A RISE IN WATER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9188, 10 September 1908, Page 5

A RISE IN WATER.

. *■ DISSATISFIED RATEPAYERS. SOME VIEWS. The issue of the current year's Borough rate notices is, to put the matter mildly, causing something akiu to consternation among rateI payers. ' the chief cause of the disbatisfaction lies in the fact that the water rate, which it \va3 expected would be the same this year as last, has been increased to a very considerable extent. The investigations made by a Wairarapa Age reporter among several persons who have received and gone into their rate notices, reveal what id apparently a legitimate ground for objection. There is one ratepayer in Queen street, for instance, who would like to know the why and the wherefore of how his water rate alone has increased no less than £l6 10s 2d. The capital value of the property is the same, the rental value is, of course, the same, and he very naturally asks, why is not the water rate the same? It certainly is a conundrum worth solving, why a rate of £4l 12s 6d last year should be increased to £53 2s 8d this year on the same property. The total amount paid in rates this year by this particular ratepayer is £lßl 16s sd, and last year it was £136, which means that he is paying £45 16s 5d more this year. A difference of £l6 odd in one rate alone which he considers should not be is therefore a matter of soe consequence. Another ratepayer interviewed (an ex-Borough Councillor, who should know something of rate gathering) was also very surprised to find that his water rate had gone up from £lO to £l3. This ratepayer, who has a private residence as well as a place of business, pays £6 for his domestic supply alone. With other ratepayers spoken to the increase in the water rate is an exceedingly sore point. Some pay a few shillings more and others a few pounds, and the amount paid in rates by individual ratepayers influences greatly, of course, the alarm shown by them over the "rise in the ptice of water." No doubt within the course of a day cr so, when people have studied their rate notices a little, there will be a few more protests to chronicle, but up to last night a good many persons had not troubled to see the extent of their increased liability to the Borough Council. An important point in connection with the recently issued notices, to whii-.i the reporter's attention was draw;:, is the fact that the notice -temand.i the whole of the water rate for th-3 year in one instalment, when it is really payable in two halfyearly instalments, and the same applies to one of the special rates. Another mystifying feature is that the percentage charged for the water rate is not mentioned at all, although there is a blank space specially reserved on 'he piper for tha purpose, This means that ratepayers are asked to pay a nte the basis of which is withheld fi>m them.