Valuation of Land Amending Bill Passed

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 281, 28 November 1945, Page 6

Valuation of Land Amending Bill Passed

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Nov

Urgency was taken for the main bills on the order paper when the House of Reprcsentatiyes resumed today. Speaking to the second reading of tho Valuation of Land Amendment Bill, Mr. F. Langstone (Waimarino) said he could not support that .clause which defined tho term “improvements.” lie objected to tho principle of property which hud been improved being classed on the unimproved value for valuation purposes.

Mr. R. M. Algio (Rcmuera) doubted if the uniformity which was sought could be obtained when so many Assessment Courts were sitting in the country.

Hon. C. F. Skinner, replying, said it seemed tliore was general concurrence in the proposals of the Bill. One objection raised was tho use of Land Sales Committees as Assessments Courts. The present Assessment Court sat only abot 30 days in the year, because of the amount of travelling it had to do. He had no criticism of any kind to make, concerning the Assessment Court, which had done very good work indeed. Unfortunately the amount of travelling the Court had to do to hear appeals made the set-up cumbersome and limited its sitting time. Tho Land Sales Committees were sittiug continuously and were handling thousands of valuations where the Assessment Court handled one or two. He had no doubt at all that greater uniformity would be achieved once the new system was established and there would be a bettor relationship between values. In spite of what had been said about the definition of tho term “improvements,” ho thought the clause would work well. It was considered that, where an individual carried out improvements to his own property and then tho property became alienated, those improvements should bo merged with the unimproved value.

The Bill was read a second time, put through the committee stages and passed.