RATING REFORM AT GREY LYNN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11619, 5 April 1901, Page 3

RATING REFORM AT GREY LYNN.

'.'" _ ; TO THE EDITOR. V Sir, The days of the Bourbons, who could learn nothing and forget, nothing, ; are still with us. Your able • correspondents, Messrs. S. Yaile and John H. ; Mullins, - look upon the Grey Lynn rating vote as a daring and risky, experiment,; likely to prove disastrous, and only having resulted as it did through public _ apathy. The "thin wedge" is now recognised as a dangerous argument, and will probably: be ■'■ quietly dropped .as '"> the popularity of rating :on unimproved values becomes more established by familiarity. It is not an experiment, having been in use in New Zealand for "over three vears, and in Queensland for 10, and is testified by town clerks from Brisbane, Townsville, Palmerston North,; Pahiatua, and other places ro have been most beneficial in its effects.! ;In no local body in New Zealand is there l a movement to revert to the old system, and where it is best known the favourable votes are heaviest and most constant, e.g., Onslow. The Manawatu road district, adjoining Palmerston North, was at, first hostile to the change, and kept to the old method, but' after three years' watching adopted the reform by 105 to 10 votes, a years ago. The " apathy" parrot cry, copied from a section of the Auckland daily press, which never hesitates to stab a Liberal measure in the back, needs some notice. At Grey Lynn onethird of the ratepayers voted, minus 27. It is well-known that Ministers passed the Amendment Act: of 1899 because; in nine coses favourable votes failed by just such fractions as this, in spite of overwhelming majorities. It is also well known that such rolls , are of property-owners, not residents, as a principle. That nearly one-third voted is a proof of far < higher public interest in the subject than was felt on the Freeman's Bay Park, or a Mayoral or Council election on the ratepayei franchise.—l am, etc., Mervyn J. Stewart. Athenree, March 30. .