QUESTION OF VALUATION.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5749, 28 October 1914, Page 2

QUESTION OF VALUATION.

By Telegraph.--Special to Argus Wellington, Tuesdy.

lii reply to a question this afternoon, the Prime Minister stated that an enquiry will be held into the complaints regarding the valuations which have been received from various parts of the Dominion. It was pointed out by Mr Guthrie (Oroua) that the Lands Committee had made a favourable recommendation in regard to two petitions on the subject that huvo been before the House this session. Mr Massey said that in July last he had addressed the following memorandum on the matter to the Valuer-General: "Kecently quite a number of complaints have reached me regarding valuations which are taking place in different parts of the Dominion. The complaints nearly all go in the same direction namely, that improvements are not being sufficiently exempted. The complaints are so numerous arid emphatic that 1 cannot help coming to the conclusion that there are grounds for them. I therefore give directions for you to make your valuers understand that it is not the policy or the intention of the Government to inllate values, or to tax improvements, which ought to be, and are intended to be, exempted under the Act."

In spite of this memorandum, said the Crime Minister, complaints still come to hand, and therefore he judged an inquiry to he necessary. He would do all that was possible to facilitate the fullest investigation.