They cannot have it both ways. Because 1 gave a concrete instance of money being spent in Christchurch on buildings as the direct result of the unimproved value rating system in that

city your ' correspondent “ Small Home ” would represent me as a greedy-minded ruffian anxious to dispossess the owners of small homes,' Nothing hut my nome de plume protects me from public disgrace. 'Your correspondent is a man to bo envied—not only the owner of a “ small ” home, but also the wielder of a remarkably facile pen, and possessed of a good inside knowledge of the financial workings of a “ wealthy, company ” in Wellington. Your correspondent sets a good example to all holders of small homes, and gathers information from the far places; he even reads the Christchurch papers, and discovers what I must apologise for failing to notice during a fairly long residence in that city, that frequent complaints appear in the correspondence columns of the Christchurch papers about the injustices suffered by owners of small homes in that city. If your correspondent can tell us the dates when the last half-dozen batches of complaints appeared I will go round to the library and study them, but it does seem strange that these dissatisfied owners of small homes insist on returning men like Mr Archer and Mr Sullivan, M.P., as we return men like our mayor (Mr Cox) and Cr Mark Silverstone, well knowing that all of these support the, system of rating on the unimproved value. —I am, etc., Chf.ck Facts. May 4.