ASHBURTON RATES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12657, 20 November 1905, Page 2

ASHBURTON RATES.

To the Editor,

Sir ; —-In this -morning's paper in the JPirphibition advertising column, I nov.~4>iced a reference,about the Ashburton .3rates,, v Aa jsb/ was -worded ; it> ; read as -^though ",Pr<iihj.biitaon had caused' a red ucTtion in the rates. Allow,"me .-through iyoii paper to correct this ideai. I rei i'sided in Ash!burton for eight .years, and instill own property in that .town/ : Duf-' ang that time the rates. were : never- qy.er Jm. in the £. As soon as Prohibition

~=W"a3 carried the rates rose to 2s. in the z£, and last year they were reduced to Us ,6d, showing that instead of a reduction of 25 per cent, they are 50 per •oyent. more than under License. Trust3tng you will insert this,—l am, etc., W. D. V. PRESTON.

(Our correspondent no doubt desires ■sSfco 'be fair, but in this matter he has, perhaps inadvertently, failed to conT^ey a correct idea of the position. Mr Utobert AJcorn, J.P., who has resided :3n Ashbuarton for the past 24 years, and -^who is well known and highly respected -^sas a business man and a citizen, has just ipu'bilished, in the " Ashburton Guaran open letter to the people of : INew Zealand concerning the effects of -Htfo-License in that place, and in dealing -'with the . subject of " Rating" he vmajs: —" Rateable values in Ashburton Jbave been steadily improving for a jaiuniiber of years past, and have certainlly not heen checked by the No-License ~fx>licy of the electors. When the loss **©f license fees, amounting to £350, was --antidpated by the Borough Council, • -*hey substituted for-the existing shilling a two-shilling rate, which brought -in £1200, largely to reduce an overdraft, ■ffor which an increased rate would have 3been necessary independent of No- - JLicenee, but the increased rateable —values that same year were such as to --aeamcel all the loss of license fees except -mahout £35. And the continued improved "-.acateable values have enabled the rate jfchis year to be reduced to Is 6d." "iHThesa are indisputable facts, which can ~^be easily verified.—Ed. " Chronicle.")