FAULT IN ROLL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22579, 18 November 1936, Page 16

FAULT IN ROLL

SPECIAL VALUATIONS ONEHUNGA FARM LANDS NON-OBSERVANCE OF ACT COURT SITTING SUSPENDED Otfing to tho fact that the Oi\ehunga Borough Council had failed to prepare a proper list of special rateable valuations under the Urban Farm Lands Act, tho sitting of the Assessment Court in Onehunga yesterday was suspended, the president, Mr. W. Wyvorn Wilson, S.M., ruling that the provisions of the Act had not been observed and no objectors could therefore bo hoard. Messrs. J. M. Wallis and E. A. Herd acted with Mr. Wilson as assossors. Mr. F. D. Baxter represented tho Borough Council. In reply to an inquiry by the president, Mr. Baxter stated that the Valuation Department had recently revalued the borough and had reduced the total valuation from £1,000,000 to £700,000. Tho valuation under tho Urban Farm Lands Act made in 1935, ho said, came into operation last March, when the old list was destroyed and a new ono compiled by tho staff of the borough council. All properties coming within the provisions of tho Act had been included in the new roll, which, after being investigated by tho finance committee, had been adopted by the borough council without alteration. Ratepayers Not Notified On perusing this new roll, the president drew attention to the fact that no entries had been made in the column set aside for special rateable values and in consequence of that omission tho council had not given the Court any special rateable values. That being tho case, he hold that the Court had no special values before it and was powerless to make any reductions. Similarly no ratepayer could lodge an objection with tho borough council to his valuation under the Act, because there was no stated valuation to which he could object.

The necessary figures, he said, to which ratepayers might have objected were not given. The Act made it incumbent on the local rating authority to notify the ratepayers what their rate, able values were, but this had not been done. No Power to Grant Costs Mr. Baxter contended that the omission of the column of values mentioned did not invalidate the list. Ho said that on a previous occasion when the column for special rateable values had been left vacant it had been filled in by the Court itself, and a similar practice had been followed in the preparation of this year's list. Mr. Wilson held that the Court could not deal with the matter until the borough council submitted a proper list. In reply to counsel for an objector, Mr. Wilson declined to grant costs against the borough council on the ground that the Court had no power to do so.