LOCAL BODY RATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22045, 27 February 1935, Page 13

LOCAL BODY RATES

STATE MORTGAGES EXPLANATION BY MINISTER NO COMPLETE LIABILITY [BT TELEGBAPH —SPECIAL BEPOBTEs] WELLINGTON, Tuesday An explanatory statement regarding liability for payment of local body rates on properties mortgaged to State departments was made by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Coates, during the Committee stages of the Mortgage Corporation of New Zealand Bill in the Kouse of Representatives to-day. In reply to questions, Mr. Coates emphasised that the proposed mortgage corporation could not accept liability for all rates on properties mortgaged to it, and neither could the Crown. He explained, however, that rates would be included in the pool of a budgetary system under legislation for the rehabilitation of farmers.

The subject was raised by Mr. W. Nash (Labour—Hutt), who cited the experiences of the Lower Hutt Borough Council, saying that in the past five years it had lost in revenue from properties reverting to the State Advances Department the sum of £-30,123, representing roughly 50s a head of the borough's population. He asked if the Minister of Finance was prepared to allow that injustice to go on indefinitely.

Mr. A. S. Richards (Labour —Roskill) said the experiences quoted by Mr. Nash were simitar to those of local bodies throughout the Dominion. For example, the Mount Albert Borough Council up to March 31 last had written off £10,261.

Mr. Coates said the present bill and tie Mortgagors and Tenants Final Ad- ! justment Bill would operate in conjunc- j tion with the present mortgagors ad- j justment commissions and where application was t made to a commission for relief rates would become the first charge, except where the local body concerned might accept a different arrangement as being in the best interests of the individual concerned. Rates would come into the pool of the budgetary system proposed in the second bill and when the final adjustment was made he was satisfied that borough and county councils would be in a better position than if the State Advances Department was kept separate and carried on in addition to the corporation. If the Grown accepted the responsibility for all rates on properties mortgaged to it, said the Minister, it would mean a charge of about £500,000 "yearly on the Consolidated Fund, which it would not be reasonable to ask it to accept. On the other hand, it would not be fair to expect the corporation to commence its operations under a similar disadvantage. Speaking particularly of the position of the Hutt Borough, the Minister said that if it had not been for the Government's activities in that area the borough would not be half the size it was, nor would it collect nearly as much in rates as it did at present. If the Government became responsible for the rates of its mortgagors there was not a local body in the country that would go to any trouble to collwrt rates from them.

Mr. R. Semple (Labour —Wellington East): That is really an irresponsible statement. Mr. Coates: No, it is not. Every local body representative who comes to see me asks that the Crown should responsibility for these rates.