The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 29 October 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1880.

The 25th. inst. was tlie date fixed as the limit of the period during which Property Tax forms were to be forwarded "to the Commissioners. Those who have not yet coraplied "with the requirements of the Act, and the notification fixing the time at which forms were to be sent in duly filled up, would do well to attend to the matter without any further delay. There can be no doubt that the proceeds of the Tax will not come up to the Colonial Treasurer's estimate. His first computation was L 470.000, his next, after fixing the exemption at LSOO instead of L3OO, and relieving agricultural machinery " in actual use " and personal effects, was L 300,000. It is probable that, after making liberal deductions from his first estimate, the Colonial Trea- j surer also very considerably revised the j remainder. He was about the ouly man who believed that so large a sum could be realised by means of such a tax. He had based his calculation upon a delusive hope, and, doubtless, he is not now ignorant of that fact. Hie amount fjreatlv exceeded a prudent estimate. It was beyond the power of any man to even approximately compute the amount that would be realisable from such a source. Nothing could be more intricate. There was nothing definite upon which to base such a computation. It ' mHit be a very simple matter to assess | the value of veal property to within a 'few hundred thousands of the mark. I But assessments by the Colonial ! Treasurer and assessments by owners of property are two very different things. In the case of the first, a desire to squeeze as much as possible out of owners would be plainly perceptible—in the other there would be evidences that ample margins had been allowed to avoid the payment of the tax on amounts in excess of actual values. There could not be a better excuse for an under estimate than that which is afforded by the stipulation that owners of property are to be their own valuers, and that they are to be guided by the prices that their properties would probably realise at public auction. No one can arrive at a definite conclusion as to what his property would realise at auction. He may, guided by the dulness of trade, assess it according to his idea of what it would realise if submitted to the hammer ; and, although there might be but few who would agree with that estimate, who could charge him with not having acted conscientiously 1 He would be perfectly secure from "all the penalties that attach to misrepresentation. The same may be said of every description of property. An owner of property could only place himself under the lash of the law by omitting to send in his assessment papers as required by the Act, and not for having xmderestimated the value of his property, real or personal. If the Colonial Treasurer had insisted that assessments of real property were to be made by assessors appointed by the Government, or that the assessments of local bodies were to be accepted, an approximate estimate of the amount realisable from the Tax would have been possible. But even then, as l'egards personal effects and stocks-in-trade, the valuations of the owners would have to be accepted. Nobody else could possibly arrive at anything like a correct estimate of their valups. The path of the Colonial Treasurer is beset with difficulty, and, should he, disappointed by results, severely enforce the penalties which the Act lays down with the utmost rigor, he would only be acting in a manner that would harmonise with a pareer that has been signalised by acts of unprecedented arbitrariness.. For this reason -yye would impress upon those who have not yet sent in their forms duly filled tip to lose no time in forwarding them to the Deputy-Com-missioner at Timara.