THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2111, 9 October 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1875.

Yestebday evening the Mayor on behalf of the Jioroiigh Council- appeared to appeal against the amounts at which the Parawai Highway Board had rated the reservoir and water supply pipes which are situated in the Parawai quarter, and likewise that portion of land known as Wilson's paddocks which are also in that district. The Parawai Board have rated that portion of the pipes and the reservoir whereby the district is supplied by water at £800 and Wilson's paddocks at £90.

To these amounts tho Mayor has objected as it seems on two grounds—l. That the properties, especially the latter, are exempt fiv.m being rated at all. 2. That even if not exempt the amounts at which they are rated are excessive. Asto whether they are, or should be, exempt or not, is not for us to decide. The matter, from what we heard transpire at a meeting of the Borough Council, will be duly tested before the proper authority, and we have no doubt every argument both for and against the >rating will be heard. We may, however, be allowed to remark that it looks very much like "wresting the law to their authority," for the Parawai Board to take advantage of the circumstances that the reservoir is situated m their portion of the district, and that the pipes which supply the district pass underneath their roads to assess the Borough Council for the whole amount which they think the water supply brings in. And it certainly seems, prima facie, that a piece of ground given by Government for a burying ground should be exempt from rates even though not used for the present as such, because the ground for which it may be exchanged, is taxed, as it were, in the place of it. This by the way. We then come to the second objection taken by the Mayor, viz., the excessive amount at which the Parawai Board have fixed the rates; and here a few facts may suffice to show our readers that the Mayor's objections were by no means frivolous. First, as regards the waterworks. The Parawai Board fix the amount to be paid by the Borough as a percentage on £800; that is, they consider the Borough gain £800 per annum by using their land, or rather the land whose highway rates they fix, to convey water-pipes to the Borough. Now the total amount derived from the water rates is—we speak in round numbers and to the" best of our belief—only about £900 per annum, from which £250 must be deducted for salary, and an additional £150 (about) for other expenses, reducing the net gain to be derived from the water supply at once to £500. Nor is this all. This sum, even if this be taken to be all profit, must be still further reduced before we come to the proper amount at which the Borough are benefitted. The Waiotahi and Parawai Boards are also to participate in those profits in proportion to the amount of water rates collected in their district, so that altogether the Borough Council will not get more than about half the amount at which they are rated. Besides it is obvious that if the Parawai Board tax the Borough Council for the profits they derive from the water works they must on I every ground of justice tax themselves also for the profits, even though small, which they themselves derive. They may do this for ought we know, but unless they have done so they cannot, with any show of reason, go before a Resident Magistrate and demand payment of a tax from others — from which tax, though equally indebted, they exempt themselves. If it be said, however, that it is the amount of Parawai land taken up by the Borough Council, and the value of it on which—putting other things on one side—the Borough Council ought to pay, the plea is easily overturned by the facts of the case. Taking the distance from the reservoir to the Borough boundary at a mile and a quarter, and allowing eight inches for the space taken up by the pipes, we have—excluding fractions — 489 yards as the amount of land taken up by the Borough ; add to this the space used as a reservoir, which is not large, and we shall have, at the outside, about an acre of ground, valued by the Parawai Board at £800 a year. If this be the basis on which the Borough Council are taxed, land at Parawai must be more valuable than we are aware of. As regards Wilson's paddocks the Borough is taxed at the rate of £90 a year, and yet they let the half, and the half moreover which ia considered the better for £3.0, and we do net consider they are giving away a bargain at that rate. These things will, as we have said, be tested in the proper way, and until then we forebear other remarks which perhaps we may feel ourselves called upon to make. But these, we believe, are fact 3, and facts speak for themselves.