RATES ON RAILWAY LANDS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9399, 20 March 1909, Page 8

RATES ON RAILWAY LANDS.

Per Press Association. Wellington, March 19. The losses to local bodies through the Manawatu Railway Company selling out to the Government was the subject of a deputation to the Hon. J. A. Millar, Minister of Railways, this afternoon. The Horowhenna, Hntt and Makara County Councils and the Levin Borough Council and the Otabi Road Board were represented. Mr Field, M.P., said that the Government of the day which gave a vast area of land to the Company, did nob protect the local bodies in respect to roads. The Company therefore cat up its lands without providing roads. The Manawatu Company had paid rates, but nothing like the amount which should have been obtained. Mr Millar said he was not aware of any promise of a “tapering off” policy. He would be candid. The Government would not pay local rates. Regarding the question of special rates, there was some force in the deputation’s contention. He was not sure as the Act stood whether Government might not be forced to pay any special rate payable by the Company prior to the purchase. He was securing the Crown law officers’ view on this point. If advice was to that effect the Government had no desire to get out of any legal liability. In all probability the Government would pay any special rate which the Company had paid. It was true bodies had lost their thirds, but he questioned whether these were as valuable as the increased revenue resulting from the railway causing enhanced value of land.