URBAN FARM LANDS RATING BILL LIKELY TO HAVE SLOW PASSAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18890, 15 October 1929, Page 11

URBAN FARM LANDS RATING BILL LIKELY TO HAVE SLOW PASSAGE.

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, October 15. The progress of the Urban Farm Lands Rating Bill is likely to be a slow one when it reaches the House, judging from many aspects of opinion voiced before the Local Bills Committee. When the evidence of delegates from the various local bodies controlling boroughs in different parts of New Zealand was taken to-day, the majority asked for a postponement of the Bill and its further consideration for twelve months, and none of them appeared to favour it in its present form. The Minister (the lion P. A. de la Perrelle) thought that most authorities would agree that small farmers, surrounded by boroughs, must get some relief. The Borough Councils were not so one-sided as not to see that. lie hoped that the Bill would not be shelved, but that the measure would be put on the Statute Book, giving some relief from the more burdensome rates. Mr Sullivan (Avon) suggested that steps should be taken so that special valuations could be made in regard to the areas it was proposed to benefit.