HIGHLY VALUED LAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 June 1924, Page 4

HIGHLY VALUED LAND.

ELTHAM COUNTY COUNCIL’S PROTEST. RATEPAYERS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANOMALY. Owing to the valuation of the Eltham County having taken place when prices were at the peak, and owing to the Government’s failure to effect a revaluation, the Eltham County Council now finds itself in an unenviable position as the result of certain ratepayers having obtained a revaluation privately, and so effecting a reduction in the amount of their rates. The chairman, Cr. C. J. Belcher, at the monthly meeting of the council on Saturday, pointed out that the council had been trying to get a revaluation of the county for a considerable time. He and Mr. J. B. Murdoch (chairman of the Hawera County Council) had paid a visit to AVollington two years ago with a view to obtaining a revaluation of the Hawera, Eltham and AVaimato West. Counties, and Air. Flanagan, realising that some relief should be granted, had promised to see what he could do at the end of that- financial year. However, nothing had been done, and to-day they were faced with the position that many of the ratepayers were paying for private valuations by the department’s officer, and so reducing their rateable valuation. The chairman instanced the case of Mr. J. G. Quin, who had obtained a reduction in his capital valuation of £4078 and a. reduction in his .unimproved valuation of £1832. It meant that with the rates struck this year on the unimproved valuation Mr. Quin’s rates would 'be £l3 6s less than thev otherwise would have been. Mr. Quin had been the county valuer at the last valuation—not that he had made a bad valuation, for, on the com trary, it had been considered a good one. The position, however, at present was that through the Government's neglect in making a revaluation ra-te-payeivere taking the matter in their own hands, and by lightening their individual taxation were leaving others who had not taken the same step to pay rates on a higher scale. The department could not overlook the injustice of a system which allowed one ratepayer to. pay higher rates in proportion to his neighbour. The council, after discussing the situation, instructed the chairman and clerk to draft a letter to the department setting out the position.