PRESERVATION OF BUSH

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1932, Page 9

PRESERVATION OF BUSH

SUGGESTION NOT TO RATE

OWNERS SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED

PLAN BEFORE BOROUGH COUNCIL.

The preservation of bush of scenic value facing highway, railway or navigable river was the topic of a letter from the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture recently sent to the Municipal Association. It was urged that the Government could assist settlers in this direction by providing for the deduction of the value.of the bush from the rateable value of the land while the bush was preserved, subject to the. consent of the local authority concerned. The executive of the association last night placed the institute’s proposal before the New Plymouth Borough Council with a request that its views should be outlined. “It seems it would be to our advantage to support it,” said the Mayor. ■The letter was referred to the. works committee.

Upon taking the matter up with the Government the institute had been injformed that scenic bush was not valued {unless it contained milling timber of commercial value. The value of such trees, although subject to assessment under the Valuation of Land Act, was not subject to payment of rates or taxes, but the value of the land on which the trees stood was subject to local rates and to land tax. The opinion of the executive of the institute was that with the object of encouraging the preservation of priv-ately-owned bush of scenic value facing highway, railway or navigable river it was desirable that the owner should be freed from taxation both on land and timber, even though the bush contained millable trees, of commercial value.

“An owner will sometimes preserve timber on steep or inaccessible parts of his land for purely economic reasons,” the institute pointed out, “but when the bush is preserved in accessible areas it is usually for aesthetic reasons, and the advantages of such reservations are shared by the general community. Areas of bush in the vicinity of population are limited in extent and are decreasing in number, and the institute believes the Government and local bodies should extend every possible consideration to those owners who are public-spirited enough to retain for the benefit of the general public as well as for themselves existing accessible areas- of bush. In some respects the preservation of the bush would add to the value of adjacent land.”

The institute did not anticipate the adoption of its suggestion would involve much loss of revenue to local bodies.

In supporting the proposal the Mayor pointed 'out that the areas of bush within the borough were limited. There was the bush at Aotea and Glen Struan, and a few pieces in Frankleigh Park. If areas of this kind could be preserved for all time it' would be a great benefit to ratepayers now and in the future. He would like to see something done to ensure their preservation.