UNPAID RATES

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1931, Page 11

UNPAID RATES

MAORI DEFAULTERS. FULL INQUIRY ADVOCATED. One of the questions which wilL’probably receive the attention of the authorities when the whole administrative system of local body government is being inquired into in the near future is that of native rates, the non-payment of which is seriously embarrassing the financial position of many county councils, particularly in the native districts of the North Island. The subject was referred to in the House of Representatives a few days ago by Mr. K. S. Williams (Reform, Bay of Plenty), who urged that the commission which the Government proposed shortly to set up to investigate local body administration should have its order of reference enlarged to encompass the whole question of native rates, to overcome if possible the immense shortage that is being felt in county treasuries by reason of defaulting native ratepayers, chiefly through inability and occasionally through disinclination to pay. Mr. Williams explained when discussing the subject subsequently that certain county councils are almost crippled in their efforts to assist, in the relief of unemployment in their districts simply through the, consistent default of some of their Maori ratepayers. Some of them may not be. able to pay, he said, bpt many .others yvho were farm-, ing their land quite successfully were making no effort to. meet their obligations, and thousands of .pounds were, being lost every year through this default. The case of the Waiapu County Council, Bay of Plenty, was quoted as an illustration. The capital value, of the rateable land' in native occupation was £1,319,000, while the native occupiers owned 183,207 sheep, or half .of the sheep of the county. The council last year levied £10,999 in native rates, of which only £2632 was collected, leaving £S36i to be borne by the county itself. In the past two years the county had remitted £lB,OOO in native rates. Under arrangements with the Government, a compromise was made for the settlement of some of ths outstanding rates by the purchase of land by the Government, but the amount gained by the counties in this way left them far short of the actual rates demanded. Many local bodies throughout the Dominion were feeling the pinch for the same reason. County councils weie being urged by the Government to bear their share of the unemployment responsibility. But the depleted funds of these institutions, accentuated in marked degree by defaulting Maori ratepayers, had effectually removed many of them from the sphere of. usefulness, and had actually caused dismissals among the council staffs in order to carry ox ei the financial depression. “Many of the counties are having, a struggle to balance ways and means for the necessary work of their districts, Mr. Williams said, ‘‘and in is hoped this question will be anMig those, which the commission will be asked to investigate when the time arrives for the inquiry.