AUCKLAND GOLF CLUB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 14

AUCKLAND GOLF CLUB.

RATES ON PROPERTY.

BOROUGH COUNCIL COMPLAINS

VALUER-GENERAL'S REDUCTION

[BY TELEGRAPH. —SPECIAL REPORTER.] WELLINGTON. Friday

Complaint that the Auckland Golf Club should pay only half rates on its two properties was made by the Otahuhu Borough Council in a petition presented in tne House to-day. A petition on the subject was also presented last year, It was stated that the club had a property of 137J, acres of land within the borough, and that for a number of years the rateable value had been reduced by the Valuer-General to one-half the ordinary sum on the ground that the land was held by the club for games or sport, and not fo: profit. As a result, the rates leviable were reduced from £B7O to £435. The club purchased a further area of 32 acres last year and similar action had been taken by 'he Valuer-General, thus reducing the rates leviable from £165 to £B2. As a result a total increase in rates of one farthing in the pound was required over the whole borough. Thus every ratepayer was compelled to contribute indirectly to the club's funds. It was claimed that section 52 of the Valuation of Land Act, 1925. under which the Valuer-General acted, was unjust in that it prescribed no limit to the area of land in any one district to. which it might apply, and would enable unscrupulous persons to hold land for speculative purposes and pay only half rates by simply forming a football or sports ground. The petition seeks the amendment of the section to limit its application to an area not greater than 20 acres, and that except on a specified number of days each year any . land to which the section applies shall be open to the public fcs a right.