ASSESSMENT COURT

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1786, 24 July 1926, Page 4

ASSESSMENT COURT

WAIPA COUNTY VALUATIONS.

'FURTHER APPEALS HEARD,

After we went to press on Thursday the following additional appeals against the Government’s latest valuation of properties in various parts of the county of Waipa were heard by the Assessment Court (Messrs W. C Hewitt, S.M., C. J. Potts, and C. F. Storey):— ; William G. Tarr, farmer, Kaipaki, objected to the valuation of £4515 on his farm. His estimate was £3600. The farm was> one of 208 acres, on which there were 36 gullies. The top land w&s valued at £42 per acre It. was ‘far hack from file main road, with a narrow frontage. (He did not desire to sell. The improvements were valued •fairly. He asked that the Government ■Valuer should! visit the whole of the property.—The Court pointed out that the owner had not brought any evidence rebutting the valuation of the Department. The Department offered to reduce the valuation 'by 30s' per acre —The Court sustained this reduction, £IOO off the improvements, and "£2OO off the unimproved, total.

• The valuers pointed out that Mr Tarr’s contention that Mr Gordon had not inspected all the property was incorrect, Mr Gordon himself having come through on to Mr Tarr’s property from the back. Mr Tarr was absent, and he interviewed a son. It was only fair to the Department’s officers to make this fact clear. James Courtney, Horoti.u, objected to ithe unimproved valuation, and agreed to a reduction of £2OO off the capital and unimproved values. J. !W. Whitehead, near Frankton, objected to' the assessment for ’improvementa—The Department agreed to amend the ’figures. R. B. Law, W. J. Law, and James W. Law, farmers, near Frankton, objected to the classi'ficaitionst of their respetive properties. J. W. Law appeared, saying the others were too ill to attend the Court. Their properties were originally one block. Dealing with the appeals, Mr Law" maintained that the land had been improved by draining, causing it to consolidate; it 'had. been fenced and grassed. In 1919 the allowance for improvement by draining was greater than the present allowance for the whole of the improvementls. He agreed with the total estimate of the capital value, but there was not sufficient allowed for improvements. Part of the property had gone back, reverting to manuka. To Mr .Hyde’s suggestion that there were now exhausted improvements, witness said drains 6 feet or 7 feet d,eep ten years ago were now less than half that depth, buit were carrying water off. The land had sunk as a result of the de-water-ing. x . William A. Gordon, Government valuer, said after the objection had been lodged, he re-visited ithe properties, carefully traversing the land. There was very little grass, but a lot of scrubby manuka. The fences were poor; there was no evidence of stumping; the land is unimproved; some of ,the drains are in bad order. He valued the whole of the improvements at appreciably . less than £2OO, His valuation of the property was consistent with the valuations of adjoining properties. Mr Hyde asked that the three properties be considered as a whole.—Mr Law agreed. After the adjohrnment thee Court announced that it had decided to sustain the valuations in the three case i of Mr J. W. Law and his sons.

Harry Rhodes, farmer, Paterangi, objected to the unimproved valuation of his property. He asked that it be reduced £450. The capital value was all right.—The Department agreed to the reduction.

The following appellants did not appear, and their objections were accordingly struck out. the valuations being sustained:— Henry Askew, David Donald, E. H. Houston. J. A. Bergquist, Mary C. Taylor, Robert Duxfield, (amended), Hayter and Gunn, Fred R. Thomas, Richar d‘ H. Kirkwood, Mary V. Bryant (amended), W. D. Glaister, Henrietta Fair, Robert A. Stanley, William Kells (amended). Thomas Kells, Charles R. Smith, Thomas Hunt, William W. Maingay (amended), G. S. Kemp. J. M. Bamford, James Burrows, Norman Ratcliffe, A. S. Brewis and: H. H. Hftwden (amended), William C. Dixon, George W. Keppall, Martha Lee, R. G. Etchell’s W. J. Graham, Richard Lee, H, H. Howden (amended), and R. A. Thomas (amended), Allan R. Kay (amended), Maragaret Doyle, Andrew Neilson (amended), Miss Winifrid George, Frederick Culley, William CBurrows, Edmond Enyon, John A. Me Ewan, Charles Finch (amended), Geo. E. and' A. H. Bell (amended). A. W. Cheal and Katie Marrini.