CITY RATES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4405, 3 May 1875, Page 3

CITY RATES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln last Friday's issue of the Tihes I read, in your report of the doings of the City Council, that the Clerk sought advice relative to the course he should pursue with defaulting ratepayers. X have had the pleasure of being summoned for rates during my short residence in this city, and although I have no wish to be so again, I venture to submit, through your columns, that in no other part of the British dominions would the same amount of impertinence be tolerated from creditors, as we have to put up with from the City Council, in regard to the coljecton of rates. No account is rendered, no money asked for, simply a harshly-worded notice, dated in pencil, is left at your house and you are required to pay, not to the person who brings the notice, but at the Town Clerk’s office. Mr. Hester once told me, when I complained of having to trot attendance on him, that the Act empowered them to sue if folks did not pay their rates at the office. If the Act empowers them to sue, surely there Us power ends and the summons served is similar to, those Issued by ordinary creditors, who cannot recover by summons unless an account has been rendered and the money asked for. It is enough to pay the rates, but to be compelled to dance attendance at an office a mile distant, during working hours, Is unreasonable. I no longer live within the city boundaries, if I did I should be Inclined to test the power of the Council to recover by summons without having once ‘ asked for the money. Where I do Uvo, the rate collector calls for the money.—l am, &c., . P. Q. Wellington, May 1.