FARM LANDS IN BOROUGHS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 28 August 1929, Page 5

FARM LANDS IN BOROUGHS.

HIGH RATING PROBLEM. GOVERNMENT’S RELIEVING BILL (By Telegraph—Special to the Star.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 28. The Urban Farm Lands Rating Bill, in charge of the Alinister of internal Affairs, was introduced in the House to-day.’ It deals wholly with the diitieulties of farmers who are occupying urban lands, the method of relief from local body rates on the highest- scale being by classification of lands with a maximum percentage of rating liability. Urban farm lands are defined as meaning lands principally used for agricultural, horticultural, or pastoral purposes, or for keeping of bees, poultry, and other live stock. Owners of these lands who consider that the local rates are unduly heavy on farm property may, on petition, secure investigation by a commission appointed, by the Gov e mor- U-eneral-in-Counc il, which will make provisional classification of all property liable to be rated by the borough council to whose district the petition relates, in three classes : These are : Class I. —Urban farm lands that have no prospective or potential value for building purposes. Class II. — Urban farm lands that have prospective or potential value for building purposes, not including, in the case of land that has been subdivided, any allotment thereof that in the opinion of the commission is intended for building purposes, and not including land which, though not subdivided for building purposes, would in the opinion of the commission have an immediate value for such purposes if made available therefor. Class 111. —All other rateable property, farm lands to bo deemed to have no potential building value if the commission considers they are unlikely to be so required within ten years. The commission will prescribe the scale of rates on a percentage basis for each classification. Provision is made for hearing objections, after which the classification, if confirmed before May 31 in any year, shall be enforced as from April 1. Minor changes in classification are to be effected by the borough council, which must advertise its intention, and the council can thus transfer class 2 lands into the third category. A general re-classification, once made, is to operate for five years._ The Act, with necessary modifications, applies to town districts.