RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES.

Waikato Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2628, 2 May 1904, Page 2

RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES.

TO THE EDITOR. Silt,—On August 23rd, 1901, these prophetic words from the penß of Mr H. Vaile appeared in The Waikato Axgus, dealing with rating upon laud values in Hamilton. ' I gather from your columns Sir, that during the year several new buildings have been erected, but under the system of rating adopted these will not add one single penny to the revenue of either the Borough or the State, but they certainly must add to the expenses of the Borough, and the larger the number of new houses the greater the Joss instead of the gain as it ought to be. Where is the loss to come from ? It can only be met by increasing the rate per £. This is exactly what the single taxers want and mean. If at the end of the three years the rate is not 4d or 5d Hamilton will be lucky.' In other words, Mr Vaile contended that after a three years' trial we would be lucky if land values had not decreased fiom £58.746 to £35,247, which is the sum required to fetch in £734 6s 6d at a rate of 5d in the pound. We can now show Mr Vaile nine acres in the main street, the total unimproved value of which is more than his £35,247. It is thus apparent land values have increased phenomenally, the total for the borough being £185,032, an increase of £149,785 upon Mr Vaile's dismal prophecy; and one penny in the pound will give us £4O more than 3d did under the previous valuation. Seeing the town of Hamilton has been founded nearly forty years, and on the adoption of rating upon landvalues the unimproved value was only £55,746, it is a conclusive and eloquent testimonial of the working of tbe system that an increase of £126,286 in land values is recorded in three years, and u direet refutation of the statement of Mr Vaile that its adoption would prove disastrous. Mr Vaile and his friends always parade the single tax bogey; if Hamilton's experience is single tax in operation, no doubt the landholders will clamour for more of it. It is somewhat singular that before the expiry of the three years of stagnation predicted by Mr Vaile, he has found it convenient to open a branch agency in the ' doomed town,' and still more remarkable that an outsider like himself has been requisitioned as the first to even attempt publicly to point out to ratepayers how foolish they have beeu in adopting a system of rating which in three years has aided in raising the capital value of the borough from £137,289 to £284,752. The only logical conclusion is that those individuals who have spent their capital in improvements have by their energy and iudustry created this increase of £126,286 registered in land values ; yet Messrs Vaile and Co. say, in effect, it is iniquitous to tax this £126,256, but tax the improvements. We say no ! The improvements have been in timber, bricks, iron, etc., while the plumbers, carters, painters, carpenters—in fact the whole community—have benefited. We say if it is just to tax a man for putting up a flue house it is only logical to tax him for his piano and everything the house contains. Mr Vaile will have a hard job to convince many of us that rating upon land values has been a failure.—l am, etc, Jas. E. Tidd, Secretary Land Values Committee. TO THE EDITOK. Sir, —The following figures obtained from official sources and bearing on the growth of Hamilton in value during the past nine years are of interest at the present time in view of the desire of some of the ratepayers to go back to the old system of rating on the annual value. The capital value of the Borough of Hamilton at 31st March, 1895, was £117.733, and during tbe three years following up to 31st March, 1898, this increased by £10,500, and for the next three years up to 31st March, 1891, the increase in the capital value was £9,056. The total increase in the capital value of rateable property within the borough during six years under the system of rating on the annual value was £19,556; while during the three years just past, and under the system of rating on the unimproved value, the capital value of the borough has ipcreased by £147,463. The increase in improvements of rateable properties within the borough during the past year amounts to £21,177. During the past three years, under the rating on unimproved values, the capital value of Hamilton has more than doubled itself, until it now stands at £284,752. I think, with the evidence of such remarkable growth under the rating on unimproved values, it would not bo wise at the present juncture to revert to the old system.—l am, etc., J. A. YorjNQ.