MANUREWA RATING.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 685, 18 November 1921, Page 4

MANUREWA RATING.

PUBLIC MEETING CONSIDERS CHANGE. UNANIMOUS OPPOSITION. On Tuesday evenig ’the ratepayers of Manurewa met “in the Public Haily to discuss the question of rajting \pn unimproved values, a poll on which is to be taken to-morrow (Saturday). Mr A. C. Sexton presided, and the hall was packed. The first speaker was Mr Q. H. Lup£on, a member of the Town Board, who opposed the proposed system of rafting on the main grounds that the Board had recently taken in a large area of agricultural land, and to change the rating system would be a gross injustice to 'the people concerned.

The chief speaker was Mr J. W. Shackelford, Mayor of Mount Eden, who delivered an address emphasis, ing /the disadvantages of Manurewa adopting the system of rating on unimproved values. ,He said Ithat in the natural of\der of (things, Manurewa was destined to become a garden suburb of Auckland, but it could never fulfil that mission under the system of rating on unimproved values. Such a mejthod of taxation, he said, led to people building as many houses as possible on the available land, and penalised the man who desired to have sufficient land to make his surroundings beautiful. The speaker said the movement to introduce rating on unimproved values was part and parcel of the campaign of the single tax movement, which emanated from America. If the sin. gle land tax system were adopted! in New Zealand it would mean a tax of about 12 per cen,t. on the value of the lands of the Dominion. The effect of rating on unimproved values had invariably resulted in congestion of residences, high renjts, and the elimination of gardens and ‘ beauty spots, which had been sacrificed to provide for (the erection of as many houses as possible on 'the smallest possible areas. He quoted 1 figures to show |that districts which had adoped the new sysem had 'retrogressed in civic development. Districts which had adopted ,the system and progressed, he said, had done so as a result of circumstances not connected with rating matters. A resolution proposed by Mr F. Burbush was carried unanimously, to the effect that the meeting was of opinion that rating on unimproved land values was neither opportune nor desirable in the district, and that; those present pledged themselves to vote against {the proposal/ on Satuiday.