Crown and Rating Bill.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4219, 10 July 1882, Page 2

Crown and Rating Bill.

[BY TeLEGBAPH.] (FROM OUtt OWN COBBESPONDBNT.; Wellington, Last night. The Crown and Sating Bill this year is entirely different to last year. The following are the additional exemption lands occupied by and used in connection with any College or University; lands occupied by and used in connection with any museum ; lands occupied by and used in connection with any lunatic asylum, hospital, or charitable institution; lands occupied by and in connection with quarantine stations and lighthouses; all lands used and occupied as public parks, or domains, or gardens ; Crown lands and native lands within the counties mentioned in the second schedule to the "Counties Act, 1876" Citations from the Bill are necessary to make it understood, and it is important, as it proposes to make the Property Tax a part of the Government machinery. The Colonial Treasurer, for the time being, by his official title, shall be treated as the owner of all, lands rateable by virtue of this Act for the purposes of ■ "The Rating Act, 1882," the several provisions of which and also of " The Property Assessment Act, 1879," necessary to the operation of " The Rating Act, 1882,'' shall apply accordingly. The Property Tax Commissioner, when preparing jlie valuation rolls under "The Ratingrffct, 1882," shall be the sole judge of whether any crown lands or native land of, which the Colonial Treasurer is therein specified as the owner, shall for all purposes whatsoever be fin&! and conclusive as against the local body and the Colonial Treasurer, and all, other persons of whomsoever, that such lands are rateable property under this act and that the provisions of this act apply to the same. Accordingly this act works in with the rating act which is tbis day distributed. Local bodies demand from the Colonial Treasurer rates in accordance with section 22 of the Rating Act and schedule annexed such demand to be, addressed to the Property Tax Commissioner's office. The Properly Tax Commissioner shall forward such demand to the Colonial Treasurer with a certificate,: stating whether such demand is corrector not, and that the rate demanded thereby, or some portion thereof, if any, is lawfully j payable, and thereupon the Colonial Treaj surer shall pay to the local body to whom ' the rates are due, out of moneys to be appropriated for the purpose by the General Assembly, the amount of such rates payable as aforesaid, which is specified in the certificate of the Property Tax Commissioner. The first rate is payable on the 31st March next, and the rates shall be payable on the basis of the first valuation rolls, which the Property Tax , Commissioner is directed by " The Rating Act, 1882," to deliver. By the Rating Act, the Property Tax Commissioner, on some day during the month of March in every third year, commencing in the year 1883, shall make out and forward through the post to the clerk of each local body in the colony, a valuation roll of all the rateable property in the district of such local body, compiled from the assessment rolls. The rolls so signed shall be the valuation roll of the district. The natives leasing clauses are as follows :—Whenever triy native land is sold or exchanged for the first time, and whenever it is leased after the passing of the act to other than aboriginals, then the amount of all rates paid by the Colonial Treasurer in respect of such land shall thereupon become payable on such sale exchange or lease, and such duty shall be in addition to the dut<es imposed by the, Stamp Act, 1882, the several provisions of which shall apply to the repayment of the said rates as if they were the duty payable under such act. The other portions of theßating Act do not come prominently forward in this bill.