The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1918 A RE-ASSESSMENT ANOMALY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 363, 26 March 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1918 A RE-ASSESSMENT ANOMALY.

"We nothing extenuate, nor let down auaht in malice."

Departmental methods are invariably of a red-tape order and frequently even surprising and in the latter class the revised valuation, recently completed, of a portion only of the Drury riding of Franklin County must be included. It has in the past been with good reason demonstrated that the system of re-valuing the County by degrees has led to unfair distribution of rating for the effect naturally has been that the riding or ridings in which new assessments of property have been made have to find a larger proportion of rates than they would otherwise do if the rates were levied on new assessments right throughout the County. In order words the ridings with revised assessments bear a share of the rates that should be contributed by the other ridings. This inequality of rating exists at the present time seeing that the assessments now in force were made as follows : Awhitu Riding in 1914, Drury Riding in 1912 to 1913, Hunua Riding in 1913, Mauku Riding in 1917, Mercer Riding in 1913, Pukekohe Riding in 1917, Waipipi Riding in 1914, Waiuku Riding in 1917. In pursuance of gradual revision of the assessments of all the ridings the Valuation Department have just finished tackling that portion of the Drury riding embraced in the old Drury Road Board district and on these new valuations the County rate for l ( il7-l* will be struck. Inasmuch as the Drury riding is composed of the area of three defunct Road Boards, viz., Drury, Opaheke and Paparata, the position becomes even worse than in the inequalities produced by ridings being re-assessed at various stages for as things stand now part of a riding will pay on a higher valuation than will the other two portions. In short, the ratepayers of the old Drury Road Board district will be paying a bigger share of the County's levy than last year whilst the ratepayers of the late Opaheke and Paparata Road districts will be correspondingly and proportionately relieved of their respective totals

of contributions. Of the £2053 levied for County purposes last year the allocations were Drury Road District £9Ol, Opaheke Road District £6ll and Paparata Road District £541. With the Drury Road District's assessments now raised from £173,128 to (approximately) £280,905 and assuming the County levy a rate to bring in £2128 (practically the same amount as last year), which can now be secured by reducing the rate from lX d to Id, the contributions will be on the following basis, viz: Drury £1,207, Opaheke £4BBand Paparata £433. The Hospital and Charitable Aid levy, which last year was £273 for the Drury riding, will also be similarly affected. Thus it becomes apparent that the existing system of rating constitutes an anomaly but the fault rests with the Valuation Department and not with the County Council for the latter are compelled to act on the valuations as scheduled by the Department. The obvious course that should be pursued by the Valuation Department is to arrange things so that, even if it is impossible to make a revision of the assessments of all the ridings by any given fixed period, provision at least should be made that any one riding should be dealt with as a whole and not in piecemeal fashion. The fact that re-assessments " by degrees '' have been acted on in the past does not affect the question for it is apparent that as valuations mount up the ratio of increases and the inequalities become greater.