The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 11 December 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1880.

There appears ia another column an announcement that the assessment rolls for the "\Yaitaki pistrict, under the Property Assessment Acts, are now lying at the Property Tax Office, Timarii, and that " all objections to any assessment must be sent, in the prescribed form, to the Deputy Commissioner of the district on or before the 3rd day of January, J-SBJ.." As this notification will appear only once in our paper, we are induced to take this means of drawing attention to it. The meaning of thiß notification is that all those interested must either make a journey to Timaru or accept the assessments that have been placed upon their properties. Those. wl]p filled up the ngw fornjs, of course, were their own valuers, and there may be no necessity that they should visit the office of the Deputy-Com-missioner at Timarii for the purpose of inspecting the assessments ia regard to their properties. Those who have sent in their valuations on the original schedules are somewhat differently situated fropi thosj3 who used the amended ones! They were not the sole valuers of their properties. The assessois made an independent valuation, from which the roll is formed. But no one can know anything definite regarding the discrepancies between f;he schedules and the rolls unless bypersonalinspecticmatthe Deputy-Commissioner's office, Timaru, We have previously expressed our opinion that the people of this district should not be called upon to suffer the tpoublp and expense of going to Timaru. There is nejther rhyme nor reason in Buoh aYi arrangement. Why could not a duplicate of the roll be placed in the hands of an assessor for this district ? The action at ths (Jovgrpment in this matter is inscrutable, except their intention is to supplement the earnings of the railway department by placing this additional drain upon the pockets of the taxpayers, or to repay Timaru a debt which they owe her for past favors. If the Government do not design to supplement the railway earnings, the least they can do is to carry those who wish to search the rolls free of charge. The proposal may appear to be somewhat absurd j but it is not half so absurd as at least onehalf the actions of the Government, of which the insistence those who desire to inspect the roll must go tp Timaru is one of the most prominent.