BURDEN ON COUNTIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21515, 12 June 1933, Page 11

BURDEN ON COUNTIES

UNPAID CROWN RATES LOCAL BODIES' CONFERENCE STATUTORY COLLECTION URGED [by telecraph OWN correspondent] GISBORNE, Saturday Complete unanimity wan manifested to-day at a conference held at Wairoa of representatives of rating authorities within an area bounded by Woodville in the south and East Capo in the north, concerning unpaid rates on Crown lands. Not all the rating bodies in the area mentioned were directly represented, but all signified by correspondence or by representation their interest in the question and their willingness to discuss any proposal which might be submitted on»the subject. Mr. H. L. Harker, Mayor of Wairoa, who presided, opened the proceedings with an appeal that the discussion should be confined strictly to the matters at issue between the rating authorities and the Government, and that the rating authorities should reveal their readiness to accept their rightful burdens without transferring to the Government or general taxpayers of the country any obligation which was rightly their own. During the course of the conference it was revealed that in the case of both the Wairoa County Council and the Wairoa Harbour Board the rates due to the respective bodies on Crown leaseholds were sufficient to meet the current year's instalments of interest duo to the Government lending departments. After a lengthy discussion, the following motions were adopted:—(l) "That all occupied Crown lands, including lands being farmed by the Crown, be rateable for all rates and that statutory provisions for the collection of rates in respect of lands owned or occupied by private persons bo applicable to such Crown lands; (2) that all rates levied on lands mortgaged to the Crown and any of its departments be collectable in the same manner and with the same statutory powers as rates levied on land mortgaged to private persons; (3) that a local body shall have the right to set oif against moneys owing to the Crown or any of its departments all rates owing to the local body in respect of Crown lands or lands mortgaged to Crown departments." The conference appointed a committee to place the views of the conference before a Parliamentary committee.