UNPAID RATES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 279, 9 November 1931, Page 7

UNPAID RATES

IN COUNTY RIDINGS A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. COUNCIL MUST HAVE MONEY. “Some of the ratepayers are expressing indignation and blaming the council for tne action it is taking in suing tor rates,” said Mr F. B. Logan, chairman, at to-day’s meeting of the Hawke’s Bay County Council, when the Department of Lands and Survey advised that it was not taking any action regarding the defaulting ratepayers in the Waikare riding. “The council is here for a certain purpose and one of its duties is to collect the rates,” said Mr Logan. “We have tried every means up till now of getting the people to pay their rates. From some of them we have not received any reply to our letters, and it seems that many of them have no intention of paying. Ninety per cent, of those who have paid their rates have done so out of capital or have increased their overdrafts on which they have to pay 7 per cent. Protection must be given to those ratepayers who are carrying the council on their shoulders.

“1 am perfectly satisfied that many from their mode of life could well afford to pay at least something on account. To get at those who are not paying their rates and can pay the council has got to sue. I don’t wish to inflict hardship on anybody, but we have got to collect rates and consequently will have to press through the Court for them. The council is not far off the end of its financial year, and unless something miraculous happens we will have a debit balance. The Audit Department will ask what steps we have taken to collect the rates, and if we say that we have not sued we will place ourselves in an invidious position. “What is the sense of suing Crown tenants who are returned soldiers and who are suffering great hardships?” asked Cr. S. Bennett. “These men went away and fought for us and they are all decent fellows. 1 don’t think that we should take action upon such men.” The chairman', The council has no right to remit rites except through poverty which has to be pleaded in the Court. The council has got to get its money in. Wc know that there are a number of returned soldier settlers who can’t pay their rates aid wo hope that the Crown will assume the responsibility that a private mortgagee has to hold in such cases. We want to force upon the Crown the responsibility it should assume. Wc arc not hitting at the returned soldiers ai d are only doing what the law compels us to. "I move that wc start off suing the Crown,” said Cr. Bennett. "The ratepayers say that if the Crown zan farm and not pay rates they don’: see why they should have to.”

Cr. C. Lassen: The Department say that it is not farming. Cr. Bennett: You have only to come up our way and see for yourself. Cr. C. C. Smith: I would like Cr. Bennet to make some definite statement as to where the department is farming. The Land Board has taken it up and find that the Crown, in cases where tenants have gone out, had leased it to neighbours for a short time. I don’t think that the department is doing any farming at all. Cr. Bennett then eited a number of definite instances as to where the department was farming. The chairman: If the department is farming our duty is to sue for the rates. Cr. Smith: If it is farming the department is certainly liable but it has denied that it is doing so. Cr. Turner: The magistrate will give us judgment, and the matter comes back to the council again. The chairman: It is .only on the score of poverty that we can remit rates, but it is hard to know what constitutes poverty these days. Cr. Bennett: We ar® all in it. The matter was deferred for discussion at a conference with the Commissioner of Crown Lands this afternoon.