THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1910. VALUATION OF LAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10089, 12 September 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1910. VALUATION OF LAND.

There is no subject which more intimately concerns the farmers (large and small) of the .Dominion, than that of the periodical Government valuations of land. The system of valuation has undergone so many changes, and the methods of valuers have subject to so many variations, that it is almost impossible to discover upon what basis the valiies are actually assessed. The Farmers' Union has been wrestling with the problem for some time past, but this body has found it much more convenient to discover anomalies and defects than to suggest remedies. At its last Dominion Conference, the Union passed a resolution pointing out that valuers do not always go upon the land to inquire as to the improvements for themselves, and it asked that valuers should be appointed by local authorities to act in conjunction with Government valuers, and that the valuations be made periodically, say, every four years. It further asked that all loan moneys spent by local bodies, and moneys spent by companies, be credited by the Government valuer to improvements, instead of to unimproved values as at present. The Hori. P, Buddo, in a very lengthj

nd disingenuous reply, dismisses he whole of the demands of the ,nioti as either unnecessary or iniiracticable. The furthest ho will go s to instruct valuers to notify own■rs when it is proposed to make a ablation of their land, so that they nay be present to point out the vhereabouts and nature of improvements. After all, the Union I ias achieved nothing, and it is not likely to achieve anything until it insists upon the Hating on Unimproved Values Act being wiped off the Statute Book. Experience has shown that the system of rating upon unimproved values is a snare and a delusion. It is, in fact, a misnomer. In theory the idea of taxing improvements may not seem right. I Jut when, in practice, the improvements are taxed almost to the same extent under the "unimproved value" system as they were under the "capital value" system, the advantages of the adoption of the former are not very apparent. Indeed, the abuses and inconsistencies which have been revealed under the new svstem of rating are much more pronounced than under the old. it a man builds a house or a shop upon his property, and thereby enhances its value, the improvements thus effected are, in the mam, supposed to be exempt from taxation Bit it he with half-a-dozen others, lates Ms land through a local body for a loan for a road or bridge to give access to his property, the improvemunity will demand an entire change £Winddence of taxation and _ r p nu i r e that incomes only be taxea. S« time arrives the anom.dies of existing systems will have to be borne with equanimity.