DISPUTE UPHELD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20071, 18 October 1939, Page 8

DISPUTE UPHELD

■ LAND VALUATIONS WAIROA COUNCIL APPEAL STATE HOUSING ACTION ASSESSMENT COURT ACTS (Special to tlie Herald.) WAIROA, this day. The action of the Housing Department in taking advantage of section three of the Valuation of Land Act in valuing land on which State houses had been erected in Wairoa was the cause of a dispute in the Assessment Court which held a sitting in Wairoa yesterday. The dispute was based on the fact that sections occupied by State houses'had been revalued when compared with sections next to them and against tiiis the Wairoa Borough Council objected. The objection was upheld by the court. There were in all six sections involved in the dispute, the sections being situated in Queen street, Marine parade, Campbell street, and the intersection of Napier road and Black Street. The court was presided over by Mr.. A, A. McLachlan, and associated with him were Mr. _H. R. Bygum, assessor for the Wairoa Borough Council and Mr. H. P. Bunny, assessor for the Crown. Objections Cased on Principle Mr. C. V. Chamberlain, who appeared for the Borough Council, stated that the objections were made to a great degree on principle. The majority of the sections, he said, were sold by the Borough Council under the Rating Act and purchased by it. They were sold later to the Crown and were passed on at a price to cover the council for the rates owing on them, the reason for this being to assist the Housing Department and encourage the erection of houses, of which there was a big shortage in Wairoa at the time. Mr. Chamberlain added that in most, of these cases the unimproved value was much less than that of sections adjoining them, and the action of the department in valuing the sections lower would have the effect of altering the whole system of valuing blocks in the borough. Advantage, he said, had been taken by the department of the special section of the Act which enabled a revaluation. In his opinion this section should be eliminated altogether. The value of the sections, to his mind, should be the value of the sections for building purposes. There should be, he said, a uniform valuation for the whole blocks of land. He submitted that it was unfair for the Crown to secure a lower rating than that for property adjoining that owned by it. If this were carried to a large degree privately-owned houses would be penalised at the expense of State-owned houses. Mr. Chamberlain then went on to quote the valuations of the various properties under dispute, comparing them with the valuations of adjoining properties, showing that there had been considerable reductions in the valuations of properties taken over by the Housing Department for the erection of State houses. “No Reason for Depreciation” .Evidence on behalf of the Borough Council was given by J. B. Cook, a land valuer, who stated that he knew of no reason why the properties in dispute should have depreciated in value. For the Valuation Department, Mr. H. P. Hamilton stated that he agreed with Mr. Chamberlain that section three of the Valuation of Land Act should be out altogether, but he stated that every vacant section in Wairoa had come down in value since 1934. After a short adjournment the court stated that while appreciating the difficulties experienced by Mr. Hamilton, it did not consider that the valuation of the properties under dispute should be very different from that of the adjoining properties. It therefore had decided that the whole of the valuations should be re-established.