THE BURDEN OF RATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21940, 29 April 1933, Page 10

THE BURDEN OF RATES

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln reply to a letter in your Thursday’s issue from Mr P. W. Shacklock (who, by the way, must not be confused with Councillor J. B. Shaddock), let me say that it is difficult to believe your correspondent’s hesitating to take a hand in the matter, The temptation to do so, however, evidently proved too strong "to resist, and there are fairly obvious reasons why Mr P. W. Shacklock should feel constrained to come to the rescue of Mr Cox, who certainly needs all the help he can get to lift him out of the mire. I have no intention of replying to his cheap gibe at myself or of following him through his tirade on matters which have no bearing on the issue. The whole point of my previous letter was that in reducing its rates by some £30,000 in two years the Christchurch City Council borrowed £39,500 to do it. One becomes accustomed to Mr P. .W Shaddock's peculiar brand of reasoning. One grins and lets him blow off steam. When he takes a respite from abusing the dergy for not living in what he calls the slums, he reverts to his favourite hobby—attacking the Mayor and the City Council; but he never gets far before his little “tin god” pops up—rating on unimproved values. ’ Just how he supposes any system of collecting rates can make one iota of difference over the control of expenditure I do not know, and he never attempts to enlighten us. If, however, he really thinks that his pet system is ideal, let him visit the Public Library and read in the Wellington and Christchurch papers what is being said of the valuations under that system. I will give him two quotations. In Wellington, Councillor Meadowcroft said: For the life of him, he said, he could not understand how the Government Valuation Department could have justified the Increase in the valuation of the city by more than double only six years ago. Of course, he said, no one could have foreseen what was coming, but he would continue to agitate for a new valuation over the whole city area. “ The rates based on so much in the pound may not appear excessive when compared with other cities,” he added, “ but It is the valuation of the properties that Is * all wrong.”

The concluding paragraph is significant In Christchurch, Councillor Evans said: “ I am very much in favour of the revaluation of our city properties. It might be a costly work to carry out, but at present it w'as proving costly to many of the ratepayers, since it was well known that many areas in the city were greatly over-valued.’ But. after all, the ratepayers themselves, and not the city councillors, decide the iqting system, and when Mr P. W. Shacklock, with a few others, gave them the chance a couple of years ago they told him pretty plainly what they thought about it. —I am, etc., John L. MTndoe, Member City Finance Committee. April 28.