THE PROPERTY TAX.

Patea Mail, 17 May 1881, Page 3

THE PROPERTY TAX.

Sir, —Mr Ballance in his address last Wednesday, claimed that the Land Tax at Id in the & would have brought in nearly as much as the Property Tax did ; but in making this statement he neglected to inform his audience that the two taxes were levied on different valuations. When the valuation was made for the former, landed property was of a higher value than it was in the following year ; and besides this it would almost seem that the assessors had been instructed, or had resolved to value property to the utmost penny that it could be supposed to fetch, for every assessment under the Land Tax Act that has been brought under my notice is excessively high, considerably higher than valuations that were made at the same time for local rating purposes. When the valuation was made for the Property Tax the depression had set in, it is true, but the assessors seemed to have taken a more reasonable view of what should be fixed as the standard of value for taxing purposes for the assessment (taking into account improvements being included in the valuation) was at least 30 per cent, lower than that for the land tax, and was not far off the local assessment. Mr Ballance afterwards, in the same speech, seems to admit that the Land Tax assessment was not a good one, for he says, referring to local bodies taking the Government valuation, that “ the local bodies were better able to value than the Government.” I would ask him to compare the Land Tax valuation with the local valuation made the same year. The statement that the Land Tax at Id would have realised as much as the Property Tax is a favourite one with Mr Ballance when on the platform ; but I think I have explained the reason of the difference. Civis. Waverley, May 14th.