VALUING THE CITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1575, 19 October 1912, Page 9

VALUING THE CITY.

"A RIFT IN THE LUTE." VALUER DECLINES TO WORK I'OR XOTIIINU. There is probably no officer employed by tho City Council more valued and respected than Sir. James Ames, tho City Valuer, and it will probably be news to the public to learn the true inwardness .of his retirement (as yet unaccepted) from tho position ho holds in the Uovern.ment service, on which the trouble aroso oyer the delay in commencing tho valuation of Wellington City, agreed upon ns necessary by both tho City Council and tho Government. It should be explained that though Mr. Ames is called City Valuer, andisoneof the first authorities cn values in Wellington, tho work is done, as a general rule, by tho Government (Valuer-General's Department), whose officers, aro even now engaged on a re-valuation of Wellington Suburbs. But years ago Mr. Ames accepted tho work lrom the Government of advik-ing on values of properties in tho city submitted as security lor loans from Government money-lending Departments. Tor this . lyork, which is important, and consider--1 Jible, the Government lias paid -Mr. Ames the princely salary of .£l5O per annum. But not only has he valued individual properties lor loan purposes for tho salary mentioned, lie also revised the values of the whole of tho city in 1901; when the rating on unimproved values was adopted; lie completely re-valued tho city in 1903 and 1906, as well as making several supplementary values! and tho salary paid him for tho work has been .1:150 per annum.

This year—on the decision of the City Council to have a, revaluation—owing To Iho last one having been made when tho property was selling every day at "boom" values (in 1906), Mr. Ames was approached by the Department,, but refused to undertake such a big and responsible work without being adequately remunerated for his services. Since then he has handed in liis resignation as valuer for tho Government. "I am not blaming anyone," said Mr. Ames, "for what has happened in the past I'suppose 1 myself am to blame for not pushing my claims for fair payment for work done. I have been too easy— 1 recognise that now, and cannot go on with such work without being decently paid for it." Mr. Ames said lie used to act for the Government in the days of tho property tax, from 1881 to 1890, or thereabouts; then Mr. T. Kennedy Mucdonald was appointed Government-Valuer in the city of Wellington, and later, in Mr. Seddon's time, ivas appointed Inspector of Valuers, on receiving which appointment Mr. A. Wilson (afterwards Mr. Macdonald's partner) was mado Government valuer for. Wellington. 11l 1900 the Government, for somo reason or other, requested the services of Mr. Ames as District Valuer, aiul ho has acted in that capacity ever since (for .£l5O a year). During those "twelve years lio has received ,£ISOO from the Government. Ho places as a moderate estimate of the work done during that period at .£5950, mado up as follows:— Ji 1901—Revision of Values on coming into operation of unimproved value system 250 1903—Revaluation of city 650 1901—Supplementary valuation 100 1905—Supplementary valuation 100 1906—Revaluation-of city GSO 1907—8-9-10-11-12—Supplementary valuations, at ,£IOO each GOO Estimated value of fees received by Government Departments for Mr. Ames's valuations of individual properties « 3,G00 Total 5,950 "Not.only have I done the worlc mentioned,- but only last year 1 mado a special valuation of all the Ministerial residences, and this year have made special valuations of railway blocks at Thorndon—all included in my .£l5O a year. Under the conditions, I thought it advisable' to 'ciit the painter.' I would like to explain that, inv estimate 'for"'supplementary valuations is a low one, as last year the Government paid .£lO7 10s. for a supplementary, known as ■ the . valuation of the district of Melroso Borough, and that is a bagatelle compared with the work'in the city."