RATING SYSTEMS.

Evening Star, Issue 21743, 11 June 1934, Page 2

RATING SYSTEMS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —In your issue of Thursday there is a letter from Mr A. J. Morison, in which he tells us ,the great success the Labour Party had at the last municipal elections in Brisbane. I wish Mr Morison had told us the',reason of its success, and then he eduld have pointed out the cause of the dismal failure, of the Labour Party here. Let us compare the actions of the leaders of the Labour Party in Brisbane, Christchurch, and Wellington with the apathy a nd indifference (to the welfare of the people) of the leaders of that party in Dunedin. In Brisbane, Christchurch, and Wellington the leaders of the Labour Party realised that the reform that would do the workers most good and be of the greatest benefit to the city as a whole was an alteration of the rating system to the unimproved value. These cities have been .rated on this system for a considerable time with great benefit to everyone, particularly the workers. If the leaders of the Labour Party here had had the interests of the working man at heart this reform would have been carried here twenty years ago, and their apathy in this matter certainly casts great doubts on their sincerity. The retention of the present rating system entails the loss of over £12,000 a year to the ratepayers of South Dunedin and Caversham, which means that in twenty years these unfortunate people (mostly working men) have had £240,000 needlessly extracted from their pockets—all this without a protest from any leader of the Labour Party. Every year, under our present rating system, the workers of our city are overrated to the extent of £40,000, which means that in twenty yeas £BOO,OOO has been taken from them to enable land speculators to live without work; all this without a protest “ from these friends of the people ” —Messrs Gilchrist and Harrison—and not even one from Mr A. J. Morison. Mr R. Harrisoli was very enthusiastic about restoring the cut to corporation

employees, but he shows no consideration at all for the ratepayers of South Dunedin and Caversham, who are having £12,000 a year squeezed out of them in order to stuff it into the pockets of wealthy land owners. If rating on unimproved value was adopted here 75 per cent, of the ratepayers would have their rates reduced. • Great protests have been made against sending married men to camp, and rightly so. If the rating system was altered to unimproved value, unemployment would be diminished immediately, and a great stimulus would be given to the building trade.—l am, etc., ■ P. W. Siiacklock. June 8.