LAND VALUES.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1920, Page 4

LAND VALUES.

PROPOSALS IN NEW BILL. ' CHANGE IN ASSESSMENT COURT. : (By Wire.—Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night. The Valuation' of Land Amendmto' Bill introduced to-day is devoted largely to the constitution of a new tvpc *ol Assessment Court to hear objectfoM 'in place of the magistrate who presides at, the assessment courts under the present 1 Act. , , .

The president of the new court is to be a barrister or solicitor of the Supreme Court, to be appointed for »<, term of live years by the Qovernor- \ General-in-Couucil. The president is to •< have associated with him an assessor for j each land district, to be. appointed alto j by the Governor-Genoral-in-Councll, and \ empowered to hear objections to vtX«• i tions only for the particular land die- j trict for which he hag been appointed . Each local authority is also to appoint 'j an assessor for all cases to be neard; concerning the land within its own) borders.

Section 32 of the principal Act required that in the case of an- aswwinent of the capital value of the land.by 1 the Valuer-General, where neoessarjy a ; • corresponding alteration should bensde • in the value of improvements and in the 1 unimproved value. The Bill proposes to make this requirement more specific. It requires that on the alteration by the Valuer-General of the capital vofte of any land, where the owner il Dot satisfied with the value placed Upon It ly the assessment court, and then to a question of its acquirement by tk* Crown under Section 30 or Section Si of . the principal Act, the value' of the improvements (if any) and th» unimproved value shair be so altered that the revised . value of the improvements uul , the revised unimproved value mjlMtift* ( ly shall bear to the original the improvements and to the original. unimproved value the proportion that the revised capital value bears to the ■ original capital value. 1 . Where a lease imposes oiwrous eon- ; ditions upon the lessee, which he has not fulfilled at the time of the va)u&* , tion, or limits the uses to which the leased land may be put, then assessing the capital value of the lessen aodttie ■■ lessors interests in the land, Valuer-General is given discretion' to " make an allowance to the lessee in jfc-' speet of these conditions, hut is fequiftd to make a corresponding addition to fta value of the lessors' interest- Any M- , lowance made under this section or any refusal to make an allowance is not to be subject to objection. * The list clause of the Bill embodied a narrowing of the application of sect!#* 1 of clanse 39 of the -principal Act, % that where land is held by several lessees, the united values of all the owners—capital, improved, and unimproved—shall not be less than they would be estimated if the.land were "held by a single owner in the fee sittplt i without limitation of estate on power and free from any lease or incfltt- / 'branoe." By the Bill, the words "wilh- , opt limitation of estate or power" are / to be strurik out, K