CITY VALUES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22400, 22 April 1936, Page 17

CITY VALUES

ASSESSMENT COUKT " SITTING CONCLUDED MANY CASES STRUCK OUT OBJECTORS FAIL TO APPEAR Unusual despatch marked the proceedings of the City Assessment Court, which completed its sitting at the Town Ilall shortly before noon yesterday. When the Court opened on Monday morning there w€Te 160 objections to assessments set down for hearing, but only 33 of these came up for consideration, the remainder being struck out owing to the non-appearance of the objectors. Following the issue of assessment notices, 41S objections were received, and of these 258 were settled between the parties and the city valuer, Mr. P. F. Notley, by mutual arrangement. This left 160 cases to be dealt with by the Court. On Monday morning cases which were reviewed were dealt with quickly, but non-appearance of the parties resulted in an unusual number of objections being struck out. The result was that many objectors whose cases were well down on the list and who had not expected to reach a hearing until yesterday were not in attendance, and a total of 127 cases had been struck out when the Court adjourned on Monday afternoon. When the Court met yesterday morning it had only two contested cases to consider and when these had been dealt with a number of objectors who had missed their opportunity applied to Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., who presided, to have their cases reinstated. This the president refused to do, stating that it was the duty of the objectors to be present or represented when their cases were called. Some of the parties explained that in past years the Court had sat for two, and sometimes three, days, and as their names were well down on the list they had assumed that their attendance would not be necessary on Monday. Mr. McKean said he had already refused similar applications and he was not prepared to depart from his ruling. Of the 33 cases actually heard, 17 of the objectors were successful in baring their valuations reduced, the remainder of the assessments were sustained after evidence had been heard. It is estimated that the reductions granted totalled between £9OOO and £IO,OOO. The total rateable value of the city for the year 1936-37, according to the roll presented to the Court, was £2,519,559, which, with the deductions made by the Court, will represent an increase on last year's t-otal of about 1.25 per cent