RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15393, 9 July 1914, Page 9

RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES.

To tho Editor of tho "Tilnaru Herald/' . Sir.—You say that I "quote a particular example to.show that injustice may be caused sometimes under tho present system," but cases of injustice under the rating of improvements miglht be cited indefinitely. They aro as numerous as blackberries, for every case of rating on improvements is a case of jn just ice, a case of the public stealing of private earnings for public |n!t-Lm!er rating on unimproved values there may, at the time tho change is made, be a few eases of hardship; but there can be no eases of injustice under such a system, for it simply takes public earnings for public purposes and lets private, earnings go. as they ought, rato free. As a. class, the men with. a cottage and 'garden-willipay less under rating on unimproved values than they pay now. Tho great majority of them stand to gain by tho exemption of improvements and tho rating of unimproved values instead. But tho speculators, as a class, stand to lose by the change, and it is from them that tho main opposition to rating on unimproved values comes. As a, class, the working .men with a cottage and .garden are ' now overtaxed, so that tho : speculators as a class may .bo undertaxed. "When once the workers realise this the change will come .and the speculators will, shed real tears on their own account, instead of shedding crocodile tears for "the poor, poor working man") with a cottage and garden for-' sooth, next door to a mansion or a factory. lam happy to bo ablo to inform you that in his recent Budget Speech,* Lloyd George announced that a Rating on Unimproved Values Bill is to bo introduced next-year on tho completion of the land valuation.—l a;n etc., ARTHUR WITHY. Goldie/s Brae, Wellington, July 0, 1914.