The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1922. EXCESSIVE VALUATIONS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 775, 13 October 1922, Page 6

The Times. Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1922. EXCESSIVE VALUATIONS.

THE question of the excessive valuations under which most of the rural land in this country is labouring was brought up in the House of Representatives on Friday by Mr G. Forbes, the member for Hurunui. He thought that arrangements ought to be made for the reduction by a certain percentage of all the values in any county when it was established that the present valuations were unjustifiably high in view of the ruling prices of produce. v In his reply the Prime Minister admitted that in some districts valuations were unfairly high, owing to having been made when produce was bringing high prices. He had conferred with the Valuer-General with a view ? to having something done for such districts. Legislation would probably be necessary, and he might have to ask the House to pass a short Bill to give effect to the proposal. This is a step in the right .direction, provided the settlement of the question as to what districts are or are not over-valued is not left to the Valuation Department. Every land-ownv er in Franklin .County knows that the unimproved value of his land is put far too high. In many cases it is put at double the figure at which it stood in 1918, when prices for produce were at top rates. All attempts at making a fair assessment were thrown to the winds in making this last valuation, particularly in guessing at the unimproved value. And yet on his recent visit to Pukekohe the Valuer-General made the astonishing statement that the unimproved values in Franklin County were put far too low. It would be interesting to know upon what information he based so wild a statement, and it will be equally interesting to know whether the Governmen proposes to allow the Valuation Department to have any say in deciding the question whether a district is undervalued or over-valued. The whole value of the proposed legislation will depend upon the single factor —who is to judge.

"We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice."