671575-1885-Bill-read--Municipal-Rates-Ordinance-1885- — Page 2

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 31st OCTOBER, 1885.

Penaltics.

Mode of valuation,

List of valuations.

To be verified hy declaration.

Public Insti- tutions to be exempt from aksesstuent.

Notice of the valuation to be given 10 each tenement.

The list to be open for inspection at the Treasury.

List to be exhibited in Country

district"

Existing

Valuation may be adopted.

Appeal.

5. If any owner or occupier of a tenement refuses or neglects to furnish the aforesaid particulars within one week after being required to do so;

Or knowingly furnishes false or incorrect particulars; Or refuses to exhibit to the valuers any receipt for rent or book or other document relevant to the valuation;

Or provents, hinders, or obstructs any valuer from entering or inspecting any tenement after delivery of such notice and after the lapse of twenty-four hours;

He shall, ou conviction in a summary way, be liable to a penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars.

6. The valuers shall cause every tenement to be separ- ately valued, and shall make the valuation thereof by estimating the gross annual rent at which such tenement may reasonably be expected to let for the ensuing year.

In estimating the value of a tenement the value of any machinery contained therein shall not be included.

7. As soon as the said valuation is completed, the valuers shall make out a list, divided into districts, of the several tenements valued, and of their respective valuations, and shall deliver the same to the Colonial Sceretary, not later than seven days after the day for completing the valuation. The valuers shall also make and subscribe, in the presence of the Colonial Secretary, a declaration to the effect that the said list contains a true account of all valuations made by the declarants, and that the same is, to the best of their knowledge and belief, correct in all other particulars. After the said List has been so declared, no alteration shall be made in it except as provided in Section 15 of this Ordinance and except also that any erroneous entry may, with the written authority of the Colonial Secretary, be amended so as to bring it into accordance with the particulars notified to the occupier of the Tenement under Section 9 of this Ordinance or with the valuation of the previous year if no change was intended to be made in such valuation.

8. In making out the said list, the valuers shall distin- guish all Public Institutions, which shall be exempt from assessment and from the payment of rates.

9. When any Tenement is valued for the first time or when the existing valuation of any Tenement is altered the valuers shall, not later than seven days after the day for completing the valuation, leave with the occupier of every tenement notice in writing of such valuation having been made and of the amount thereof.

Such notice may be given in the form C in the schedule hereto;

But the omission to serve such notice upon any tenement shall not invalidate the valuation thereof, nor relieve any person from payment of the rates.

10. The said list, or an examined copy thereof, shall ho open to inspection at the Treasury during office hours for fourteen days, of which notice shall be previously given in the Gazette, and any owner or occupier of any tenement included in such list may take any extract therefrom.

11. The Colonial Secretary shall cause copies to be made in Chinese of the list of Chinose Tenements for each country district, and shall cause the copies to be exhibited in a conspicuous place in the principal village of cach district during the fourteen days fast above mentioned.

Extension of Valuation.

12. The Governor in Council may at any time adopt any valuation then existing, either wholly or in part, as the valuation for the ensuing year or for any part thereof; and in such case shall cause notice of such adoption and of the extent thereof to be published in the Gazette. Any existing valuation so adopted shall, for the purposes of appeal, be considered a new valuation.

Appeal.

13. Any person aggrieved on the ground that he is rated for any tenement for which he is not rateable under this Ordinance;

Or that any tenement for which he is rateable is valued beyond its full and fair annual rental;

Or that any person or any tenement that ought to be inserted in the list is omitted therefrom;

Or that any tenement of any person is valued therein below its full and fair annual rental;

May, not later than fourteen days after the last day upon which the valuation list is open for inspection, appeal to the Supreme Court in its Summary Jurisdiction.

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