SOLDIER SETTLERS’ RATES.

Shannon News, 23 December 1924, Page 4

SOLDIER SETTLERS’ RATES.

COUNTY/ COUNCIL LACKS POWER TO, REMIT. CHAiRN&N REPLIES TO DEPUTA- • TTON.

An answer to the .vexed question Of the basis on which returned soldier settlers should pay rates, whether on the original valuation, or urn recent revaluation, was, given at featuruay s. meeting uf me Horowtieniia county Council, when representatives <¥ the various Soldier setuementb waited on the Council tq put tueir case before members. 'The memoers oi; the deputation were Mr in, g. Hunter (Kiiku), Mr B. Everton (utourua), and Mr iPa/tton, representing outside, settlers, Mr G. D. nauniiun, president of the Levin' branch or me rt.E.A., also, attended'in support oi the deputation, vymen was lmruuucdtt ny Cr. c. 1. Harkness. ' ■ Mr Hamilton, in outlining tile case

for the deputation, said that ineir case might he put m a series of questions. possibly there was, a point ox law involved which would influence the Council’s decision. tjrieny the questions were as follow:

(1) Whether the. County Council Would take into, consideration the recent revaluation of soldier settlers’ sections, and /reduce rates accordmgiy. * (2) In tiie case of rates hnving been kept up, whether the Council would consider' ft refund or allowance, in accordance with the revaluation standard. . In connection with the rates, Mr Hamilton 'Stated; the settlers we.re in the peculiar position of having two valuations, one the purchase y&iue., and the other, the rateable, value. The former had been reduced, but latter remained the same. Personally he was. of opinion that now that the revaluations, had been made—in. most instances ,on a scale, which would allow. the settlers to make good—the settlers should go ahead and clear off the whole of the arrears, of .rent. He

recognised that without the rates the’ local goveriiment could not function. He did nOt kno.w the arrears of soldier settler rates throughout the County but if the Council could see its way clear to submit in the strictest confidence a list of these, to the R.S.A., he would bring the influence of the Association to bear in endeavouring to get a settlement made at the earliest 'possible moment. The question was; was it within the powers of -the Council y to give a remission of. rates, either in the case of the settler who had paid, or the one who had not? ' ORIGINAL VALUATION RIDICULOUS Mr Eyerton drew attention to.' the great reduction in the capital price made by the. recent revaluation, and supported Mr Hamilton’s claim to have this taken as a basis of assessment. - In liis own case, the purchase price ol his. farm had been £3985, Which had now been brought, down to £1635. The Government valuation of the land lor rating purposes fhaci been fixed at £1568 in lyai, this Having since been raised to £2078. ’ The' point ,he wished to make was that the original value had been ridiculously high. The chairman (Cr. G. A. Monk) asked how the valuation had happened to’" go up. There had not been a Government valuation since 1921. Mr Evefton said ti'e did not know why it should have gone up. All he knew was that he. liaa met the valuer on the road one day, and had answered some questions put to hi in, .with the result that the addition nail been made «jto the valuation. The valuer had nqit even seen /the. place.’ The chairman: That’s a strange thing. We have had nd revaluation.

Mr. Hunter said tnat at a meeting of soldier settlers recently held at Kuku, the. question ol rates had been gone into, when it had been found that, based on the revaluation, the soldiers '.settlers weto rated considerably higher per £ of value, than were the remainder oi the ratepayers of the riding. Mr Patton spoke on the same lines as the previous speakers. ' THE CHAIRMAN REPLIES.

The chairman, in reply, stated that he could answer the three questions put to him -by answering the first of them. The. County Council was. bound by Act of Parliament, tq rate on tne valuation as it appeared qn thq valuation roll. The law was definite on this point and stated that no alteration in the value of land during the year, shall make any difference tothe rating value. The. figures quoted by' Mr Everton were, certainly interesting. A reduction, in valuation from£39oo to £I6OO was a big thing. .11 the valuation for purchase—admittedly too (high—were taken, and thq Government valuation for rating purposes with it, it would be found that the settler had" been rated on about 50 per cent, of the price which he. had been willing to pay. for thq land. This did not seem unreasonable. Now, however, the Revaluation Commission toad gone through the district and had given very considerable reductions in capital value.. The Council had no quarrel with this and were glad to see that the settlers had now. got a valuation which would enable them to carry on successfully. Rut the Council had no latitude in regard to the rates—they had to rate on the value as it appeared on the valuation roll, v f The County Council had to: bear this in mind; Some soldier had kept their rates paid up and some" had not. In neither case toad the Council power tq remit, however much they might like. to. . These people had the sympathy of the Council, who had indoed done all ttoey could by deferring pressing for settlement of thq rates, until there was a danger of losing those longest outstanding.

EVERY’ CONSIDERATION SHOWN TO TRIERS. 4 Regarding arrears of. .rent, the Council was willing to help the settlers as much as possible. Notices had been sent out to all those in arrears, stating that they must pay ttoe rates. Many had made arrangements, Apr this, being done, and he wished to point out that where any ottc#

whatever was made, , the Council was willing to consider it. There were some who had come along and explained their position and stated that a for the time -being they were unable to pay. In these cases the Council had accepted. the statement and deferred payment. There were, however, a number of cases where men had simply ignored the notice, and this could not be tolerated for a moment. ' .

Mr Hamilton said-that as'he had stated earlier, the case appeared to a point of law. He undeirstood that in certain case's the County Council had power to remit rates. It was simply a question of whether this was a case" in point.

REMISSION IMPOSSIBLE. The chairman stated that the; only case in WUicto a County could remit rates, was wnere alter a certain period, it was decided to Wipe them out. Except, in such cases, once a rate was struck, it must be collected. The position now was tnat the Govern-' inent had agreed to jt>e responsible ior rates as from a certain period, provided,, the local body had first exnausted all means of getting them from trie soldier settler. Unless ttoey sued for the outstanding rates, they could not make a reasonable claim against the Department. Mr Hamilton stated that his Association was willing to assist in the getting members. Qf toe R.S.A. to’come to an arrangement about their out-' standing rates, provided the Council would supply the names .of the men concerned.

DRASTIC ACTION DEFERRED. said that he did not see. that' there would be any difficulty about doing this, and the Council would go so far as toi withhold drastic action to see what success attended the efforts of the Association. He would suggest tnat in the meantime the settlers, write to ttoe Valuation (Department, pointing out that the capital values of their properties had been reduced below the Government valuation for rating purposes, and asking for a revaluation. It must be. clearly understood that the Valuation Department was a different thing to the Revaluation Board. He would like them to understand that the Council was sympathetic tq the soldier settlers, but they had to do their duty to toe reminder of the ratepayers. .

Cr. Catley said that Mr Hamilton’s suggestion of approaching the settlers through the R.S.A., was a good one and would probably enable. the business to be settled without friction.

■ln conclusion the chairman .repeated hia advice to the settlers to apply for a revaluation for rating purposes. He did not think that if the matter were explained to the Department, there would be any difficulty on this score. • Following the withdrawal the deputation, it was decided to defer suing for rates for a month, pending action by tbe RS.A.