THE VALUATION OF THE CITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4294, 24 December 1874, Page 2

THE VALUATION OF THE CITY.

Sir, —I hope the City Corporation before assenting to the reductions that have been suggested by the Councillors, to whom the consideration of the various appeals against the present valuation of the city has . been referred, will require some tangible reasons for doing so. I have looked through the list and must confess that I am quite at a loss to guess what possible principle could have directed them to the result of their labors, it is so surprisingly contradictory. I cannot, of course, in the short limit that that is permitted cuter into full details, but I will enumerate a few of the most prominent oases that have struck me, premising that’the whole of them are subject to the same objectionable characteristics. It would be, perhaps, considered invidious to name the appellants, I shall therefore restrict myself to stating the locality. I should like to know why a property in Taranaki-street that is let for 20s. per week should be reduced from £4O, at which the valuator assessed it, to £3O ? Why sir cottages in the same locality, all let to good tenants at 14a. per week, equal to £2lB per annum, should be lowered from £l6B to £120? Why houses in Ghuzuce-street and Courtenay Place, let at 14s. and 13s. per week, equal to £35 per annum, should be reduced from £23 to £2O? Houses in Cuba-street, paying 12s. and 15s. per week rent, lowered from £25 to £2O? Four houses in Webb-strcet, at a rental of .£lO3 16s per annum, reduced from £9l to £80? Houses in Frederick-strect, let at a weekly rental equal to £l4O and £125 per annum, reduced frora£lo9 to £80? A. gentleman’s residence, nearly new, and standing in a large, plot of ornamental ground, lowered from £IOO to £7O ; last year’s rating having been £BO ? Why extensive premises occupying a valuable business sites in Cuba-street, with frontages, to two streets of 90ft. each and worth, at a moderate estimate, £3OOO, which at 8 per cent, would give £240, should bo lowered from £225 to £180? Why acres of land in the most rising and valuable part of the city, worth now for building sites at least £SOO per acre, should bo reduced from £2O to £ls; although the Act says expressly that occupied or improved land shall bo rated at not less than 5 per cent, on their value ; and a valuator would bo Justified in rating them at 8 per cent. : or, as money is daily becoming more valuable, at 9 or even 10 per cent. There are abundancejof similarly anomalous cases, also many cases where under exactly similar conditions the appeals have been passed over. I would, therefore, particularly urge the injustice that would be done if these reductions were assented to. Not only to those who have appealed without effect, but to the more numerous class of ratepayers who, seeing no objection to the rating/ 1 so long as the money was properly expended,” have not appealed. The whole valuation of the city has been made on the basis of the present value of land, and Urn present ruling scale fo rents, but in no case is it made up to the actual rental, although there is nothing in the Corporation. Act against doing so, the clause in the Act specifyingthat the valuator shall assess the property at what it would let for from year to year. Apologising for taking up so much of your valuable space.—l am, &c.,. Valuator.