VALUATION OF LAND

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 3, 29 September 1920, Page 8

VALUATION OF LAND

AMENDING BILL INTRODUCED A NEW ASSESSMENT COURT The Valuation of Land Amendment Bill introduced yesterday is devoted largely to the constitution of a new type of assessment court to hear objections. In place of tl\i_> Magistrate who presides at tho assessment courts under the present Act, the president of tho new court is to be a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court, to be appoint for a term of five years by the Governor-Gencral-in-Council. The president is to have associated with him an assessor for each land district, to be appointed also by the Governor-Gen-eral-111-Council, and empowersd to hear objections to valuations only for tbie particular land district for which h'e has been'appointed. Each local authority is also to-appoint an assessor for all cases to' b|> heard concerning the land in its own borders.

1 Section 82 of the principal Act required that in the case of an assessment of the capital value of the lantl by the ValuerGeneral where necessary a corresponding alteration should be made in valui; of improvements and in the unimproved value. The Bill proposes to make this requirement more specific. It requirj?s that on the alteration by the Valuer-General of the capital value of any land where the owner is not satisfied with the valufe placed upon it by the assessment court and tliere is a question of its acquirement by the Crown under section 30 or sftchon 31 of the principal Act, the value of the improvements (if any) and the unimproved value shall bo eo altered that the revised value of tlifc improvements and the revised unimproved value respectively shall bear to the orginal value of the improvements and to the original unimproved valute, the proportion that the revised capital value bears to the original capital value.. , , ~ Wfctere a lease imposes onerous conditions upon the lessee which he has no fulfilled at tha time of the valuation or limits the uses to which the leased land may be put, then m assessing the capital value of the lessee's and the lessor s interests in the. land, the Valuer-General is R iven discretion to make an allowance to L lessee in respect of these conditions, hut is required to make a corresponding Stton to the valife of the esso* interest Any allowance made under this section or any refusal to make an nllowan« to be subject to ob]ection a fpplicatioV option !i,l °SX, :l U'd I £ , ES , ""i A I.SS Iwaws the ™lne6 °f aSi lr,-f thfl land were held by a siiißie at if tne ia » without limitation wold7 r '»ut Ta itaitat|on of .estate or power" are to be struck out.

COAL FOR RACE TRAINS A COMPLAINT FROM THE LABOUR BENCHES. One of the Labour members, Mr. M'Combs (Lytttilton) had a protest to make in the House of Representatives yesterday concerning "waste, of coal by the Government. The basis of has protest was that the Government had run special trains to Avondale on Saturday for the races. He wanted to know why the Government had used coal for such a purpose at a time of shortage. After Mr. M'Combs had protested at length, the Prime Minister remarked that as a matter of fact there had been no races at Avondale on Saturday. A little later Mr. M'Combs it-turned to the charge. He said he ha<l bf«n informed that the Avondale races hadl only been put off from Saturday to Wednesday "Will the Prime Minister give instructions," he wkaL "to; prevent the waste of coal on trains which aie unessential. and.win he give a reply that is not an evasive one? Mr Massey: The lion, gentleman had better put his question on tho Order Pqper, and there will, be no evasion there. WATCHES FOR RAILWAYMEN REPORT ON THE A,S,R.S. PETITION. The committee to which had been referred a petition of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants alleging that the Omega Watch Company was acting "in restraint of trade," yesterday recommended the petition to the Government for consideration, lhe document stated that the A.S.R.S. imported a number of Omega watches, and sold them ! to its members- practically at Q9st price. Through the intervention of the society, railwaymen had teen enabled to obtain ; the 1 watches at a price considerably lower than that which they would otherwise have been charged. When the society wished to import a further number o i watches the company notified it tliut 11 future tho watches must be purchased from the comity's agents in f\ew Zealand. The society was thus prevented from obtaining cheap watches ior its members, since in buying from too agents it would have to pay tho retail price. After brief discussion the report ivw, referred to the Government. SULPHUR SUPPLIES "In view of tho necessity of providing sulphuric acid for the treatment of phosphate rock from Nauru Island wflll the Prime Minister see that a report is furbished without delay by Dr. Henderson of tho Department of Geological Suivoy, with regard to tho sulphur deposits at Itotorua and Taupo,' was the text of a question asked by Mr. F. I'. Ilockly (Uotorml ii) tho House of Representatives yesterday afternoon. Mr. Massey said ho admitted that the matter referred to was a very important one. Ho had heard n great deal of tho sulphur deposits at Taupo, and would be very glad w have tho Mines Department report upon them.