EAST TAMAKI NEWS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 625, 19 April 1921, Page 2

EAST TAMAKI NEWS.

DISMAY AT NEW VALUATIONS OF LAND. MEETING OF RATEPAYERS TO ENTER A JOINT PROTEST. Widespread dissatisfaction is expressed in East Tamaki at the recent revision of the District Valuation Roll, to come into force as from Ist April. On Tuesday evening last about seventy ratepayers met in the East Tamaki Had to discuss the valuations.

Mr James White, chairman of the Road Board, was voted to the chair, and after several speakers had expressed their protest against the new scale of valuations, Mr W. A. Leonard, 8.A., A.P.A., (N.Z.), Public Accountant, was asked to speak on the subject of the rise in values. Mi Leonard dealt with the basis of land values before, during, and after' the war. Prior to 1914 !and values had advanced steadily and slowly, but the sudden rise in prices from .1914 to 1920, and the consequent inflation of land values, could not be accounted for by any of the causes which go to enhance the “real worth” of land. Whatever the “price” paid for property, its ultimate real value must depend upon the nett return for its produce, and while, up to six months ago, the r’eturn justified the high prices paid for improved land, that return was measured irf a currency, which, according to the latest Government statistics, had become depreciated up to 60 per cent. This meant that the commodity which in 1914 the producer could &e!l for 20s, must have realised at least 32s in 1920 before the unfortunate seller received the same nett return.

The speaker went on to show that the valuations had been made when prices were at high-water mark. They had obviously been based upon the “prices” then paid for land, and the valuers must necessarily have assumed that, not only were the fictitious land prices of 1920 permanent, but that the prospects of even higher prices for New Zealand produce were sufficiently rosy to justify a great increase in the unimproved value of the land. Producers' hopes have not been realised. It is estimated that general prices have fallen at least 12 per cent, in the last two months, and the assumptions leading to the 1920 valuations have proved false. Under these circumstances, the producer, who is the’first to suffer by a fall in the prices of primary products, was called upon to accept a burden which could not now be considered equitable, and wnich

imposed undue taxation upon one particular section of the community —this at a time when producers are already seriously embarrassed by the collapse in the markets for foodstuffs. In conclusion, Mr Leonard pointed out that only by the most rigid economy, and the maximum efficiency of production, could New Zealand return to a position of sound and prosperous finance. Taxation based upon the recent valuations would undoubtedly hinder production and set a standard of impossible values which could not conceivably be maintained.

Several gentlemen spoke in support of the speaker’s remarks, and stressed the fact that on the one hand, the unimproved value of land had been advanced beyond all reason, in some cases as much as 150 per cefit., while on the other hand the amount allowed for improvements in

many cases was estimated at below their pre-war cost. < On the motion of Mr Kennedy Ross, the following' resolution was passed: “That this meeting of property owners of East Tamaki jointly and severally protest against the valuations placed upon our land as from the Ist inst., and endeavour to secure substantial reduction by the Assessment Court.”

A committee was set up to lodge a united objection to the valuations, arid to employ counsel to represent property owners in the Assessment Ccurt.