A Rating Enquiry

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21409, 27 February 1935, Page 10

A Rating Enquiry

On the motion of Councillor Lyons the Christchurch City Council has instructed its finance committee to prepare a " comprehensive report "on the several systems of rating "in vogue throughout the Do- " minion," with a view to ascertaining what system of rating is best adapted to the peculiar needs of Christchurch. It does not seem that the council quite realised what a tremendous task it was thrusting upon the committee. A thorough investigation of rating in New Zealand would keep a committee of experts fully occupied for several months. The finance committee of the Christchurch City Council contains few men who would claim to be experts on rating questions ana has besides a heavy volume of routine business to transact. Unless the council is prepared to allow some of its permanent officers to devote their whole time to the enquiry it is likely that .the report will merely scratch the surface of the problem. Nevertheless, it ia easy to understand and to sympathise with Councillor Lyons's misgivings over the present system of rating; and if the scope of the enquiry were narrowed and the finance committee empowered to enlist outside assistance in the matter, very useful results could be achieved. The point is that it is quite impossible to decide on theoretical grounds alone which of the three systems of rating in use in New Zealand—unimproved value, capital value, and annual value—is the best. The incidence of any system of rating must depend largely upon such local factors as the nature of the land, the use to which it is put, and the nature of the buildings erected upon it. It is possible, therefore, that a purely local enquiry could provide data to show which system of rating is best adapted to Christchurch conditions. If the Christchurch City Council wants an enquiry wider in scope it would be well advised to put its weight behind the agitation for the appointment of a Local Government Commission.