The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1919 RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUE

Taihape Daily Times, 5 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1919 RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUE

(With trtueh is meorporatad The 'faJ* hape Poet t.fld Wal£»i3'j« Saws).

It is publicly notified that, all s.atutory preliminaries having been complied with, a poll is co be taken in this borough on the proposal to change the system from rating ou capital values to rating ou unimproved values. We think this is one of the best moves ever made for ' the advancement of the town, and it seems almost past understanding why a progressive people have not adopted that' more just, equitable, and scientific process of rating on unimproved values very many years ago. Yet Taibape has remained one of the very few boroughs in the Dominion that still assesses its rates on the old, improper, obsolete system. Out of about 120 boroughs in New Zealand there are now but about 18 retaining the old rating scheme, one of the last last towns to cast it off was the town of Napier. Counties, laud districts, town districts, as well as boroughs, have realised itho great advantages towards progress in exempting improvements from being rated, and only a few weeks ago the Manawatu County ratepayers adopted rating on unimproved values by a large majority, thus showing that the system does not unjustly, or even hardly operate against land. From the day the statute was enacted in our Parliament there has been fear amongst owners of : big sections that its adoption would increase their rates, and only the other day a lady told us' she could not soh her way to vote for rating on unimproved values because she had an acre of land on which her house' stood. We learned from her that the house, outbuildings, fencing, and planting cost nearly half as much again as the land, but for purposes of

elucidation wc will assume that the land value is £SOO and the value or 1 the improvements is £500; under the system of rating on capital value this , lady would pay rates on £IOOO, but on the unimproved basis the house ■ and improvements are exempt, leaving : her assessment on the value of the. land alone: but. as it will probably be found that the values of land will i have to be increased to return the j same amount in rates that is now bej ing collected, future rating of that lady’s acre will be £6OO instead of £SOO, leaving her in the position of being £4OO better off than under the old system. Then there is the fear of the people who own large areas of land in a borough, and this fear has kept many boroughs in the old unscientific, unjust, unprofitable nit of capital values for many years longer than they should have been, as the progress of those places was admittdly held back correspondingly. But when it became obvious that it was the most profitable way of rating, even of rural lands in counties and road districts that fear commenced to vanish and boroughs followed each other in to the newer, more equitable and scientific way. owners of land who wished to erect houses, woolsheds, fences, plant orchards. or do any improvement whatsoever, found that they were to

be compelled to pay, sometimes twice the rates their neighbour paid who did not a turn to improve his land; lie found it was a deterrent to improvement; that he was penalised with an increase of rates for every pound he spent in improving his holding, and he said this ,is unfair. Let us rate on unimproved values. The same applies in towns; but, of course, land is valued in its relationship and proximity .to the commercial centre of the town, and its adaptability for commercial and business purposes. Land in Main

street may be -valued at *?>vW per foot, while that iu a suburban situa-

tion may only be valued at £IOO per acre. This (is mentioned because some people have the mistaken notion that all laud has the same value. That is not the case. Land at £IOO per foot is rated on that value, and land valued at £.IOO per acre is rated on the £IOO for the •acre. But where the capital value operates so unjustly is that, no matter whether a £IOOO building is put on land at £IOO per foot, or on that at £IOO per acre, it has to be rated on the additional £IOOO. It will be seen that it will only increase the rates on the £IOO per foot land by a few pounds per cent., probably not more than 10 per cent., while it will increase rates on the £IOO per aero section by 900 per cent. Because the owner of an £IOO acre of land dares to put £IOOO worth of improvements on the far-away section, where the sanitary services which he has to contribute to cannot reach him, ho is penalised to the outrageously unjust extent of 900 per cent. How can such an owner improve his acre? If he does nothing with it he is accused of being a speculator. Look at the old unscientific and economically fallacious capital value system as one will, it is wanting in fairness, whether it is practised in cities or on the rural lands of the farmer. It is a wretched bar to progress; it tends to the creation of slums, as it encourages stacking together the very worst class of small tenements to enable the owner to get sufficient rent to pay reasonable interest on his outlay in addition to paying rates on the capital he lias invested in the miserable hovels he could only afford to erect. The first stop towards helping this 'town into the foremost position among provincial towns it is unquestionably destined to occupy is rating on unimproved values, and thereby encouraging the erection of buildings of a class that the pioneer burgesses of the town may feci proud of fortho remainder of their lives. If there should be a speculator who is holding hack progress for his own personal interest that speculator is “a weasel in the warren, ” and there is nothing better to loosen his grip than rating on unimproved value. The; fear of 1 lib ‘mian who chanced to acquire fairly large areas in the early days, probably long before the borough came into existence, is not rightly based, as the example of over 1.00 boroughs out of the 120 in !he Dominion has amply demonstrated.

It lias been a.-pleasant surprise to in on in a si mi far position in other boroughs to find that the selling value -of vtheir '.and ; s rapidly ini' reused after adoption Of the new rating system, while the fears of a finishing valuation in all eases proved nothing but a nightmare. Even if a fraction more has to be paid in rates on suburban land the owner is in no fear of being penalised for fencing, planting orchards, or even building himself a £2OOO m deni residence. The only people to have their patriotism to the town tested by the proposal to rate on unimproved value .arc those who may, if any, hold sections in the main street, in the business! urea, for speculation 'purposes, for if they have no building whatever on their sections they will have to pay the same rates as the man alongside who has improved the town and thereby added to the value of all property in the borugh by erecting fine business premises involving an outlay of two or three thousands of pounds, but it is proved that even such people have admitted they have been forced into doing that whii-h lias immensely benefited them, and lliev have had no desire to go bach to the old stagnation methods again. Noa-rlv the

bwonghs of Now Zealand have, with in the Inst dorado or two. adopted the ’.identically correct system of rating on unimproved values, and not one of them has reverted again to the old anti-progressive system. This is a remarkable record. and can only be the result of the very best of reasons for making jhe change.