CROWN LAND RATES

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1937, Page 5

CROWN LAND RATES

MR SAVAGE’S EXPLANATION

[per press association.] WELLINGTON, April 16. Recently the Prime Minister (Mr Savage) stated in an interview that' there was no need for anxiety about the Government paying rates on Crown lands, meaning that the Government would pay rates in municipal districts in which its housing; schemes were being carried out. Some county councils interpreted the statement to include the payment of rates, on all Crown lands. To clear up any doubt, the New Zealand Counties’ Association asked the Prime Minister before he left for England whether or not all rates on Crown properties would be paid by the State. In reply, the Prime Minister stated, “From letters received from local authorities it appears that certain remarks made by me have given rise to an impression that the Government' had decided to accept full liability for rates on all Crown properties. That is not so. My remarks were directed to the position of boroughs and rates! on houses erected in such, boroughs l under the Government housing scheme and intended to be let, and to the liability of the State Advances Corporation for rates where it hereafter makes advances on the security of privately-owned land. In the first place the Government has agreed in connection with such houses, in the same way as it does with any Crownowned property in a borough let on a short tenancy, to protect boroughs for rates for the period during which the’ houtees are occupied by tenants, and’ in the latter case the legal position’ is that the corporation as. mortgagee in "respect of any loans hereafter made by it is under the same liability for rates as is the private mortgagee. There has been no change m the attitude of county rates on Crown 1 property.” ______