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Taranaki Daily News, 11 August 1920, Page 4

LAND VALUATIONS. The question of arriving at a fair and reasonable value of land for taxation purposes was recently raised in the House by Mr. 6. Witty (Riccarton), who advocated the appointment of a board of valuers to go into the whole matter of Dominion land values, and, in support, quoted a case where land was offered to the Government at £BO,OOO, which was only valued at £13,000. In reply the Minister of Lands insisted that an independent'valuation was necessary, as the values assigned ajvd.entered on the.disrolls:'were used notionly for State land tax purposes and rating, but by the lending departments, therefore a board of valuers would not produce satisfactory results. As a reply to an abstract proposal the Minister's attitude may be reasonable. All the same it is capable of being made helpful in achieving a much-needed reform. There is no disputing the argument of the Minister that the"Government must have an independent valuation of real estate in the Dominion by valuers employed by the State, but the Bystem is capable of improvement if the object in view is to be attained. The principle involved in Mr. Witty's proposal could be utilised, not in substitution of the present method, but by way of amplification. A board | of three members could be appointed in each of the provinces in the Dominion, for which purpose the provinces could be roughly divided into three areas, and to be eligible for appointment the candidates must possess a special and comprehensive knowledge of the value of land in their respective areas. It would be the duty of these assessors to give the Government valuer every assistance in arriving at his figures, and the procedure might well be that, the official valuer would submit l)is draft reports to the board, and in the light of the local knowledge of the members, arrive at the final values, which would then have a status that could not otherwise be obtained. There should be practically no delay,* and comparatively little expense, nor would there be any question of the valuers subordinating their opinions to those of the boards. It is quite conceivable that, were some such system adopted, there would be no appeals, and the valuations would be fair, reasonable and reliable.