The Property-Tax.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1586, 19 December 1885, Page 4

The Property-Tax.

I am told that a vory important point has ariseu undei* tho property lax of last year, which may turnout to have very grave conseqnences. Lf tlie contention raised against the {laymeut of the tax m this particular instance is well founded, there will be a serious difficulty m collecting the property-«tax this year. The 'acts aio the following : — The facrs are the following: — The notices is* sued by the I roperty-iax Commissioner are all under the old assessment, bux, the Property -tax Act of 1885 provides that the tax shall be payable under the Ace of 1885. No assessment has been made during the present year, therefore it Is contended the objectors are not bound to pay. A second objection made is that the assessment I under the property-tax Assessment Aol is to be made every third year,, but the present is not a " third year, 1 ' and therefore no assessment could be made, and consequently the whole of the legislation under the above-named Acts v inoperative for the present year. My informant is a. member of the House of Representatives, who: holds several trust estates, and therefore largely interested m the issue raisd. Since receiving tho above infor matiotu I had a conversation with an eminent legal praotitiouer here, would could scarcely believe that such a "hitch "had arisen unnoticed. The Property Assessment Act provides lot* the repeal of all Acts, aud jsures the validity of all that has been previously done " tor ih© <ollection of moneys hereinafter to be made for the purposes of the Act." To this answer is made that the clause m the " Property-tax Act, 1885,"is explicit, and that the saving clause of the Property Assessment Act applies simply to the mode of making the assessment. The former Act, it is contended, sweeps away the tax itself until the assessment under that Act shall have been made. I am assured that the<e obj«stions which I have mentioned are not fanciful ; that they are made bonajide, wilh*the view of testing the liability of propertyowners. — Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald.