TRUST AFFAIRS

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 August 1936, Page 3

TRUST AFFAIRS

- ♦ DEPUTATION TO MINISTER. The financing of repairs to the Opera House and relief from the graduated land tax, two pressing problems facing the Masterton Trust Lands Trust, were placed before the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash), in Wellington yesterday by a deputation comprising Messrs. J. MacFarlane Laing (chairman), 11. P. Hugo, A. Owen Jones, L. J. Taylor (members of the Trust), and Messrs W. B. Yates (secretary) and Raymond Lee (architect). Mr Nash gave a noncommittal reply in regard to the land tax and said he did not know what could be done to arrange finance at the low rate of interest suggested for repairs to the Opera House. The Commissioner of Taxes l , Mr C. E. Dowland, was also present. Presenting the case of the Trust, Mr Laing gave a brief outline of the history of the Trust and went on to refer to the' benefits it conferred on the community, giving details of the grants made to primary and secondary scnools and other bodies in the Small Farm Area. Summarising the position of grants made out of the general account, Mr Laing said that from 1925 to 1930 inclusive, the Trust paid out in grants the sum of £12,427 18s Bd, including £3220 10s to the Wairarapa High School, while about £2OO per year was paid out in grants from the scholarship account. In the years. 1931 to 1930, both inclusive, grants from the general account, including provision for free school books' and stationery, totalled £7452 5s lid, the marked fall as compared with the total of the previous six years being due almost solely to the disastrous results of the earthquake in March, 1934. The cost of repairs to the Trust’s buildings damaged by the earthquake, excluding the Opera House, was £2790 while the estimated cost of

repairing and renovating the Opera House was £2928. After detailing the efforts that had been made to find the finance necessary for repairing the Opera House, Mr Laing asked if it would be possible to obtain an advance of £3OOO from the Government at not more than two per cent, per annum interest, with a sinking fund spread over

30 years. Referring to the land tax, Mr Laing said that previous to July of last year the Trust had been considered both by the Taxation Department and by the Trustees as a local authority and therefore was not liable to bo assessed for land tax. In the following month the Commissioner of Taxes asked for returns of land held by the Trust at 31st March, 1931, to 1935 inclusive. The legal position was gone into and it was found that the Trust was not a local authority for taxation exemption and did not come within any of the exemptions provided by the Land and Income Tax Act, 1923. A deputation waited upon the Commissioner to ask for total exemption. The Commissioner later replied that he was unable to recommend total exemption but he would recommend the then Government that the land tax be assessed at onehalf the ordinary rate. Legislation giving effect to this' recommendation was enacted and the result was that last year the Trust paid £l3O 4s 5d in land tax, the first payment of tint kind made in its history. Now came the proposal of a graduated scale of land tax. The unimproved Government valuation of Trust property totalled £61,014 and assuming that the present one-lialf exemption stood, land tax at 3d in the pound thereon would be £760 3s 6d, an amount which could be paid by the Trust only at the sacrifice of its entire grants. Asking that the Trust should be statutorily exempted from the payment of land tax either by constituting it a local authority in all respects or in any other way which was thought fit, Mr Laing indicated how inequitably the graduated land tax would work in relation to the Trust. On the special scholarship area, at the rate of 3d in the pound, it would total £56 12s, about one-third of the gross revenue; on the Cameron and Soldiers’ Memorial Park, for which the gross annual rent was £SB, with a provision that all surplus money above outgoings must be spent upon the Park, the land tax would be £l9 2s and on the general lands held by the Trust, the tax would be £694 9s 6d, or more than one-seventh of the gross revenue. Certain of the Trust’s areas were leased to various schools at peppercorn rentals as follow: St. Patrick’s School, rent of £4 per an-

num; Central School garden, woodwork and museum area, rent £1 per year; playing area for Central School, £1 per year; Technical School, £55 per annum, the unimproved value being respectively £726, £487, £1556 and £1547. In the latter case, buildings to the value of £12500, owned by the Trust, were used by the Technical School. Mr Laing said it was obvious that no Government could provide areas for schools at such ridiculously low rentals and it was felt by the Trust, if only because of the saving which the Trust afforded to the Education Department, that it was entitled, to receive favourable consideration. Both for election purposes and for borrowing the Trust was statutorily declared to be a local authority and was subject to all the rules and regulations relating thereto. It Iras suggested that this might bo taken a step further and the Trust statutorily declared to be a local authority for all purposes, Mr Hugo made reference to the position in which societies were placed as the result of not being able to use the Opera House. Various aspects of Trust affairs Averc dealt Avith by Mr Jones, particularly the fact that the Trust had no reserve fund Avith Avhich to carry out repairs to its buildings. Mr Nash replied briefly to the deputation’s requests. Regarding the Opera House ho said he did not know Avhat could be done to arrange finance at the loav rate of interest suggested by Mr Laing, but the matter AA r ould receive consideration. Referring to the land tax Mr Nash said the matter avus a ■very complicated one and representations Avere being received from church bodies and other organisations. All of these Avould require consideration. He assured the deputation that its representations Avould receive his consideration. He fully appreciated the Avorlc that Avas being done by the Trust.