Untitled

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3634, 6 March 1883, Page 2

0 wnebs of property who may not be desirous of placing a fictitious value on their land have good reason to complain at the excessive valuations that have boon made in some of the settlements of the Seventy-mile Bush. Last year, we believe, the Corporation reserve, a few miles this side of Woodvillo, was at such a valuation that county and road board rates together amounted to £17 10s. The valuation this year under the property tax assessment i.s no less than £GOOO, or throe pounds per acre. The absurdity of this valuation is shown by the fact that tho Government lands adjoining can bo bought from tho Crown at £L per acre. If the valuation is sustained the Corporation will bo liable for rates to the extent of £37 10s a year. In view of this contingency it becomes more than ever necessary that the reserve should be utilised in some way or other. It is now proposed to offer the land for lease for a term of twenty years on such terms as to make its occupation a desirable investment of time and money. From the fact that the tonus previously offered having failed to attract a tenant) they have now been very much lowered and in other respects so liberalised as to bring the lease within tho moans of small' capitalists. The"" new conditions of lease wore agreed upon at the public works committee meeting last night, and will be submitted to the Council f<3l - approval tomorrow evening. The object iv view is to induce settlement on the land, and to that end the harassing clauses with respect to fencing boundaries, kc, have been carefully eliminated, and the rental fixed at such a price that anyone with a .small capital, and of industrious habits, could, if he chose, make a handsome living out of its occupation.