The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1919. TO-MORROW'S VITAL DECISION.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 1919. TO-MORROW'S VITAL DECISION.

(With wMcSi is incorporated Tho T«dfcape Poot tnd W&lra&ilio Newis).

To-morrow the poll that is to determine whether the town shall adopt a more just, more economic system of rating is to be taken. A petition to have rating on unimproved values instead of on the old stop-progress system of rating on capital values was lodged with the Mayor, and he", in accordance with the Eating Act, has fixed Wednesday, 2Gth March, as the day cn which a poll shall bo taken. It should be quite unnecessary to adduce any reasons or arguments why the old system should be relegated to obscurity. It penalises icviery man who attempts to improve tho town by erecting new buildings or improves it in any w;ay; it induces those who do build to erect structures cheap and commonplace, as can be made to suit their purpose; it prevents the words ornamental anjd architectural from being applicable to Taihape buildings, simply because the builder is rated annually for ever on every shilling the building costs him. The more a man spends in building the higher he is taxed; therefore it will be seen that rating on capital value is a bar to progress. We do not ask tho most nervous ratepayer to be guided by what we say about the advantages to them and to every ratepayer of rating on unimproved value; let every one take the unmistakeablc, tho undeniable evidence that the 120 boroughs of New Zealand furnish. There are only 1(3 or 18 of them new lagging behind by continuing the old unjust, uneconomic method of raising rates; all the others have adopted the new, more sane, progressive system which Parliament introduced so that progress should not be held back. The few remaining towns are fast following the more businesslike system; Napier lias justcast off the old stupid bar to progress way, and is now launched on the progressive way; Otaki has more recently cast off tho shackles on progress, so that the empty sections in that township may have buildings put upon them to properly house the people, and to preyent population being driven away. Let those who imagine that because they own large (yeas in the borough they arc going to be heavily burdened by the modern rating system; let them note that many counties and road districts have adopted rating on unimproved value by large majorities at the poll taken for the purpose. The county of Manawatu only a few weeks ago adopted rating on unimproved value by a large majority. The owner of land is tenfold recouped by,the increased selling value of land resulting from the increase of population; and if any such landowners shc-idji in addition to owning the land happen to own a house or two. the abandonment of the rates charged on the buildings will more than recoup him for the little extra, if any. that ho has to pay on land. We say. if any. because land far from the centre o ? the town that is not likely to come into demand for building pre-poses

cannot be deemofd to be of any in- 1 creased value. The uuimproycd value 1 rating system, rates the land according to its actual, its real, value without any improvement upon it. If laud in the main street is rendered valuable by population and by huge business premises being erected all rounfi it rating on unimproved values will prevent that land being kept unsightly vacant by an absent speculator. It is amazing to sec Taihape patriots building around and improving these {absentee vacant sections for men who are merely waiting for others to spend their money and build up the town so that they can swoop down upon an unearned increment amountig to hundreds per cent. It is common knowledge that there arc sections in the dense business area that afe an eyesore and a deterrent to progress, and it is this class of landowner that rating on unimproved value makes to sec the dishonesty of his ways; unimproved value rating is an intimation that if he does nothing towards the improvement of the town he shall get nothing. Rating on unimproved value 2uts out the dog-in-thc-mang'er. the stop-progress waiter for someone else to make his land valuable; it cuts out the section owner in main streets who loafs on the energies of other more progressive people while they double and treble the value of his section for him. The man who holds valuable land for the unearned increment is neither a smart man nor a business man; he is purely and simply :a dishonest man, fop by an obsolete system of rating he takes the value other people put upon the section he wilfully and designedly will not improve, and such men are mostly absentees. The question to be decided to-morrow is whether the business people and land owners in the borough can .afford to go on driving away population; that population is being driven away cannot be truthfully denied/' Another family cannot be housed in the town, therefore the town's business cannot bo increased. On the other hand, if more population is impracticable owing to shortage of house accommodation, land values cannot increase beca’use the demand is stationery; over valuation of land is as dangerous and disastrous as over-capitalisation in business, and is opposed to all real profit and progress Rating on unimproved value is beneficial to everybody bur the land speculator who robs the public of the value they put on his land while ho does nothing biu smugly wait. The operations of tne modern system of rating arc just to an extreme; no iihprovem mt>s are rated, progress is not held back ny taxation, the owner who boosts his town by erecting a good class of building is not penalised, and what is more important the workingman who owns his house has to pay less rates. Th original devisers of the system saw that it was vitally important for the progress of . any community that workers and people with small capita, should be given every encouragement to build their own homes. In large cities where land values are high, they found that having to pay rates on tnc building as well us on the land made house erection by working men verybad business indeed, as with the rates on improvements they totalled as much as the (rent should he. There ought to be no question at all in tn mind of any property-owner -in Taihape, who has the progress and best interests of the town at heart, about tire | advisability .of moving from the obsolete unjust rating on capital value to the more modern, scientifically economic method of levying rates unimproved values. The only man ru suffer by adoption of rating on unimproved value is the absentee speculator. Rating on unimproved values encourages the erection of better buildings; makes buildngs a busines:: proposition by allowing a reasonable interest on capital invested. Instead of the rates charged on the value of buildings going to the rating authority they go into the pocket of the owner of the building; it increases business by encouraging and rendering possible a larger population; it increases the selling value of laud by a greater demand for building sections, and it !s Just to laud because laud is only rated on what its value for building actuary is. The poor man who has a house worth £6OO on half an acre of ground that is worth only £2OO will feel tne benefit of the new method, for he vftll no longer be rated on the £6OO. The value of his section may go up £so or £IOO but even in the latter case ne would only pay half the rates under unimproved value rating that he nowpays under rating on capital values. The new method is so Obviously preferable to the old that wc do not expect one opponent to its adoption at to-morrow’s poll, except, perhaps, * few speculators who unjustly desire to go .on grabbing unearned increment, and care’ nothing whether the town progresses, whether people arc humanely housed or not. We hope to see the poll carried by an overwhelming majority, because it is the. firs: essential step to further progress.