RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES ACT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12429, 19 February 1901, Page 6

RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES ACT.

A PETITION BEFORE THE SYDENHAM COUNCIL. LEGAL OPINION TO BE OBTAINED. ‘ At the meeting of the Sydenham Borough Council last evening, a petition signed by about three hunched residents of Sydenham was presented to the Council, asking that, under Section 5, of The Bating on Unimproved Values Act, 1896, the Council should take the necessary steps to cause a vote of the ratepayers within the borough to be taken, with a view to the adoption of The Rating on Unimproved Values Act, 1896. The Council went into committee to consider the petition, and resumed to further discuss the question. The Councillors were generally of opinion that the scheme would be unworkable ; that it might have been good twenty years ago, when Sydenham was not so thickly populated as now, but that to- allow such a measure to come into force would be lessening the rates of large and valuable properties, and increasing the rating on the holdings of poor people. Councillors were agreed that no other course would be'open but to cause a poll to be taken, provided the petition were formal, but that a legal opinion on the matter should first be taken. It was then resolved—- “ That this Council is of opinion that it would not be in the best interests of . the ratepayers of the borough to carry out the wishes of the requisionists regarding rating on the unimproved value, but that the Mayor should act as the Council’s solicitors may advise.”