LAND VALUES

Northern Advocate, 26 April 1921, Page 4

LAND VALUES

'SERIOUSLY AFFECT FARMERS

A MEETING OF PROTEST,

A meeting - of farmers of the otonga and part of Hikurangi rid-, ings of the Whangarei county, was held in Finlayson' Hall on Wednesday to discuss the question of the values put on properties by the recent valuations- There was a good attendance of the farming interests, taking intb consideration the short notice given for the meeting, about 30 persons being presen. The original intention of the promoters of the meeting was to approach the Valuer-General, asking for a reduction of values on n percentage basis, but Councillor Webb explained how a similar request made elsewhere had been met 'by the Department. Under those -circuvri- ' stances it wa s decided to ventilate a protest through the "Advocatc." The .discussion Was long and earnest, and .all the phases of. the valuation system* were reviewed, and it was very generally considered that the unimproved value was simply absorbing the improvement value in order to keep the capital value within reasonable limits. The question of uneven valuation's was cited also, there being s ome glaring cases in the district- The main reason for asking for a revaluation was to have 'those anomalies removed, but instead of being removed they were made worse- The question of the influence of land . s pecu.'aiion in rushing values up was also instanced, and the injustice of basiri?: values or. prices paid for certain properties when prices were booming for all farm produce was condemned, as the abilty of a farmer to pay taxes is .measured by what he' can got for the produce of his farm in the markets of the world. With avoo 1 . practically unsaleable, the meat market in a state that no man c::n say what the value is, or will be in the near future, and butter and checse falling rapidly, and the next season's market most uncertain, it was generally •■bought that the grc-fc and unprecedented rise in values was unwarranted, no matter wha 1 : the speculator may have paid for hi? land.