BREAKING IN LAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20108, 30 November 1939, Page 4

BREAKING IN LAND

EFFECT ON VALUATIONS DEPARTMENT’S METHODS QUESTIONED BY COURT Further interesting evidence detail- , dng methods by which land valuers work was given at a sitting of the Assessment Court in Palmerston North inquiring into objections to Government revaluations in the Manawatu County. Two valuers called by the department stated that they did not allow as improvements initial cultivation and cropping prior to the establishment of virgin land in pasture, because the owner derived benefit from the crop, which recouped him for the expenditure. If a farmer spent £5 an acre breaking in land to pasture, and in the process got back £2 an acre from the crop sown, then the real cost of breaking in the .ground could only be regarded as the difference of £3 an acre. The chairman, Mr. A. A. McLachlan, * of Christchurch, questioned whether such a practice was a correct one. He contended that what was done in the original cultivation had an unexhausted value for all time. For inStante, in the particular case before the court the owner used large quantities of lime, and although he got back something in the first crop the lime was Still having its beneficial effect and so should be allowed as an improvement.

Counsel for the objecting ratepayer stated that it was just as necessary for his client to use lime in the initial process as it was for him to fall scrub. The chairman: If a farmer benefits in the initial crop, then it should be regarded as a windfall.