The Times Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1922. QUESTION OF RE-VALUING.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 779, 27 October 1922, Page 4

The Times Published on Tuesday and Friday Afternoons.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1922. QUESTION OF RE-VALUING.

AN interesting instance oi' how Ihe affairs of the country, are run by the permanent heads of Departments, and what very small men Ministers of the Grown really are, has been shown in the question of revaluing over-assess-ed districts, which has been before the House of Representatives on two or three occasions recently. Some ten days ago the Prime Minister, in response to a question from a Nelson member asking if arrangements could not l.x' made for n valuin- districts that were lon highly valued, said he was in sympathy wit! the ......

and would, before, the end of the session, ask the House to pass an Act enabling it to be done No one is more completely cognisant than Air Massey of the way in which Ihe Valuation Department Inis abused its powers by inflating the unimproved valuation of rural lands, and with the absolute failure of the Assessment Court as a judicial hotly, and there is no doubt that so far as lie was concerned lie was prepared to initiate Ibis tardy concession to LI 1 e demands of justice. Unfortunately Air Alasscy spoke before lie had obtained permission from the powers that he. Last Friday, when Air Hanan, of Invercargill, brought this mailer up again lie found the Prime Alinister in a much more chastened mood. He had. lie said, seen the Valuer-General, who had said, in effect, that it would not he done. The latest phase in the mailer is llial a clause has been inserted in the Finance Bill permitting the Val-uer-General to alter any valuation at any time, If, in his opinion, Hie alteration is rendered necessary or desirable by reason of particular circumstances affecting llie valuation. Franklin County was re-valued at Lite time when the. boom in produce readied its highest peitk. Unimproved values were in many cases doubled, or put, even higher. Before tiie Assessment Court sat the slump had set in, fyut very little relief was given to objectors. Now, those who feel themselves aggrieved —and they probably include all the farmers in the County—will have the chance to ask Air Flanagan lo reduce their'valutions. But as Mr Flanagan publicly slated in Pukekohe that the unimproved values in Franklin County were put far 100 low, people may perhaps feel a delicacy in approaching hinu

“We nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”