THE VALUATION ROLL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 365, 31 May 1911, Page 5

THE VALUATION ROLL.

RATING WAITOMO COUNTY. HOW THE WORK IS BEING DONE At a recent meeting of Waitomo County Council, the Chairman, Cr A. Scholes, with Cr Hoffman and the County Clerk, Mr P. Mora, were appointed to act as a Committee to visit the Valuation Department in Auckland and see to the placing on the ratepayers' roll of all eligible persons owning or occupying land in Waitomo County. To this end, a visit was paid this week, and on the return of the members of the Committee a "Chronicle" representative took the opportunity of interviewing the Chairman and Cr Hoffman on the results of their trip. It appears that they took with them a list of those settlers not on the Valuation roll which should have been on last year, and of lands take up by European settlers. They received every assistance and encouragement from the Valuation Department, but the work turns out to be far more formidable than was at first thought. Speaking to Mr Bowler, Mr Scholes was informed that there was work enough for a man in getting the roll of the County into order for a couple of months, and it would be necessary to increase the staff in the Valuation Department. Mr Scholes said they would be quite agreeable to serding a man down if it would be of any assistance, and Mr Bowler fell in with the idea, and it was arranged that Mr Mora, the County Clerk should go again next week. Mr Bowler showed the Chairman a huge stack of leases of which the owners were rateable under the new Act of last year, and the Clerk would go over these and the Valuation Department would put the owners on the roll. Settlement has been going on very rapidly in Waitomo County recently, and most of the land is now in the hands of European lessees or owners. In fact, as Mr Bowler pointed out, there is very little Native land left untaken up. As an indication of the importance of the work being dons, it might be mentioned that in Te Rau-a-Moa Riding alone the County has been losing £2OO a year in rates in the past, and in the Otorohanea Riding an even larger sum. Indeed, it is calculated that once the roll has been brougt up to date, the cost of running the County will be paid for out of the extra revenue from the rates. The Valuation Department offered every help in compiling the roll, and the officers showed an anxiety to assist the committee in every possible way.