CORRESPONDENCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21182, 1 November 1938, Page 9

CORRESPONDENCE

DERATING FARM LANDS To the E< tor at " The Tlmaru Herald ” Sir, —At the present time when farmers are groaning under the heavy load of high costs, there is one direction in which they could get relief if they would only get together. I refer to the derating of farm lands. At present, farmers not only pay all the taxes connected with cars, 1.e., petrol tax, tyre tax, licenses, etc., the same as the town dwellers pay, but they also have to pay road rates. Some of these farmers are not on the roads once a week, and yet I could give you Instances of small farmers, who, besides paying all the usual taxes connected with cars, are paying £25 a year road rates towards the upkeep of the roads. Surely, sir, this is hardly fair, and the only solution is “total derating.” The only fair and reasonable method of rating for the upkeep of roads is for the people who use the roads to pay for that use. Surely that is only a fair thing to ask. Derating has long been debated and I venture to say that it would have been put into operation long ago, only for the strong opposition of the Automobile Societies, who have all along the piece opposed derating. It seems strange that these societies should collect subscriptions from farmers (I suppose half their members are farmers), and use their funds to fight the farmers' interests, i.e., derating. The farmer members of the Automobile Society have the solution of this matter in their own hands, as they would only have to withhold their subscriptions for a year or two, to bring the Society to its senses. The trouble is of course that the Automobile Society is run by town people who naturally try and run it in the interests of the town members. They know that if derating was introduced, their town members would ha - to pay their fair share of taxation for the upkeep of the roads they use. A thing they will naturally dodge if they can. The argument that townspeople pay heavy borough rates will not hold water, because for the rates people pay in town they receive many social services, such as fire brigades, dust collection, 'bus service, water supply, etc., things the farmers do not get. I trust the farmers will take this matter up seriously, and push it to its natural conclusion and thus relieve themselves of an unfair tax.—l am, etc., INTERESTED. FILLING LOCAL BODY VACANCIES To the Editor of " The Tlmaru Herald " Sir, —Through the columns of your paper I would like to ask how long the electors are going to allow this undemocratic method of filling vacancies to continue, when the vacancy that has just been brought about by the late Mr D. Foster had to be filled. To fill his place on the Tlmaru Borough Council, nominations were called and to be in by October 20, the election to be held on November 2. On seeing this I waited on the town clerk, also the Mayor, and asked why there was to be no election to fill Mr Foster’s place on the Harbour Board. They told me that the vacancy would be filled by appointment. I don’t know whether the appointment was discussed at the Council meeting of October 25. I saw no report of it in the local papers. But in the personal notes of Saturday morning’s issue of your paper, I saw where Mr W. H. Hall was welcomed to the meeting of the Harbour Board on Friday. So I take it that Mr Hall has been appointed to fill the vacancy. Now, sir, as a candidate who contested a seat at the recent municipal elections, I say this system of filling such vacancy is wrong in principle. I have been denied the right of contesting an election and also the 2340 electors who supported me at the May elections have been deprived of any say in the matter. Mr Hall did not stand for election on the Board and to be given preference over a candidate that did stand and was asked to contest the by-election by his supporters, and to be denied that right, does not stand the test of reason. This is the second occasion that this practice has prevailed. Some years ago I contested a seat on the Board but was not elected, and a vacancy of similar circumstances occurred. I was nominated by Mr Donnelly to fill the vacancy. The late Mr R. Isaacs was also nominated, there being twelve members on the Council at that time, and we received six votes each, and so Mr Rolleston, the then Mayor, gave his casting vote to Mr Isaacs. This was another occasion when a person who did not contest the seat at the election was given preference over a person that did.—l am, etc., D. MILLS. Timaru, October 31.