The Waipa Post. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1925, NEED FOR STABILISING LAND VALUES.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1691, 26 November 1925, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1925, NEED FOR STABILISING LAND VALUES.

THE reported statement of the Prime Minister in Wellington recently that the Government could purchase hundreds of thousands of acres of land at the Government valuation, but it would not pay to do so, should not be allowed to pass without comment and consideration. We who live in New Zealand are vitally dependent on production of the land. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the farmer should be able to obtain the necessary capital to develop and improve his property. Does not Mr Coates’ admission show that, speaking generally, the Government valuations are too high? the great majority of the landholders are in accord with the contention that the Government valuers’ ideal should be to find out the true value of land, eliminating any speculation or speculative value. When the slump came in 1921 money-lending institutions, trustees, and private individuals found that they had advanced too much money on certain securities, and consequently considerable losses were made. The lending community received a shock, because it was found, very difficult to say what was the true value of the land. We have now a stable Government, and money-lenders (according to the city press) are again willing to advance moneys on country securities provided that they are satisfied with the value placed on the land.

This brings us to the important point, namely, as to what is the best method of establishing the value of land in New Zealand. There is very little doubt that the Government could do a great deal in this direction by instructing their valuers that when making valuations they should as far as possible find out the producing value of the land. If this were done universally it would almost certainly be found that in many cases the Government valuation of the land to-day is too high. This, of course, applies to city and town lands just the same as to farm lands. The alleged selling e ignored by the valuers, who should as far as possible base their values on the producing capacity of the land. It must be remembered that if rates, outgoings, and the cost of building increase. and that the rental value or producing value of land does not increase, the land is diminishing in value. We think it is of vital importance to New Zealand that the Government Valuation Department should do its best to stabilise land values at their true value, and if it is found that the valuations are too high then' they should be reduced. Practical sheep farmers and dairy farmers are frequently saying that the value of land is too high in New Zealand. The Waipa County Council made representations, following a discussion at the council table, to have a revaluation made of the whole county, stressing the fact that the last valuation was made during the boom period. Since then Government valuers have been busily engaged in several, if not all, of the ridings, and doubtless they have arrived at a general valuation tlhat will give a good deal more satisfaction than the old one. But there are other counties that have not been valued. There are, we believe, actually some districts that have not been re-valued for about twenty years—and the local authorities do not want the existing values interfered with. It is an obvious deduction that those districts are not progressive—and nor likelv to be !