RATING AMENDMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 1 November 1913, Page 4

RATING AMENDMENT.

A copy of the Rating Amendment Bill has reached us from the Hon, W. H. Berries. This measure is of some importance to local bodies, in that it substantially alters the definition of the term "improvements" for the purpofees of rating. Under the Bill, the unimproved value of any land means "the sum which the owner's estate or interest therein, if unincumbered by any mortgage or other charge thereon, might be expected to realise at the time of valuation if offered for sale on such reasonable terms and conditions as a bona fide settler might be expected to impose, «dnd if no improvements had been made on the land." Improvements are held to be "all work done or material used on or for the benefit of the land by the expenditure of capital or labour by any owner or occupier thereof, in so far a3 the effect of the work done or material used is to increase the value of the land, an<3 the benefit thereof is unexhausted at the time of valuation." It will be seen from the above that provision is made for the exemption of improvements of almost every character, so long as they are permanent.