The Oamaru Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1296, 2 June 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1880.

Tlfg. Jon?* Church, who, thanks to the Government, has by some means been appointed an assessor tinder the Property Tax Act, objects in this morning's North Otago Times to an article on that Act which appeared in onr la3t evening's i«nng Mr. Ch arch ha 3 surely not much to qualify him for his new position. It cannot be aaid that he i 3 possessed of that £aeretion which one would expect to find in a man of apparently so mnch intelligence and of such hoary hairs. He should not have roshed into such a forlorn hope as a defence of a law before he had mastered its principles. He says that he cannot comprehend our " false statements." He does appear to be gifted with a facility for comprehending anything. He confesses he ha 3 " perused and repenised the Act," and yet he does not appear to be able to understand the most obvious of its principles. Let him. try again. Who know 3 bnfc that light might at the eleventh hoar be shed upon pages that are to him as yet so mysterious. But it is a pity for Mr. Church that be has made such an nnfortunate admission. It is a still greater pity that he has challenged as to prove assertions based upon the Indisputable logic of facts and common He contends that we were in error in stating that everything a man possesses must be set down at its value at auction in an inventory, fnil that " a rough estimate of the value of a stock is not sufficient for the Erposes of assessment. No, there must a complete inventory, to obtain which a tradesman must take stock." We shall ferae but little difficulty in proving to die satisfaction of the public that our assessor Is at sea. Clause 32 of the Property Assessment Act provides +W«* every person owning property, vfcetber entitled to exemp-ion or not, when required to do so, prepare and deliver statements in writing to the , assessor or other person authorised to re- < ceive the same :—" (1) Of the description, • tiiuation, and value of the real and per- 1 aonal property belonging to such person i ct every kind, and'(2) of all mortgages. 1 anenmbrances, and charges secured thereon ' respectively, and of all debts owing by Meh person, on which he claims a deduc- 1 tioo. This ia surely so plain that" a way- ( ftwig man, though a fool, cannot err therein." Mr. Crombie, the official who has, ander the authority of the Govern- j jnent, published a pamphlet explaining t the Act, gives the public the only inter- f Etation that can be put upon this clause, c says that a picture must be t switH at what it might be ex- • peeted to realise if sold by auction. c Again, he say# that in assessing the value T -c. of a larrjf. estate (or any other estate, we J' presume, is mean?) the assessor will con- A aider whether it would so!I as a whole * Of cat up, and fix its value accordingly, j Jlow is property, personal or real, to be valoed, if an inventory, which, we would B , Inform Mr. Church, is a synonymous term Si far "statement," the word used in the Act, s< j* not to be taken of it? The assessor is I to leave the onns of valuation to the t owner. "Neither the Act nor the y regulations give an assessor power" to assess property, says Mr. Crombie. But we are also aathoritatively informed that "if ® • a man's return should appear to a Deputy Commissioner to be incorrect, he may j * f "" ilemand a fuller return, and, if still un- M ' * ' •atiafied, he may object to it. In such a c , ' case, the objection would go before a c Board oi Beviewers, who hare power to it

summon witnesses and call for books and papers." Now, would Mr. Church kindly inform the public what other construction he would put upon these provisions other than that which we, and indeed nine-tenths of the Press of the Colony, have put upon them. Let the public not be misled by Mr. Church. How are assessors, Deputy-Commissioners, or Boards of Reviewers, to arrive at a conclusion that persons liable to the tax have falsified, unless they have such a statement as that stipulated by the Act before them ? But not only has a property owner to send in a statement of his property, but he has to make a declaration that his statement is correct, and if it is found, after investigation, not to be so, he is liable to a penalty of three times the - amount of the tax due, and to be fined any amount from Lsup to LIOO. The fact is, the Ministry took a leap in the dark. They had no idea that they would raise up such a nest of hornets ; and now they wish to make the people of the Colony believe that black is white. Mr. Chnrch may attempt to disguise the bitterness of the pill they have prepared by enveloping it in a coating of sugar, but that coating must of necessity be so thin that the bitter principle will penetrate it. "We " can easily excuse the general public for being under misapprehension as to the provisions of the Act, misled as they have been by" persons of the Church type " for political purposes." How a man professing to be capable of acting as an assessor can so utterly misapprehend the first principles of an Act of which he has been appointed one of the administrators, is a mystery. We can only conclude that he is either grossly ignorant, or that he is blinded by "political maliginity." Mr. Church is a strong opponent of what is termed the Liberal interest. If Mr. Church is a fair specimen of the genus property tax assessor, we are more than ever convinced that the tax will never be collected.