ANOMALIES SOUGHT IN VALUES REVISION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22697, 23 July 1948, Page 6

ANOMALIES SOUGHT IN VALUES REVISION

FAIR AND EQUAL RATE

By working teams of valuers through the district and enabling them to compare the results of their work at frequent intervals, the Valuation Department hopes to spread rating burdens evenly and to avoid the creation or perpetuation of anomalies in the matter of rating liabilities, according to an outline given to the Cook Council Council at its meeting yesterday by Mr G. Brittenden, of the Gisborne office of the Valuation Department.

On instructions from the ValuerGeneral, Mr. Brittenden stated, he was approaching the council for its cooperation in the elimination of anomalies, and he asked that councillors communicate with tun on any existing inequalities. Team of Valuers at Work

Revision of values in Cook County was now in progress, in conformity with a system of live-yearly revisions, and a team of four valuers was working in close contact, taking each area in turn and comparing notes in the field. In this way it should be possible to avoid anomalies.

One of the objects of the department's system was to complete revisions in the districts of contributing local bodies of the various hospitals. Those in the Cook Hospital district would be completed by March 31, 1949, and all the contributing local bodies would be affected simultaneously. It was a big programme that the valuers faced, he added, but he felt confident that it would be completed in good time. In the Cook County, the ridings of Whataupoko, Waimata and Taruheru were completed. Reductions in Valuations One group of anomalies with which the department was particularly concerned had developed under Section 3 of the Valuation Lands Act, 1933, which provided for revision of values for various reasons. In some cases people who had made lucky purchases had secured reductions in the rating burdens in conformity with the purchase price. Section 3 had now been repealed, and to get a reduction in valuation between the normal revisions a person would have to prove that his land was valued out of conformity with adjoining lands. When the new values were made public the department would ask councillors to give their co-operation by scanning the rolls and indicating any outstanding errors or anomalies. *’lf we can get the information we will correct the errors. Our aim is to establish true and fair values, without oppression upon any ratepayers,” said Mr. Brittenden. He mentioned that the department had had four men working in the flooded area, and the information acquired was considered to be of marked potential value in view of the possibility that a special rating area proposal might be forthcoming. The council undertook to give its full co-operation to the department, on the lines suggested by Mr. Brittenden.