RATES AND LAND VALUES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20243, 1 May 1929, Page 16

RATES AND LAND VALUES.

Sir. —It. is strange that spokesmen for rating on the unimproved value show no appreciation of the plain distinction be> tween the construction of public improvements, which add to land value, arid the repair of damage done to thoso improvements, which has, no such effect. That the cost of improvements should be charged to land is plain enough, but it is equally plain that tho damage done to roads by traffic should be charged to those who cause it. Twenty years back, when the wear of traffic was trifling, Government grants may have been sufficient to maintain road values, leaving all rates available for new construction, but now, with tho wear of traffic increased a hundred-fold, tho apportionment of the costs should bo vastly different. At present wo have all over the country roads, built chiefly by landowners, which in the face of heavy annual expenditure are being rapidly torn to pieces by outsido traffic, In such cases, in place of a claim against landowners for value created, there is a clear claim on tho side of tho landowners for value destroyed. Motor taxes, Government grants and rates on improvements are all methods of' making traffic pay for the damage it causes. Whether all of them together arts now sufficient for that purpose is greatly to be doubted. If it ran he shown that all rates (over £5,000,000) are now used for th« 'creation of new value, T admi!; that they si'hould be levied on land alone, but has any attempt been made fo prove that, they are so spent ? Obviously the claim usually , made that all public expenditure increases land value is simply absurd. Manarewa. J, Johnstone.