Không tiếng Weng 9th September 1875.
Administrater
Je Gardiner, Anitur
to
The Right moralele
Earl
The
of Carnarvon
The Rating Ordinance 1875-
(No: 19 of 1875)
request
-
continuation of-
Statement of Objects and Reasons,
The enactments which impose and provide for the payment of the several rates leviable in the Colony, are now to be found in five different Ordinances, and it has been thought desirable to collect these in one Ordinance, and at the same time to simplify the wording of the several sections where it was possible to do so without materially affecting the sense.
The method of valuing the tenements of the Colony, of publishing the valuation, of appealing against the valuation, of assessing the rates, and of obtaining a refund of rates paid for uninhabited tenements will be found to be substantially the same in this bill as in the repealed Ordinances, although the arrangement of the sections is different; but in some matters of detail, an alteration of the law is proposed.
The Governor in Council is empowered to fix the time for making the valuation and the time so fixed governs the subsequent stages of rating; as a necessary consequence, His Excellency is empowered to alter the date for commencing the rating year. The object of this change is that if the Governor in Council thinks fit, he may direct the valuers to do their work in the cool season instead of in the hot months of August, September, and October, as at present.
The bill relieves the Governor from the duty of taking the valuers' declaration to the correctness of their list, and fixes the Colonial Treasury as the place for inspecting the list, instead of requiring the Governor to appoint a place every year. It is also proposed that so much of the list as affects country tenements shall be exhibited in the villages of each district; for it has been found that leaving the list for inspection in town practically gives the country people no information, and that they are ignorant of the amount of their assessment until called upon to pay, and by that time it is too late for them to appeal: clause XIII is intended to remedy this injustice.
In clause XXV (b), a few words are introduced to meet the case of the Treasurer admitting part of a claim for refund, and to remove all doubts as to his right to make such an admission.
Clause XXVIII empowers the Governor in Council to order a refund of any rates. This clause is an extension of section 8 of Ordinance 1 of 1867, and besides dealing, as that section does, with the case of an unsuccessful claim to the Court, is intended to meet cases of hardship, as for instance where the upper of three floors let in chambers or offices to Europeans, remains vacant for many months, and the occupancy of the lower floors prevents the owner from claiming refund as for a vacant tenement.
Hongkong, 20th August, 1875.
JOHN BRAMSTON, Attorney General.
359
2 Enclosures