UNIMPROVED VALUES.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 156, 28 October 1926, Page 1

UNIMPROVED VALUES.

POPULAR RATING SYSTEM. In Centres of Population. The 1926 Local Authorities Handbook contains some interesting particulars regarding the operation of the principle of assessing rates first made possible by The Rating on Unimproved Value Act 1896, now incorporated in the Rating Act 1925. “ It is entirely at the option of the bodies to adopt the system, and provision is made for a return to the old system of rating if desired, after three .years’ experience of the new one. The Act provides that a proportion of the ratepayers on the roll, varying from 25 per cent where the total number does not exceed 100 to 15 per cent where the number exceeds 300, may, by demand in writing delivered to the mayor or chairman of the district, require that a proposal to rate property on the basis >f the unimproved value may be submitted to the ratepayers, whose vote shall be taken between twenty-one and twenty-eight days after delivery ,f the demand. The poll is to be taken in the same manner as' in the case of a proposal to ra.ise a loan in the district under the Local Bodies Loans Act, 1913. Under the original Act, it was necessary for a minimum number of one-third of the ratepayers to vote, and a majority of their votes carried the proposal. Now the question of adoption or otherwise is decided by a h ::re majority., of the valid votes recorded, irrespective of the number of ratepayers who have voted. A rescinding proposal may be carried at . a poll, by the same means as one for adoption, but not until after three years have elapsed, and, vice versa, rejection of a proposal bars its being again brought forward for a similar period. It should be remembered that some local authorities adopt rating on unimproved values automatically. For example, a town district, borough, or new county, formed from part of a county which itself rates on unimproved values, automatically rates on the system in force in the original county; similarly two boroughs amalgamating adopt the system in force in the district with the greater population, unless their councils agree to the contrary. The Local Authorities Handbook states:— “ Rating on unimproved value is exceedingly more popular in boroughs than in any other class of local district, and on a population basis over 65 per cent of town dwellers are rated on the unimproved value of property. Taking the population of all districts rating on the unimproved value as a percentage of the total population of the Dominion, it is found that 54 per cent of the people of the Dominion are rated on unimproved values. A study of the Local Authorities Handbook reveals that, of the principal cities, Auckland and Dunedir have rating on the annual values, anc Wellington, Wanganui and Christchurch on unimproved values. Seve ral of the Auckland suburban bor oughs moreover rate on unimprovec values, namely, the North Shore bor oughs (except Takapuna, which rate: on capital value, Onehunga, Avon dale and Otahuhu. Mt. Albert, lilc. Takapuna, rates on capital value. The Matamata Chamber of Com merce is asking the Hon. G. M f'owlds to give a lecture at Motamat; on the system.