RATING ON THE UNIMPROVED VALUE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3748, 7 February 1907, Page 2

RATING ON THE UNIMPROVED VALUE.

Mr A. W. Hogg, M.H R., writing to the Wanganui Herald on the Unimproved Values says : “Sir, —I remember three years ago that I was invited to visit Wanganui to speak on the question of Rating on Unimproved Value. The proposal on that occasion was lost by a few votes. It is with no small pleasure that I observe the agitation for this important reform has been resumed, and I trust on this occasion the party of progress will be successful. Some years ago, in company with Mr P. J, O’Regan, I took an active partin a series of meetings that were held in the suburban boroughs around the City tfrWellington, ancU in spite of

lost determined opposition, one municipality after another resolved’ to try the new system of rating. Finally, in the face of predictions )l loss and ruin, the citizens of Wellington affirmed the principle ; ind, mark the result! —no boom, out a steady increase in land values, whole streets being gradually widened and rebuilt, the occupation of waste hills with handsome villas, the removal of slums and shanties, and the substitution of buildings that may well be termed not only substantial but palatial. Every time I visit Wanganui I am impressed with its splendid possibilities, and now that the completion of the Northern Trunk Railway promises to give it a powerful impetus, I trust you will remove from the enterprising builder a stupid, antiquated, unjust and impolitic system of taxation. Why should a landowner be punished for beautifying and spending money on his homestead ? Does not the retention of a tax on improvement offer a direct inducement to owners ot valuable frontage to retain and knock all the profit or rent they can out of their old rookeries. Within a few years since Rating on Unimproved Values was adopted in Masterton the town and its surroundings have undergone quite a transformation. In the main through fare lofty buildings of brick and cement are taking the place of wooden hovels and empty paddocks. Old residents revisiting the town after an absence of a few years are delighted, and profess that they hardly know it. In five or six years the value of town and suburban land has been doubled, trebled, and in some cases simply multiplied. It may be urged that other causes than the improvement of local taxation has produced these evidences of prosperity, but the fact that during the last census period our population has increased by nearly 50 per cent conclusively proves that Rating on Unimproved Value, so far from driving the peopl»-and their money away, has been a veritable godsend ’ ’