THE RATING QUESTION

Evening Star, Issue 21820, 8 September 1934, Page 11

THE RATING QUESTION

REPLIES TO CHAMBER AND COUNCILLORS M O'REGAH URGES A CHANGE A fairly large audience gathered iu ike Goneeri Chamber last night to bear Mr I’, .1. O'Rcgau, of Wellington, speak on the question of unimproved value rating. The chair was occupied by the mayor (Rev. E. TV Cox);, who referred to Mr P. W. Shaddock's challenge, offering £SO to anyone who could prove that the district of South Dunedin would not save £12,000 in rates if the unimproved system were iu force. The judge would bo the town clerk of Invercargill, lie invited Cr .1, L. M'lndoo to take .up iho challenge, lie said that he noticed by last night's ‘.Star’ I hat the com-pany.-of councillors that had controlled the ratepayers iu the past was now diminishing, there being eight against the system and five in favour of it. lie impressed on those present the necessity of every ratepayer going to the Government Valuation Department lo find out his own unimproved value. Referring to the statements made by some that he had said the rate under the unimproved value would ho lid in the £, the 'chairman contradicted these, and added: ‘‘What 1 have said is that lid in the £ would be sufficient to secure Hie necessary amount of revenue from a valuation of £5,500,000,” In the early part of his address Mr O’Regan tonclied on several points previously covered by newspaper reports. He then went on to say that he regretted that both the Dunedin papers were opposed lo the proposed change, because the Press was so important an institution—the greatest force, in fact, for good or evil—and also because the cause he stood for would' succeed in spite of all opposition. (Apia use.) This result would come despite even the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce and those members of the City Council, who in their zeal to preserve the public interest, had addressed a “ round robin ” to the ratepayers, calling upon them to oppose the change. In effect, they asked the ratepayers, who were workers, to continue paying an annual dividend to the richest men in the city, certain of whom were already in receipt ot another substantial dividend from taxpayers of New Zealand by the repeal of the graduated land tax. He challenged the Chamber of Commerce to deny that certain of its members had been relieved of substantial annual payments in respect of properties in tno city by the abolition of the graduated land tax. To serve the interests of these men the Government replaced the graduated land tax by the sales tax; yet they wore not satisfied, and here in Dunedin they were resorting to subterfuge and masked attack to persuade the ratepayers to continue making an annual present out of their earnings. The Chamber of Commerce, he said, had expressed regret that the city was being put to the expense of a poll so soon after the ratepayers’ decision three years ago, but the law allowed a poll after an interval of three years, and he would warn the people that in the improbable event of defeat on Tuesday, there would be another poll three years hence. “Wo simply will never give in,” said Mr O’Regaa, “ until we win, and so, if our ‘friend the enemy ’ wants to expense, he had better get the job over and done with.” As for the plea that the time was inopportune, that had been urged in connection with- every one of the hundreds of polls that had gone before, and Ids hearers could be assured that if their opponents had their way, the time for the change would never arrive. In the speaker’s experience there was only one poll which had the support of "the Chamber of Commerce. That was in the Manawatu County,' and it was a matter for comment that the supporters of justice in taxation had ever to withstand the opposition of so-called leading citizens and educated men. Not the least conspicuous fact about the prevailing ’ depression was the utter incompetence and helplessness of the so-called leaders. Where were the professors of economics who coached our young men for university degrees? Where were the bankers, and those pontifical teachers' of the Workers’ 'Educational Association? The plain fact was that they all quailed before the cold, relentless, clammy sweep of vested interests. So far as the masses of the people were concerned it would not matter if all the secondary schools were closed for all the practical use they were in turning out men courageous enough to face the problems that were pressing for solution, and tho speaker was prepared to maintain that tno instincts of the masses of men were a surer guide than the reasoned arguments of educated men. Again they had been told that their idea of improvements was to crowd buildings on land to the exclusion of gardens, but every man of common sense knew that the class of improvements was determined by tho value of the land. Who could make gardens in Princes street? The truth was that the system of unimproved rating was equally applicable to town and country land. Rating on unimproved value was the best fertiliser ever invented, for it would turn undeveloped country land into smiling farms, and it would cause piles---of' masonry and bricks to spring up in the towns ; and cities. The only people to bo prejudiced were the aggregators, the speculators, for whom there should be no place in any well-governed community. The best reply to all the statements by which the Chamber of Commerce and the city councillors bad made themselves ridiculous was that rating on the unimproved value was in actual operation in more than half tho rating areas of New Zealand, and that the vast majority of ratepayers were so well pleased with it that its opponents dared not attempt the initiation of a poll for rescision in any district from the North Capo to Bluff. Accordingly, lie appealed with confidence to the workers of Dunedin to teach their alleged leaders a much-needed lesson on Tuesday, and to vindicate their right at once to the fruit of their own labour, and their share in the value of their own land. The speaker was accorded a vote of thanks after questions had been answered.