POWER BOARD RATING

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 10

POWER BOARD RATING

NON-RETICULATED AREAS

EXEMPTION PROVISIONS EXPLAINED. INVERCARGILL, August 18. In answer to questions regarding the steps which must be taken by nonreticulated ratepayers who wish to obtain relief from the Southland Electric Power Board’s general rate for 1931-32 the secretary (Mr Charles Campbell) supplied the following information: — The board has decided to exercise the power conferred upon it by Section 8 for the Electric Power Boards Amendment Act, 1927 (as amended by the relative Act of 1928) and has resolved that with respect to properties for which electricity is not available, one-fourth only of the board’s general rate shall be paid. (This does not apply to separate rates.)

Electricity is available for a property if, on June 9, 1931, it had been brought to any boundary or within ]0 chains of any boundary, either by the board or by any other licensed electrical supply authority within the Power Board district.

A property is a continuous area of land occupied and used as one holding, although a piece of the land may be severed by a public road or railway or river. If it is occupied and used as* one holding, it is one property. An essential point to remember was that a claim must be made, remarked Mr Campbell, who said that in the words of the Act, “No ratepayer shall be entitled to claim a reduction of rates ” (on the grounds that he is non-reticu-lated) “unless within 90 days after the receipt by him of a demand for any such rates he has given to the local, authority by which'the demand was issued a notice in writing claiming such reduction.” The board was anxious that all non-reticulatcd ratepayers should lodge claims, and with a view to making the position quite clear to country ratepayers it had arranged with the county councils to send out an explanatory leaflet with the rate demands.

“If you consider that you are entitled to a reduction,” the leaflet states, “ then you should at once fill in the attached claim form and send it, together with the rate demand, to the clerk of the county, or town board, or town council from whom you rereived the rate demand. You will not be entitled to have your claim considered unless you make your claim in writing within 90 days after you receive the rate demand. After your claim has been inquired into you will be notified whether or not it has been allowed. Do not forget to send both the claim form and the rate demand. Do not claim if on June 9 this year there was n electric line within *lO chains of any boundary of your property. As the returning of this demand will not affect its validity for any purpose ratepayers are advised to take a written note of the rates demanded. The Act does not permit the board to make any reduction in the separate rates.”