The Ohinemuri Gazette AND UPPER THAMES WARDEN. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1892.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume I, Issue 24, 28 May 1892, Page 4

The Ohinemuri Gazette AND UPPER THAMES WARDEN.

SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1892.

"I will a wound, unDdrnisVd'tale deliver" ',.. ■..:;•; ' — Othello, Act'l., Scene 3.

The question of the assessment of:, hotels has come up at,last at /WeH'!l£" ; ton. According 1 to ,the\ Land Tax Department a Hoen9e attached to a. bouse must considered in the light., of an ... " improvement," . and valued flonordiniarly. The proprietors, of the Oentral Hotel in the. Hiitt district (as, referred to elsewhere) "have a house* whio'n, simply as.a piece of leal estatf, , is at-£ISOO, but as a going, hotel. is; valued at £3000. ; Qb- r ■joot-ed to tHis asHpgsrrient, Tjnt,- Mr O^ranbft 1!, of the Land Tax Department, snid it seemed to him clear that (he fact, of an hotel havinj? a license and 'bpinor'a. goingl concern must bei^ considered in fixing' "its; selling value,, and the Board of Review so decided it. If this a land fax we should like to know what a property tax is. But 1' a wart from this, there is the;question of Incal rates on the lanu tax assee-/ m»nt basis to consider, and that, iti ; the'grant majority of cases, is the light in which property - owners look ;at the valuations of. their For instance, in tb.is County, wh&re a comparatively large' number pay property tax, only some two or three will pay land tax, but all holders of real estate will pay County rates. We will' take the case: of';air. hotel which is valued at £V 500,! but which the popularity of the landlord, the cfood liquor, the beauty of the at'endaut Hebe or some other side show attracts people ta the house and creates a large business. This hotel is tlien valued in an arbitrary manner at £3000. At a rate of six farthings•■; in the pound the publican has to pay £18 15s (on top, be is remombered,:of his license fee oP£25 or;i£4o), while his Tipxt door neia;hl>our, who!runs a profitable grocery, is only assessed at the actual value of the building/he does business in. : Suppose the assessor; in taln'ng the " New ZHaland Herald's" business prenii^es into consideration,; were to say--f "Well, this building is' worth £ td.ooo, and the business done therein is worth £ 1 00,000," and on this f basis were to double the value of the bare , buiWing—what, would be said,?. •And yet this would be more reasonable, than what has just been deckled at

"WeUm^toa, because, -while the license •of an bolel is at the tender mercy of an arbitrary committee, none can step in and-say that. Messrs Wilsons and Hovtoia shall not go on printing. If It 'had been deckled, unalterably, that a •publican ;is! entitled to compensation on a fixed scale for the loss of his license, then the matterwould have an entirely different:-aspect.: The license would then be a sort of; chattel, and would have »;^tangible and exchangeable value. But as the law stands, a lcense adds in. no way to the value of a 'building, .inasmuch a renewal of it may be refused without any compensation whatever.