Til E PROPERTY VAX DEPARTMENT ami the VALUATION ROLLS.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1713, 28 June 1883, Page 3

Til E PROPERTY VAX DEPARTMENT ami the VALUATION ROLLS.

(Wawapn Star) It is becoming evident that the valuation rolls provided, by the Property Tax Department for such local bodies as come under the Kilting Act will have to be scanned with a considerable deque of caution. In a, letter which he publishes, Mr E. N. Lifliton— the gentleman who piep.ned the valuation rolls for the Go- \ ci nnient of the YV.mganui and W.utotara Highway Districts— complains that alhis valuations weie duly le vised by the Commissioners and admitted to be relatively fair, the roll submitted fiom headquarteis beais glaring evidence of the onginal valuations having been seriously tamneied with. He declares that "in many instances small holdings have been nicie.ised as much as 100 per cent., and neatly all, if not <]iule all, the larger holdings have been reduced 50 per cent., or nearly s>o. Then by way ot definite lllustiation he goes on to say: — ''Mi Parsons' Waitotaia property, admittedly one of the best in the district, was returned in the Government roll at £13 10s per acre. Now sir, it is returned at £8 per acre ! and I am, I believe, correct in stating that £15 has been ollcred and refused for tho property !! ! Again, 01.14 acres of tho K.u Ivvi Iwi reserve, •shown in the Government roll at-CGl,r>4o, has been reduced to some thirty odd thousand ! !" No wonder Mr Liffiton emphasises his statement with notes of admiration ! No -wonder he adds "Whence "this power? Ratepayers, look alter "your interests." The letter contains what are inferentially most serious and damaging charges against a Government department. The allegation is that by some process of secret manipulation, valuation lolls, after being duly overhauled, are being tampered with, in such a way as to increase the taxation of the small settler and enable the large estate owner to evade his fair proportion. That some Mephistophelian lightning valuator is working the oracle for the owners of big estates m the Property Tax Department is very evident. Nothing more damnatory than the following letter from the Property Tax Commissioner to the Rangitikei Council could bs required \x\ tiie way of evidence :— I have the honour to forward by this post (9th May) a corrected roll for your district, and I avail myself of this opportunity to express my regret that the first roll should have been forwarded to you in so incorrect a state. The values of Heaton Park were altered in error. The other mistakes were caused by most deliberate and wanton mischiei or malice on the part of a person at present undiscoveiel. After the office copy of the valuation roll had heen compiled froi» the note-books and checked, a number of values in it were altered to inserting figures. In several instances the figure 1 was written, before the amount, in two cases 0 was added, and in one 1 was altered to 7. The clerk writing the roll for you from the office roll, of course, copied, (he values that had been tampered with. —I have, tt3., J". Sperry, Commissioner." The local paper commenting on jthis singular confession says :-— " When the first roll, in its apparently complete fptm, came into the hands of the secretary "of ( ,thq BalngitikeiiftQa'cl Board, b,e discovered

to his amazement that the rating of the Heaton Park eatate had been altered subsequently to the sitting of the^, Oourt of Reviewers to such an extent , ttfat ,sthe rates payable on the property had been reduced "by over £75 a year ! Not only had the valuations been lowered, but the acreage of a number of the sections had been reduced, although it was known as an absolute fact that the acreage given in the list passed by the Court of Reviewers were correct. Had it not been for the \ igil.vncc of the secretary of the Board, there would have been a loss of £75 per annum for three years on this one estate." This £75, of which' the Rangitikei Road Board was nearly being defrauded by an " error" m Mr .Sporry's department, does not by any means show the amount that the proprietors of the Heaton Park estate would have saved by the " alteration." If llangitikei, is as wellblessed with locol government as Wairarapa East there would be another £7-3 to deduct from a County rate and then the property tax must be taken into consideration. It what Mr Sperry mildly terms an " altciation in erroi" can do all this for a single estate, what are not the " alterations in error" of this department capable of doing for the aggregate large estates of the culony ? The machinery of the property tax department ts evidently in a had state when " alterations in error" that signify a very considerabl loss of public revenue, occur. Mr ttperry is of opinion that the " mistakes" are due to " deliberate or wanton mischief or malice on the pait of a person at present undiscovered.'' Few sensible people who know anything of the ways of this wicked world and its departments, will agree with him. There is neither " malice nor mischief" in the transaction, but profound knavery that bears a marked resemblance to the baiefaced frauds for which some of the dcp.utmcnts of the United States of Ameuca were at one time distinguished. If the property tax department is to be the tuMiwAter for the colony, the sooner it is cured of its picacnt ailments the bettei, foi as long as it is liable to make " altetations in cuoi" to the tune of £75 per annum and upwards, and while the '•Moses" who does the "mischief" remains uudiscoveied, vciy little rcluuicfe can be placed in its operations.

A m viuu vi.Ji of unusual interest took place, in Biookljn, New York, the other day. The biidegioom was Mr Robert Hn/./a, from Boston, Mass , commonly known as " Major Littlefhtger. ' Hih height is 3ft Oin; ho is "24 years of age, and " tips the scale at o4ih. The bride was 2o yo.us old, 3ft high, and weighs 4511). A m \kjum> woman named Rose Smith, li\ ing in the New Cut, Lambeth, committed a lion id eiime on Apul 21. During the tempoiary absence of her husband she cot .i l.i/or, and with it killed one of her children, Rose, aged three yeais. She ne\t inflicted a wound on hei baby daughter, but the ficnzy under winch slie was acting passed away, and she lan into the stieet with the infant in her arms. Her husband returned home to fine! one of his clnldien dead, another probably dying, and his wife in the police station charged with the double crime.

Tin, Ajikuican Fluj.—On Jan. 2,177G, at Cambiidge, Mass., was lir&t hoisted the " (iiand Union" flag of the crosses of St Geoigc and St -Amliew, and the thirteen alternate led and white stiipes, emblematic of the union of tlic thutecn colonies against Bntibh tyianny. This was the flag m use when the Declaration of Independence A\a& read by the Committee of Safety at Philadelphia, in the picsencoof Washington in New Yoik, and fiom the balcony of the .State House in Boston. On August 14, 1777, Congiess lesolved " tli.it the flag of the United States be thntoen stiipes, alternately led and white, and tho union be thutecn stais, white, ma blue field, representing anew constellation." Once the stupes were mci cased to fifteen, but in ISIS they weie changed back peiinanently to thirlecn, peipetuating the oiiginal thirteen States of the Union, and it Mas deciced that for cveiy new State coming into the Union a star should be added. The stars ha\ c five points ; those on their coins six. They weic tiist ananged in a cncle, aftenvaids in the foi in of a large star, and now in parallel lines.