VALUES IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 191, 14 July 1916, Page 1

VALUES IN NEED OF IMPROVEMENT.

(Contributed). ✓ In the long past, when blood was all one colour and the long arm and strong arm defended the common weal from the marauder, all shared alike. As time went on strength, greed and ambition, claiming authority for their own, took toll from the weaker, and the common weal existed in name only. At a later stage, when a medium of exchange made it possible to extract what we designate money, the term tax came into use, and with it came all the abuses that our nation has struggled under for centuries. When a mau had been taxed on all his worldly possessions, and it

teemed that tho limit had been reached, the very daylight was turned from a blessing to a curso. For, did a man aspire to chop a 1 u !o hole in his wall to let in daylight be was subject to a window tax. Might was lijjhr, and some blood grow paler from lack of proper nourishment. Una thing happily was nourished, viz , the desire to get away from it all. When opportunity arose our forefathers, braving unknown dangerp, tied their few remaining chattels in red pocket handkerchiefs (probably taxed) and set sail in the clumsy but sturdy old vessels which were to be their home for months. The voyage was so

monotonous that whtn the skipper ran his bluff bows on to the beach, as it were, and called '' All ashore for New Zealand," Lis passengers were as pleased to leave him as they were to leave the taxes at the other end of the world.

The joy of it! To stand on land once more and land where a tax was almost unknown; where tho land, water and daylight were free to their use any way. But civilisation, like a snowball, picks up the dross as well as the pure, and we again reach the stage of having very little which is not subject to a tax. However, given that taxes are necessary for the common weal, then to be logical they should be levied in a uniform manner, and a chance to do so is given by their being "ad valorem."

Take the land tax " ad valorem !" Think of it you land owners and how the value of that land is arrived at. Is there any uniformity in a land tax ? Is there any school for land valuers ? Is there any conformity of ideas between valuers in adjoining districts? Think of it! The basis of our greatest potential revenue producer, "land value," is left in the hands of untutored, undisciplined and sometimes unprincipled men. Of what qualifications can many boast, aud what check is kept on them to maintain uniformity throughout the Dominion ? Is there a trained inspector to go round and see their work is up to standard 't

A schoolmaster who has to conform to a set syllabus has an Inspector to see he does it. A railway guard is under the eye of an inspector lest he lose or filch a paltry sum or make a trilling mistake. But the Assessment Court is the only make-believe inspection that our land valuer receives, and then he takes a hand-in it himself.

The few vagaries which come to light at the court are only samples of hundreds of glaring cases of incompetency.

We bavo men valuing our lands, who, apart from genuine incompetence, have the effrontery t*> take to themselves the .powers of clairvoyance and pretend to value land they never set foot upon, sometimes have never seen.

How caii a il;iu value laud when lie doesn't; know the boundaries or arrive at the uniuipruved value when be dues not ascertain the amount of the improvements thereon ? It is pure and simple balderdash and an iusult to our laud owners' intelligence. Let us insist

Ist. That valuers must qualify at smie "school of values" before taking office.

2nd. That Inspectors shall qualify and oversee tbe work to ensure uniformity. 3rd. That the owner must be present at the valuation or be satisfied that the valuer has been over all the land.

Think of it, that a man's financial position, ability to borrow, or chance of selling, may be prejudiced and affected by the whim of an incompetent, styling himself a Government valuer. Think of it, and go on thinking of it, you have all met him in your time. We are not the Medes nor the Persians so there is no need for our customs to remain inefficient.