Patea Borough Rating.

Patea Mail, 31 March 1882, Page 3

Patea Borough Rating.

The Borough Revision Court for revising the Valuation Roll concluded its sitting yesterday; Mr G. S. Bridge being Judge. There were over 800 objections, -nearly all' being -made-by a> ■Cbinniittee- of the Borough- Gonricif appointed to revise the Roll. Strange to say, only a few of these objections were put before the Court in a form which the Judge could entertain. There appears to have been a misunderstanding by the Committee as to putting evidence before the Court -in support of their objections. The Roll had been made up by the late Town : Clerkj who was appointed valuer at a special fee. His Roll was revised by a committee, who objected to about two-thirds 60the. values as being fob low; and they instructed the new Borough Clerk to appear in Court and support the objections. Mr Eyton, Clerk to the Council, appeared accordingly. . ■

The Judge called attention to the Roll as being improperly made; the particulars of ownership 'and of leases not being entered in many cases as . re- ‘ quired by-the ‘ Act. He had power to throw putTbe .Roll .oh .that ground, but would’permit it to be-amended. The omissions will be amended-by permission. : 1 1 The Jlidge asked which objections the Clerk was prepared to support on path ; .for- is the JBcrongb , : CJqunciJ ~ Lad, put -down particular.values which they wished to have inserted-in the Roll, it would be' necessary to Support' those fresh values by evidence on oath, ; The Clerk said be could not give .sworn testimony in many of the cases • because he had not visited the properties for the purpose of valuation, and had not, been instructed to make ,a fresh value : of any ;of them.'. In fact no fresh valuer had been appointed. He could, however, give evidence’from personal' knowledge of about thirty properties. . ,He handed in a list of these, at the Judge’s request. ; The Judge .said that -as Mr Eyton could not give evidence'in - the other* Cases of ‘"objection 1 oh behalf of the Council,'those objections must be struck out. ...

: The list being thus, reduced from over 300 to about 30 = objections made on behalf of the Council, arid a few other objections made, by individuals, the work of revision was.,much-shortened, and was completed by noon yesterday. The Judge said the Committee of the Borough Council ought riot to have put a long list of objections before"that Canrt, unless the Committee were prepared'Oto sripport TKenf with* sachljvi-

deuce as the Court could receive. They had seriously failed in their duty. Any person coming before this Court to give evidence ais to values must be prepared to testify on oath from personal knowledge. That was the only kind of oral evidence .admissible.

The Clerk gave evidence to support those objections of which he could speak from personal knowledge.

The Mayor was confined at home with'illness until the revision was nearly finished, and appears not to have been aware that it was going on until he came to town yesterday. ; Mr Harris, the valuer, called Mr iDale in some cases to sustain the valuations? in the ; Roll; and several owners also appeared in opposition to increases. Mr Eyton, in one case, proposed to call Mr Dale (he being in Court) as to the value of a property, in support of the increased value put on it by the Committee. Mr Dale asked if the Council would pay his expenses as a witness. Mr Eyton had no instruction to call a witness who wanted expenses paid, and ho decided-not to do so.

The result of the revision was that eight valuations were increased, and eight additional entries wei’e made, these having been omitted from the Roll. The total increase in the borough valuation is ; £379; the items ; being as follow;

INCREASED VALUATIONS. Barker, C. F., block 44, ;scp,:23 £lO to £SO Cottrell (Clothing Factory ........J...20 to 35 Dalej' W., jun., auction premises 20 to 85 Guy, Mary, snb. 86, 5.17 , 2 to. 15 , HowitTjAV., blk. 40, s. 6, 28 to 84 Mahony, P., blk. 36, s. I ,45 to 50 Bank Australasia 17 to 37-^ Skelley, section hear Arthiu-’s .14 to .26 ADDITIONS TO ROLL. Barker, G. F., blk 45 £ll 40 Collins 1 , J., ; suburban, blk 73... , 23 0 Cowern, W., suburban, blk 34 35 0 Harbor Board wharf sections... 106 0 County. Council, blk 42, s. 1... . 18 0 Jones, blk 40, sec I 25 0 Keys, blk 45 10 0 Lnxford, Wesleyan parsonage 24 0