CORRESPONDENCE

Kumara Times, Issue 2030, 2 March 1883, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE

The Editor does not, necessarily, adopt the opinions expressed by correspondents. BOROUGH VALUATION ROLL AND RATES. [to the editor.] Sir —ln your issue of this evening you mention for the information of the ratepayers that the Governor of the colony, by and with the advice of his Executive Council, has extended the times for doing certain things in connection with the Valuation Roll of the Borough of Kumara, and doth declare that the time for transmitting the Valuation List to the Borough Council of Kumara shall be extended to the 23rd of February, 1883 ; and that the list will be open for inspection and objections received until the 22nd March, 1883. Why, then, have our Borough Councillors been so neglectful of their duties, after applying for an extension of time, &c, as to make the above concession valueless 1 I understand that at the present time the Valuation Roll should be complete, and open for inspection at the Council Chambers; yet we know such is not the fact, as the Valuator was only appointed on the night of the 22nd, and it was a moral impossibility to complete the roll by the 23rd, so as to have it for inspection on that date. Under the new Rating Act, if adopted by the Council, the valuer might have been able to have got his list made out and notices posted ; but as no one in Kumara has received the notice according to the Act of 1882,1 assume that for the year 1883 the residents of Kumara will be exempt from the payment of rates, consequent on the inability of the Borough Council to levy one. For the information of those unacquainted with the Act of 1882, if a valuation is to be made under it, the valuer must, on or before the Ist of March, 1883, give notice of the rateable value determined by him to each owner or occupier, by posting the same to their last-known place of abode. Now, sir, with the Gazette notice extending the time for transmitting the Valuation Roll to the Borough Council to the 23rd of February, and the fact that at the present time the roll is not made out, I think I am correct when I assert that no rates for the year 1883 can be struck.—l am, &c, R. Toms. Kumara, March 1, 1883.