VALUATION OF FARM LANDS

Patea Mail, Volume XLIX, 21 November 1928, Page 3

VALUATION OF FARM LANDS

PROPOSAL FOR PRODUCTION BASIS. SUGGESTION TO FARMERS' UNION. The appointment of a board of a! least three men to value all farm lands occupied and farmed for 20 years or more was a suggestion made in a remit from To Horo forwarded for consideration to the Nu:th Taranaki provin cial executive of the Fanners' Union, The values arrived at would be made permanent ami would “lie based on the production of the unimproved value." An explanatory 2>amphlet on the sug gostiou from Mr. C. P. Jenson, of Tc Horo, said it was intended that tin board should value the land and ?!e all the field work, including the examination of sub-soils and the classification of the different qualities, the different areas to be carefully cheeked by an appropriate survey if necessary. It would be the duty of the noard thoroughly to examine drainage on all the various classes of land ami to report on them. In arriving at a “permanent value" the board would not include railways, main highways, towns or other facilities that were not in existence when the valuation took place. “Production on unimproved value" would moan what the land would produce per acre for various crops under ordinary conditions in an average year; in the ease of grazing land the vahu would be assessed according to the carrying capacity for sheep and cattle and whether it was adapted for fattening. Dairy land would bo valued according to the production of butterfat. All the particulars would lie forwarded to the Valuation Office, where climatic conditions, distances from, town, port, railway, etc., would be taken in consideration. Mr. 8. Vickers said this proposal opened up a big question and the Do 'minion Conference had not been abb, to pass the remit. The system indicated was in vogue in Denmark. li would bo useless to discuss the question now, as it would probably be considered again at the next meeting of the Dominion executive.