RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14060, 15 May 1906, Page 6

RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES.

Probably the City Council carried, Councillor Hu-rst-Seftger’s amendment last night as the easiest way of escape from Councillor Allison’s ponderous motion, hut wo should be genuinely alarmed for the condition of the Town Clerk’s books if the amendment had to he taken literally. This request,for information on the system of -r; dug on unimproved values was brought up a fortnight ago, and in tho course of a couple of hours the Town Clerk’s staff could have extracted from the books all the information’that could.be fairly desired. There was nothing unreasonable about the -request. The Imperial Government is anxious to obtain information as to tho operation of the system of taxing ground values, and very wisely it applied to the Government of the British colony where the system was known to have been longest in operation. Concerning the national aspect of the question, the Government Taxation and Valuation officers will be able to supply a very full answer, hut in its municipal aspect the Government had no course open except to send on tho request to cities, boroughs and rural where the .Unimproved Values Act has been adopted. The Government does not want opinions. What it wants, presumably, is a bar© statement, showing the date of the introduction of the system, the gross valuation of the area affected-, capital and unimproved, tho amount of the rates levied, the number of ratepayers, and so forth. To he of value, these figures would have to be shown in comparison with these for a period prior to the introduction of the system. Tho amount of building for a stated period before and after the introduction of the system could he shown, and tho areas of unbuilt land, and typical instances might be quoted to explain the operation of the system. If the City Council is not in possession of this information no other body has it. Mr Ell has worked out figures of the kind for practically every borough within striking distance of Christchurch, and it would probably be a matter of an afternoon’s work for any man of ordinary industry, singlehanded. In common courtesy, the Council should have decided to supply tho information asked for, and we hope that, for the sake of the city’s credit, the Mayor will authorise the Town Clerk to give; the figures by way of supplement to tho official reply explaining the attitude of the Council.