Parliamentary Jottings

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 187, 10 August 1901, Page 3

Parliamentary Jottings

o (FROM OCR SPECIAL CORUESPONDKNT.) The Government is in a tight corner over their Rating on Unimproved Values Bill-. The object of this measure is to make rating on unimproved values general all through the colony. At prerieut, of course, it is optional for any district or locality to ;wlopt the system. The Bill" saya:— " From «ni.l after the commencement of this Act all rates shali be made and levied on the unimproved value." The House seema hardly prepared to accept this sweeping reform right away. Many members argue that the people in the various localities have the -mutter in their.own hands under the present law, and why disturb that harmonious airangement ? Of course, some are opposed altogether to the principle of rating on unimproved values. There seems a general feeling in the House that the time is not yet quite ripe to make the measure compulsory throughout -the colony. The result is that the Government suggest a compromise to this effect : that every district shall have pov/er to exempt itself from the operation of the Act if, on a -poll, the majority of voters are in favour of being so exempted. The second reading of the Bill will pass, no doubt, but it is pretty certain it will not be persevered with by the Government this session. For the present, it may be considered as dead.