Correspondence.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 21, 18 June 1872, Page 2

Correspondence.

\ We do not necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by our correspondents.] (To I he Editor of the, Waikato Times.) Sir, —I wish to bring under the notice of the public the difficulty of working some portions of the present Highways Act. In the case of absentee owners of land it is impossible to recover any rates, the process to be gone through being very elaborate and when completed useless* By section 42 of the Highways Act, 1871, demand must be made by a notice in a ne > spaper circulated in the province. If the rate is not paid within fourteen days after such notice, " the collector duly authorised in that behalf may recover such rates from the person so making default by action or other appropriate proceedings in any court having civil jurisdiction to the amount claimed." The collector then after much trouble and expense gets judgment for the amouir. of the rate in the Resident Magistrates' Court. Then under section 2 of The Sale for Non-payment of Rates Act,. " It shall be lawful for the Superintendent of the province in which such land is situated at any time thereafter on request of the governing body by which such rate assessment o-c liability shall have beeu made or assessed to satisfy .the amount for the time- being remaining due on such judgment by payment thereof out of money of the province of which he is Superintendent for the time being available for that purpose." If the Superintendent pays this, money (section 3) the amount so paid becomes a debt due from the owners of the land to the S i[ e iutendeut bearing interest at the- rate of lo'pcr cut. per annum. By section f>, If the said debt and interest remain unpaid for twelvemonths the Superintendent may on petition to a Judge of the Supreme Court and after the said judge has heard " such petitition and after such enquiries aud after such proof of the material circumstances as to him shall seem fit may make an order for the sale of the land so charged." These proceedings, although rather cumbrous, would appear to provide District Boards with a means of recovering rates from absentee landowners, but after going to all the trouble and expense of getting a judgment for the amount of rate due, the Board will be told on their applying to the Superintendent that " there are no moneys of the proviuce available by law for that purpose." The Board is thus rendered practically helpless, and "The Sale for Non-payment of Rate-3 Act" is of no'more use than a sheet of waste paper. •:. ?., Section 34 of the Highwaj'S Act, 1871, says that there "shall be levied an annual general rate either by the acre of all rateable land within the district, or by the pound of the. value to sell, or upon the full net annual value of the rateable property within the district) as the electors at any annual meeting shall determine, provided that no such general rate shall in any year exceed the amount of sixpence per acre or threepence in the pound on the value to sell or two shillings and sixpence in the pound on the net annual value of such property." But by section 6 of the "-Highway Boards Empowering Act"' it is enacted that "ncsthing herein contained shall authorise the levying after the thirtieth day of June next of any rate exceeding the equivalent of any rate of five per centum upon the annual value of any property or on one penny in the pound on its. value for sale, and any such rate imposing a contribution upon any property in excess of such amount shall upon appeal be reduced to suchequivalent." The effect of this last enactment will he to- reduce th« rate levied in this district, and in many others in which there is miich unoccupied land, from twopence per acre to about one halfpenny per acre, and the mischief does not stop here, for as the Superintendent distributes the grant in aid of Road Boards in proportion to the amount of rates collected in the district this district will only receive one fourth of what it would have done under the old system, of rating. And, again, it appears alinost impossible to carry out this system of rating in districts which are only partially settled, such, as the greater part of those in the Waikato.. An acreage rate can, on appeal, be reduced to a. merely nominal onej. and the difficulty of assessing a valuation rate insuperable. In fact the unoccupied land. bo. the, Waikato has no definite value at-present. vc .-,.>••- This section of the Empowering Act appears to have been passed entirely in the-:interest: of the absentee who ignore the fact that the value of their property is increased by every mile of road made, and attempt to throw the whole expense of making these roads on the resident occupiers. Great inconvenience has also been caused to District Boards, by the time of year s£ which, onehalf of the Government Grant is paid. A circular was sent to. the: different Boards, saying that it would be payable about the end of June. In consequence works which ought to have been undertaken and completed during the summer months were un-. avoidably delayed until the. bad. weather set in. and, in some cases, through the rising of water in

l creeks, had ta be postponed to - next year. If the I whole of the money had been paid at the same time J as the first half, this wonkl have been avoided. | I shall be obliged to you if you will' publish this ; letter, &s 1 think many of the ratepayers do not ; understand the difficulties the District Boards have I to contend with. -* Yours, &c, ! " Thomas Wilsojt, Chairman Newcastle District BoawL Te Soke, 15 lh June, 1872.