The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3625, 23 February 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1883.

There can be but few property owners who have not been mystified by the forms they have received notifying the assessment of their properties under the Property Tax Act. During the last week not one in a hundred possibly has fully understood the nature of the information presumed to bo supplied by these forms. When we had in this district a Deputy Property Tax Commissioner we had the satisfaction of knowing that there was .some authorised person to whom to go in these matters of tliniculty and distress. But now, under the centralising tendencies of the present Government, the source of information is at Wellington. From small experimental beginnings the Property Tax Department has blossomed forth into a mighty engine of mystification, find a big army of officials has its seat at the centre of administration. It, is a peculiarity of departments to grow. A good deal depends upon their growth. The under secretary, or the commissioner, or inspector, or whatever the title may be that designates the working chief of the department,, has necessarily a direct-interest in making the most of what he is called upon to do. It follows that the more work he can create the more clerks ho can employ, and the bigger man he becomes. To absorb all the work of the branches becomes an object, till the time arrives when the department has swelled into a power—a sort of Mumbo Jumbo —dangerous for a Minister to touch, and an awe inspiring body to the general public. We have not the ■slightest idea of the mimber of clerks that now look up to 3\lv Property Tax Commissioner Spcrrey, but, from the varieties of hand writing on the forms sent to property owners, the department must have reached quite portentous dimensions. And year by year the evil will grow, for the simple reason" that growth means continuity of existence and increased importance. Simplification of work, economy of administration, and the elimination of all mystery are the last things thought of. In fact it would appear that the best qualification for an appointment to the head of a department is a knowledge and capacity to make things unintelligible, his office expensive, and its working as mysterious and secret as possible. This departmental system is sometimes overdone, as Avas the case when the Hon. John Bryco rent the veil of the Native Affairs office in twain, and expressed the hope that the time was not far distant when the great "Mystery Department" would bo abolished. But departments, like ill weeds, grow apace. As soon as the clocks are got rid of the land '.-ets eovei-ed with thistles, and no Ministry can touch the " Continuous Ministry " in its creation of hydra-headed administrative machinery. Under this policy Now Zealand has become the most governed colony of the Empire, and it is only a question of time when everything, from the payment of Customs duty to the sorting of a mail bag, will have to be done at Wellington. It will be noticed that the circulars in reference to the property tax assessment notify that objections must be sent down to Wellington : it is not sufficient that tijo objections should be made before the local boards of reviewers. It is necessary that a form of objection should be obtained from the local post master, who also will supply all information, and this latter is sorely needed. The people in Hawke's Bay arc not more stupid or dull of comprehension than the populations of other places, and it is refreshing to find that, in Dunedin, according to the Star, a great number of people are severely exercised just now in endeavoring to make '' head or tail of the notices issued by the Property Tax Commissioner under the provisions of the Property Assessment Act,

IS7O, and its amendment. Under tho heading <: Local Rating" the "rateable value of the property is stated," and under the heading "Property Tax" the "valuation of owner's interest " and the '"'valuation of tenant's interest." The Bating Act, lSt>2, requires the Commissioner of Property Tax to make out in every third year, commencing with 18S3, and forward to the clerk of each local body throughout the colony, a valuation roll of all the rateable property in the district of such local body ; and this valuation roll is to be" the valuation roll of the district, except in the case of boroughs which, in exercise of the option granted to them, do not choose to adopt the Act, and of those road districts which prefer to appoint their own valuators, using the skeleton rolls provided. Tho " rateable value " of the property is, therefore, tho value as assessed by the Property Tax Commissioner, and not the value which may be assessed by the Borough Council or Road Board, as the case may be. In the '■' valuation of owner's interest " the figures are the same as tho " rateable value," excepting where an existing lease decreases the saleable value of the owner's interest, In such instances the figures give the Assessor's estimate of tho value of the property subject to the lease. In the ' ; valuation of tenant's interest" the figures give the Assessor's estimate of the saleable value of the tenant's goodwill in a lease ; the tenant lias to pay property tax on such saleable value. These notices of assessment, it must be understood, give in all cases the Assessor's estimate of value, und must not be taken as in any way affirming or rejecting the value, set cloavu by the owners in their .statements, since these have not yet been compared with the Assessor's values. Objections tiro required to be sent in prior to '{lie date stated in the notices; and some time before tho sittings of tho boards of review public notice of the time and place thereof will bo given.