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Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18286, 23 December 1919, Page 8

Mr W. J. Walter, at yesterday’s meeting of the Tramway Board, asked the chairman (the Horn J. Barr) if the board would refund rates paid by special tramway rating areas. The.question disclosed an interesting position. The board, under its Act, _ authorised the Waimairi County Council to collect rates in the special areas. The County Council collected some rates, amounting to £197, -but the Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the rates struck could not do enforced, and that the ratepayers who paid them could have resisted the collection and need not have paid. Some ratepayers have paid no rates and will not pay them, and Mr Walter’s question was asked in order to ascertain if those who have paid will be placed in the same position as those who have not, by the board refunding the sum paid. The chairman said that the question had been settled by. the Court, and that there was no provision, in the Act to empower the board to refund. Mr Walter: “ Well, there should be. At present a person who paid no rates is completely exempt, while a person who paid them is not.” Mr T. H. Davey: “It is most unfair.”