CITY VALUATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1425, 27 April 1912, Page 10

CITY VALUATION.

• -«• OFFICIAL STATEMENT. PARTIAL REVISION IN PROSPECT. _ Proper! ics in (he city of Wellington and its suburbs have not been revalued since tlio year lllllG, and rates and taxes arc still being levied cm the valuation inado in that year. It is universally agreed that some adjustment of value 'is necessary, though there is considerable difference ot opinion us to their precise trend in different portions of the city and suburban area. In regard' to some of the suburbs, no difterence of opinion is 1 possible. It is admitted on all hands, tor instance, that values are too high in island Cay, and that residents in that suburb, generally speaking, pay more than their lair share of rales. As regards the city itself, and somo of tho other suburbs, opinion varies. The official opinion, as expressed yesterday by the ValuerGeneral (.Mr. F. \\ T . Flanagan), when a Dominion reporter interviewed him oil the subject, is that values in the city and in Ifataitai and Kilbirnie aro normal, and that iu these areas there would be no reduction in tho event of a revaluation. Mr. Flanagan admitted that in other suburbs, notably Island Bay, values wore too high in proportion to those set upon properties in the city proper. There was no cast-iron rulo, tho ValuerGeneral stated, in regard to the periods at which revaluations should, be made. The policy of the Department was to let a valuation stand unless it appeared that an important rise or fall in values had occurred. Tho returns periodically received by tho Department, ho said, indicated that in the city proper and in Hataitai and Kilbirnie, values had been maintained. There was, therefore, 110 jmmediato proposal to revalue these areas. The remaining part of tho suburban area would be revalued in time for tho rate and tax assessment ot 1913-14. The borough of Karori is to T>e revalued shortly, and Northland will bo revalued at tho sumo time, because it. is jointly responsible with the borough for a tramway loan. It-is customary to revalue tho areas concerned, on occasions of (Sis kind, in order to equitably adjust tho incidence of taxation. Thero was no foundation, Mr. Flanagan remarked, for tho statement, sometimes made, that the Department was given to over-valuing. If it did so, the result would bo to burden tho Government with inadequate securities. The Government was the largest lending institution in tho Dominion, and it would be gravely detrimental to its interests to set too'high a valuo upon properties upon which loans might, at any time, be raised. Laud had only one value, either for loan or taxation purposes, Mr. Flanagan stated, and that was its value as a security. The Department was sometimes accused of being an engine to increase taxation, but, in fact, it aimed always at assessing a fair selling value. Valuations made for special purposes were not embodied in tho valuation rolls. In this way anomalies due to market fluctuations wero avoided. It followed that special valuations did not affect tho values of surrounding properties. In reply to a question, Mr.' Flanagan admitted that- minor anomalies might ariso from time to time within a valuation area. Street improvements, in a particular locality, r or instance, might raise tho valuo of adjacent properties. Instances of this nature, however, were not in themselves sufficiently important to justify such an expensive undertaking as that of revaluing the wholo of the city and suburban area. Tho Valuation Act, Mr. Flanagan remarked, in conclusion, was very liberal in permitting individuals to appeal against valuations with which they were, 'dissatisfied. Iho city authorities, it may bo mentioned, base their rating assessments on the valuation of properties made by tho Government for purposes of land tax. Mr. James Ames, the City Valuer, is also an officer of the Valuation Department.