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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 172, 29 December 1914, Page 4

lii connection with the recent visit of the Valuation Commission to Canterbury, the Christchurch Sun has some interesting comments on land valuation. After pointing out that a. valuer has a very difficult and onerous job, the Sun remarks that as a Government official whose values are the basis of taxation, he is expected to value in such a way that the revenue does not suffer. The popular impression is that the values are constantly increasing, and that the State and the local authorities should get an ever-increasing revenue from taxation based on property values. Consequently, the point a valuer invariably sets himself to decide is whether a pro- ] perty has increased in value, and, if so, how much. As he is, after all, only a fallible human being, he is fairly liable to commit errors of judgment, and one lias only to compare the estimates mado by! expert ; in compensation cases I to realise that (extraordinary discrepancies might be revealed if two Government valuers went through a district ' independently of each other and made separata valuations. But if in addition to his liability to err a valuer has some private notions of his own regarding the incidence of taxation, and shares popular fallacies regarding the appropriation sft the unearned increment by the State, it is easy to see that such a man may be the means of perpetrating | widespread injustice and dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, the imprint of the land nationalist and single-tax crank is stamped deeply on the land and valuation" Iftws of this country. We have laws relating to tljn vn.lnp.tion and taxation of the land tjiat ai'c ■ ItASed 011 ; fundamental of' cconqn\s pvltt- , ciple, tl(| , that it i» siblu to ~ " Jlpo9 ' I . v uiem with justice and vjuity. No mutter how conscientiously valuers may pursue and endeavour to track down that elusive and undiscoverable thing, the unimproved value, their efforts can never be attended with anything more than partial success. There must always be a conflict of opinion as to what are really improvements, and at what points improvements become exhausted. Assessment "of the capital value is the only sane and rational method of levying taxation on landed property, but as long as our politicians and the majority of those who select them are obsessed with delusions regarding the unearned increment, just SO long will they perpetrate the system that causes so much dissatisfaction at the present time.