VALUATION AND TAXATION.

Southland Times, Issue 14095, 29 April 1909, Page 4

VALUATION AND TAXATION.

Our Wellington contemporary, the Dominion, has collected from the newspapers of the North Island a number of the interesting examples of the extraordinary increases which have been made in Government Valuations in recent years, Increases to which this part of the colony is no stranger and which are the subject of protest and remonstrance in Invercargill at the present time. Not long ago the Auckland Farmers’ Union objected vigorously to the increases which had been made in the valuations in that district. The Feilding Borough Council found It necessary not merely to protest, but to dispute the local valuations in the Assessment Court. The Marton Advocate published figures some time ago showing that the laud

valuations in the Rangitlkei County had in the course of a single year increased from £1,927,179 to £2,959,460—an increase in 12 months of no less than £1,032,281. It is, on the * face of it, incredible that the actual value of the land could have Increased so enormously in so short a time, and on these figures alone there is a prima facie for the Government to answer. Taking the Dominion as a whole the Registrar-General has just issued statistics which disclose results little short of amazing. The following table is given as showing the capital value of the land with improvements in the North and South Islands for the years 1891 and 1908: 1891. 1908. Increase. £ £ £ N.I. 57,441,115 149,783,914 92,342,799 S.I. 64,783,914 103,656,258 38,872,344 Tl. 122,225,029 253,440,172 131,215,143 The increase for 17 years amounts to £131,215,143 —in other words the value has more than doubled. How this increase is distributed as between improved and unimproved value is shown in the following table:— 1891. 1908. Increase. £ £ £ Unimp. 75,832,465 1 61,324,763 85,492,298 Impvd. 46,302,564 92,115,409 45,722,845 It will be observed that the greater proportion of the increase has been recorded in respect to unimproved value. Reducing the increase to percentages it seems that in the 17 years the unimproved value has increased by 113 per cent, and the value of improvements by 98 per cent. Passing from the general to the particular, the cass of Mr P, Wright, of Gisborne, is deserving of notice. According to the Gisborne Times, Mr Wright, a very old settler, purchased about eight years ago the interest of another settler in 2000 acres of land in the Motu district, and subsequently he secured the freehold from the Crown. The property is situated in the backblocks, and Mr Wright has had his full share of the hardships and vissitudes which fall to the lot of the backblock settler. Three years ago the property was valued by the Government at £3900; last month this valuation was increased to £lO,510. Commenting upon this case the Gisborne Times says:—

If the productive capacity had advanced in the meantime, there would be no cause for complaint, for, by reason of increased revenue, the farmer would be able to pay the additional rates without trouble, but nothing of the kind has happened. Except that some additional land lias boon cleared and made available for feeding stock, its earning power lias not been increased, indeed, as a set olt against any increased acreage for sheet) grazing must bo mentioned the very great reduction in the price of wool and mutton. Three years ago Peter Wright could look confidently for ninepence or tenpence tier lb. for It is bales of wool; to-day he counts himself lucky if lie can get sixpence. Three years ago lie had a fairly ready sale for both wethers and owes; today they are a drug in the market, which will take nothing hut fat lambs, and these lie cannot get to a market because the Government has failed to supply him with the means of transport. It still costs him £S to £9 per ton in the whiter months to get hi-, household provisions, his horse feed, and his fencing wire up to the Motu, and a large proportion of the small returns for his produce is still eaten up by the enormous cost of transport: yea lie is asked to pay throe times the amount of taxes that were exacted from him three years ago. The aggregate increase has been made by raising the unimproved value, i.e., the taxable value, from £2OOO to £4990, though there are no railways and no roads and Lie settlers are dependent upon pack horses for their communications; by increasing the value of standing timber, though there are no means of getting the timber to market and no prospect of making use of it for some years to come; and by increasing the value of improvements from £1390 to £1920. The case seems to be one whicli the depavtment ought to ho asked to explain. Mr Wright lias very naturally declared his intention of compelling the Government cither to reduce the valuation or purchase his property. He is disgusted with the treatment meted out to him. The. movement of these valations is unquestionably a serious matter to the colony. The increments mean increased taxation all round, and just at the present time the farmers who have to pay these increased taxes are undoubtedly unable to take out of the land a value equal to its yield two years ago. In the years of prosperity the Government laisccl the valuations, and the question is asked whethei now that the dominion is experiencing something like a depression the Government should not act consistently and reduce the values. Our Wellington contemporary suggests that Sir J. G. Ward should have something to say on the subject of land values and the widespread discontent prevailing in regard to them in the course of his policy speech at Invercargill on Saturday night.