RATING VALUE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20910, 15 September 1939, Page 8

RATING VALUE

PART OF GALATEA ESTATE ASSESSMENT COURT DECISION (Special to Times.) WHAKATANE, Thursday After lengthy expert evidence, the Assessment Court, which held a sitting at Whakatane, fixed the unimproved value for rating purposes of the residue of 20,000 acres of the Galatea at 2Gs an acre, which is 6s more than the figure the Government sought to have declared. The case was an appeal by the Whakatane County Council against this figure of £1 an acre. The Court consisted of Mr A. A. McLachlan, president, Mr G. H. Finch, Government assessor, and Mr A. Sutherland, county assessor. Mr T. E. Hamerton represented the county, and the district land valuer, Mr E. A. Meredith, conducted the Crown case. Expert evidence was given for the county by Samuel Clements Colmore Williams, land valuer, of Auckland, who said that he had based his estimate on the net income. Much of the money spent on the subdivision of the estate was establishment cost, and could not be taken into account. The internal roading was of no benefit to the estate when farmed as a run. Under normal conditions, he would be prepared to give 30s an acre for the estate, and he wished he could purchase it at that figure. Mr Meredith said that a good deal of money had been spent on roading and under the Valuation Act that must be treated as an improvement. The Crown had spent £60,000 on the access road, £6OOO on internal roading and £BOOO on the Murupara-Galatea Road. He had valued tile estate as a run, but he agreed that the roading was of little value for this purpose. Mr McLachlan safd it looked as though the question of roading was all that came between the parties, and the roads must, be viewed only in connection with their influence on the production of the estate.