BOROUGH VALUATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 301, 13 May 1913, Page 8

BOROUGH VALUATIONS.

AN' LETTER. COUNX'iJEJAWIS PIQUED. A letter wlliulV met with a mixed nccaption wan to, band at last night's meeting of the Borough Council from llie ■chairman (Mi - . V. Civier* <,!' the oJV j jecting Ratepayers' Associat'iM U< Uto j borough valuations. At the outset the writer said that the Association wiw very much surprised on learning yesterday that the Council had instructed tlte borough solicitor to appear before the Assessment Court *nd 'oppose the granting of any costs to. the objecting ratepayers, who had for a month past been seeking relief from the utterly unreasonable assessments of their properties by the borough valuer. The writer added: On April 12, in con. sequence of the altitude assumed by Mr. Mills, I notified you that costs would be applied for in terms of Section 25 (5) of the Rating Act, which clearly con- - templated that the Court shall award costs in cases where the proceedings prove'to be vexatious, and I venture to say that never in the history of New Zealand has there been such a sacrifice of ratepayers' time, money and temper as in the Assessment Court of 1913." In reminding the Council of some of its own actions in the matter, Mr. Carter stated, inter alia, that it had inserted in the newspapers the customary notices that the valuation rolls were ready and could be inspected at the town clerk's i office, when, as & matter of fact, such ! rolls were not available for inspection, and, indeed, were not in existence until weeks after the advertisement had appeared. Further, it had sent out notices of the assessments so close to the date (March 15) for lodging objections that a very large number of ratepayers did not have time to object. "In mistaken . zeal," the letter continued, "for the promotion of a touristv traffic, it sent out the assessment notices in envelopes other than those invariably used for the municipal correspondence and used those supplied by the Expansion League, bearing such legends as 'Happy holidays,* 'The Garden of New Zealand,' 'Rainbow Trout Fishing,' 'Enchanting Bush,' and t so forth, and the natural result of this ' was that many residents supposed that ' the envelopes contained circulars relat- ; ing to the attractions of the district '' only, and did not open them." The 1 letter than took the Council to task for ' not providing for the appointment of assessors, and not employing the bor--1 ough solicitor, and then eontinuedi "These actions and irregularities have . compelled the body of ratepayers on whose behalf I am addressing you, to - ' incur considerable expense in order that ' their objections might be properly' j ' brought before the Court, and the result * ' has been that out of 141 objections ' ' submitted to the Court at the instance ' of Mr. F. P. Corkill.every one had been ' sustained and reductions made either by that Court or by way of compromise con* ' firmed by the Court .amounting to \. £2OOO, or an all-round average of 25% ' ' per cent, from the assessments made by 1 the valuer. . . It has not, nor has it 1 ever been, the intention of the rate- __ payers associated with me to attack the , validity of the whole proceedings in connection with this year's assessment of the borough, and we are not responsible for, nor identified with, action which is said to be in contemplation by other ratepayers; but we .intende to press for the award by the court of a reason* able lump sum* towards the expense* which the Council has compelled tm to ' incur. I trust that upon consideration of the facts you will see that we are , 1 fully warranted in seeking such relief > from the Court, and that a sense of ',, i justice will inspire you to withdraw 1 your opposition and endeavor to meet as j ■ fairly in the question of costs." ■ a [ THE DISCUSSION. -J Cr. Wilson objected to the tone of '-j; '. the letter, which he said took the Conn* '! ■ cii to task. It referred to the proceed- ;; I ings of the Council's valuer as vexations* --.\ ■ and he thought the Council should 'do ;'.'■ , no more than receive the letter, and not ■';* i recede from the position it had pre- S viously takfen up. He moved that the i ~ letter be received. '•! The Mayor explained that he had re- | ! tained the services of the borough so- I 1 licitor, who would be present when the J matter of costs came up. '/$ Cr. Jackson complained that the writer jjj had gone out of his way to put a lot -I'm more detail in the letter than he should -J have. -tp Cr. Johnstone, who said that he spoke ' ,5j with some hesitation, on account of his m being professionally engaged in the .jjg case, remarked that the letter should' 1»» not. be taken in the way Cr. Wilson sug-,,, gested, because there were certain state* ; | ments contained therein which were true* "\M and ,;ould not be refuted. The best m answer as to the validity of the argu*' v jl ments before the Council was that HlVi.3 cases of objections to the valuations hs4 | succeeded. At the same time he recog*? l| nised that some of the matter in the .''3 latter would have been better left out. <M The Council, however, should not make f§j the ratepayers suffer for the tone of the ~m letter. • ' %\ Cr. Wilson contended that the Magis* *.% trate was the judge of whether the prov'.J? ceedings of the Council were "vexatious** '.',& or not. The Council was quite right in ML being represented by its solicitor when M the costs came to be considered. M Cr. Clarke said that on the face of it vs it appeared that many ratepayers had j.J been put to a lot of unnecessary trouble ' Vi in their endeavor to sustain their ob-, -'*3 jections. ;"~| After further discussion, the motion -SSI was rejected in favor of an amendment '% by Cr. Clarke that the Council adhere to ,$ its decision to be presented by its W- $? licitor. T]