RATING OF LANDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 181, 3 July 1931, Page 11

RATING OF LANDS.

AMENDMENT SOUGHT,

•WELLINGTON, July 2.

An amendment to the Rating Act is sought by Mr W. J. Poison, who gave notice in the House of Representatives to ask tho Prime Minister if its provisions would be made to apply to the Crown and also to lands over which the land boards or State Advances Office held a mortgage, and also if provision would be made for Crown lands to be liable only l’or special rates during periods of unoccupancy. “A ruling of the Appeal Court has declared that the mortgagee of leasehold interests is not liable for rates, and the upsetting of this recognition of liability for rates on Crown land has cost local bodies many thousands of pounds,” Mr Poison said. “Another ruling of the court in the case of the Crown v. Inglewood Borough, to the effect that the Crown is not liable as mortgagee, and further that the Crown mortgagee has priority over any other charge, prevents the local body collecting from the Crown as mortgagee of freehold. There are counties where SO per cent .of the property is either Crown land or freehold land subject to Crown mortgage, and which are therefore compelled to decline the raising of further loans.”