UNPAID RATES TOTAL £31,000.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 72, 25 March 1931, Page 7

UNPAID RATES TOTAL £31,000.

TEN PER CENT PENALTY IMPOSED THIS MORNING

City rates totalling approximately £31,000 were unpaid when the 10 per cent penalty was imposed this morning. This amount is almost double the sum that was outstanding last year. The amount collected yesterday was £70,431 18s lid, a record for one day in Christchurch. The previous highest figure was £46.000. Of the amount received yesterday, about £4OO represented arrears of rates owing from previous years; these payments must be deducted from the figures for the current year. This morning £1625 17s 2d was received through the post, leaving outstanding approximately £31.000, as against £16,900 last year. The total Jew for the current year was £358,000, being a slight increase on the previous year. Many Part Payments.

A feature of the position this year was the large number of part payments that were made. Many business firms, as well as private individuals, paid only half the amount for which they were liable, and in some cases only a quarter was paid. One man paid a large amount with a cheque that wag not signed. The mistake was notified at a late hour last night, and on being communicated with the man rushed to the rate department and signed the cheque just before midnight. The staff were not clear of their work until 1.30 a.m. today, the record number of 3209 transactions being put through during the day. This morning only one payment of the current year’s rates was made, but there were several payments of previous arrears, all of which were subject to the 10 per cent penalty. The office was kept open yesterday until 5 p.m., but at that time there were no late callers waiting to be attended to. Position in Waimairi. The total of £7779 was oufstanding in the Waimairi County when the 10 per cent penalty was added to the unpaid rates to-day. The total levy ■was £50,032, of which £43,033 was received before the addition of the 10 per cent. The proportion of rates unpaid in the county is approximately 14 per cent, which is exceptionally high. The rates came in very satisfactorily in the residential ridings, the largest arrears being in the farming areas in the county. Last year the levy amounted to £48,477, of which £4170 5s 6d was subject to the imposition of 10 per cent. THE PENALTY CLAUSE: CABINET’S PROPOSAL. (Special to the “Star.”) WELLINGTON, March 25. The Minister of Lands has informed Mr Lye (Waikato) that, in connection with the proposed legislation which the Minister of Internal Affairs will introduce this session enabling local bodies to grant a concession respecting the 10 per cent penalty on overdue rates, he will give instructions that this should also apply to rates levied under the department’s drainage schemes.