The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1884. THIS RATING ACT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1614, 20 February 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1884. THIS RATING ACT.

Attention Las recently been called in several quarters to a somewhat serious hitch in the working of the Crown and Mvo Lands Rating Act, This measure was offered nearly two years' ago to local bodies as a sort'of sugar plum which would help to reconcile them to the loss of the Government' cako which they previously enjoyed in the days of subsidies, It was one of the wheels in that oxtremely simple scheme of local self-government which Major Atkinson invented, and it was no doubt intended to help the machine along. It is a pity that as yet it has not been allowed to revolve. The moasure has been generally admired by those who have a taste for ingenious intricacies, but it has one fault, The rates under it have to be paid to the local todies by the Treasury on the voucher -of the chief of the Property Tax Department, and from some cause or other they have never been paid. It is rather a contrast to observe. the way in which tho Government receive money' through tlie Property Tax Department and the manner in which they pay it out. In the former case an hour's delay on the pavt of the settler who has .to fihd the money is punished as a crime, but in the latter case where the position is reversed and the Government have' to provide the monoy delay is excusable; a month's delay is as nothing, three months delay is an essential, and even a twelve months delay does not trouble Ministerial slumbers. Last week the Wairarapa "West County decided to ask " the reason why," It had been expecting a substantial revenue from native lands, but the Government had been unapproachable. A contemporary in another part of the colony has tried to " give the reason why." He explains that there are a hundred and twenty clerks in the Property Tax Department, and argues that it is blocked by its own employees, so that vouchers and schedules cannot pass through it, and if Crown and Native lapdjrates florae in its way they are wanted for salaries. We are not, however, prepared to-endorse this theory, and hope to get some other solution of the difficulty. It was suggested in'the West County, that the Government, finding that the native land rates would come to more than they anticipated, resolved upon a policy of repudiation, and arranged to strangle then: a power of exemption. In the iEast County we believe ttia delay is regarded as owing to the dilatorinsss of jOa

Property Tax Department iu supplying the schedules 011 which the rates are based.. By law the Property Tax Department can alone furnish these schedules, and if there is a block in this Department local bodies must stop out in the cold. Whatever may be the cause of the delay one thing is absolutely certain viz., that money which ought to have been paid to local bodies by the Government has not been so paid, and the Act passed in 1882 is practically " a dead letter," as far as the Government are concerned. The local, government machine of Major Atkinson is beginning to be recognised on all sides as a failure. No wonder the Major has made up his mind to stump country on federation, Any subject which will enable him to turn the attention of settlers. from the difficulties in which they are placed owing to the bad legislation and questionable administration which he has inflicted on them, must be beneficial to liimself.