INCREASED VALUATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 476, 7 April 1909, Page 4

INCREASED VALUATIONS.

' (Bi;,TELEqPAr!i—3i-r,ct(i, CTtmF.sreNnr.ST.) : :> ;,„;,_.■ , r m ~ Auckland, April 6. ! Sevfefal dissatjs.fte<l,,.property owners, who appeared at the' Auckland Assessment Court yesterday, laid stress; in giving evidence.'in support ofntlieir. objections to assessments, on tho greaKific.to'ase'alMat havo bceii taking place in theJ-Valuer's'.icstimates sinco tho last valuations were mado four years ago. In the caso of several business properties at Newmarket', it was">li(jvhi 'that tUo valuations of land had beqnriucroased 100 per cent. Mr. P. Mackenzie} thVvaluor, stated that he had taken So notice of tho formor valuations, but had sijnply assessed tho land according to his estimate of its present-day worth. In tho preeent case, however,- although he was not responsible for, tho former valuation, ho considered; that the. laiid had actually doubled in value :djiriri2'thb J inteTval. Tho residential , values. , jn'lOpsom-ahd. other adjacent districts had certainly .gone..up.-100 per cent., and it was only natural, that,, business sites should show a corresponding increase. "Business has not increased 100 per cent., I can tell you that," was tho rejoinder of Mr. G. Smerdon, ono of* tho dbjocfcots;"who subsequently obtained, a reduction'frqm_ £45 to £40 a foot.