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New Zealand: Acts affecting Native Lands, 1886, 1888-91 and 1894-95

Assessment Court

Assessment Court.

24.There shall be an Assessment Court for each district, hereinafterAssessment Court. called "the Court," for the purpose of hearing and determining all objections to the valuation-list or lists for such district.page 10
25.Judges of Assessment Court. The Magistrate exercising jurisdiction within the district under the administration of any local authority shall be the Judge of the Assessment Court for such district; but, in the unavoidable absence of the Magistrate, the Governor may from time to time appoint any other fit person to be the Judge of such Court, or remove such person.
26.Sittings of Assessment Court. Every Court shall hold its sittings at such convenient time and place in each district as the Judge may appoint, and not less than ten days' notice shall be given of every such sitting.
(1.)Adjournments. The Court may adjourn from time to time as it may trunk fit, and on any day appointed for the sitting of the Court, if the Judge shall fail to attend, the Court shall stand adjourned till the following day, and so from day to day till the Judge attends.
(2.)Clerks of Court. Clerks of Magistrates' Courts shall be Clerks of the Assessment Court in all cases where it is convenient, and, in respect of Courts where it is not convenient, Clerks shall be appointed by the Governor.
(3.)Powers of Court. The Court shall have all the powers to summon witnesses and examine them upon oath, and to compel their attendance and the answering of questions and the production of papers, and for all other purposes touching the hearing of matters before the Court which, by any law for the time being in force, may be exercised by a Magistrate.
(4.)Court may order costs. The Court may in its discretion order the payment by either party of all reasonable costs and charges as to the Court may seem fit, and the payment of the amount specified in such order may be enforced in like manner as a sum of money recovered by judgment in a Magistrate's Court.
27.Who shall attend the Court. The Clerk or other person duly appointed by and on behalf of the local authority, and all Valuers and collectors of rates for the district, shall attend the sittings of the Court, and shall produce all the books and papers relating to their respective offices which the Court may require to be produced.
28.Court to correct valuation-list. The Court shall hear and determine all objections delivered as above provided, and may alter the valuation-list in respect of anything objected to, by correcting any value therein, or by inserting any matter therein, or erasing any matter therefrom, which it is proved to the satisfaction of the Court ought to be altered, inserted, or erased as the case may be.
29.If no valuation-list prepared, Court may appoint Valuers. If it is proved to the Court that no valuation-list has been prepared as required by this Act, the Court shall appoint a Valuer or Valuers to make such list, and shall fix and publicly notify the days for the completion and public inspection thereof, and for delivering objections thereto, and for hearing such objections; and the Court shall sit on the day so publicly notified and shall revise the valuation-list, as provided by the last-preceding section. All the cost of making such valuation-list shall be fixed by the Court, and shall be charged upon the district fund.
30.Alterations to be initialled, and list signed. The Judge shall initial all the alterations, insertions, and erasures, if any, made in the valuation-list, and shall sign the same.page 11
31.The valuation-list so signed, or so corrected and signed, shallValuation-list to be valuation-roll for the year. be the valuation-roll for the district, and shall remain in force until a fresh roll is made.
32.The valuation-roll so signed shall be conclusive evidence of theValuation-roll to be evidence. contents thereof, and that the same has been made in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
33.The Court shall deliver over the valuation-roll to the ClerkValuation-roll to be kept by local authority. or other principal officer of the local authority; and the local authority shall keep the same in its office or usual place of business, to be inspected by all persons interested therein at all reasonable hours.
34.The decision of the Court on all objections coming before Decision of Court to be final. it shall be final, and no proceeding of such Court shall be removed into any superior Court by certiorari or otherwise.
35.The local authority may, while any valuation-roll remainsLocal authority may amend roll. in force, alter the same,—
(1.)By placing thereon any rateable property which may have been accidentally omitted from such roll, or by removing from such roll any property which may have been erroneously placed thereon, or by inserting on such roll the name of the owner of any property in cases where, in terms of this Act, the word "owner" merely has been inserted under that heading in the said roll, and the name of such owner has been subsequently ascertained, or where a change in the name of the owner has been rendered necessary by the provisions of section fifty-two hereof; or
(2.)By placing thereon any lands not being rateable property which, while such roll remains in force, may become rateable property; and may determine who is the owner and occupier thereof, and fix the rateable value of the same, but so that, as regards lands purchased from the Crown during such period, the value to be fixed shall be the price paid to the Crown for such lands, and, as regards lands leased from the Crown, shall be the sum ascertained in the same way as prescribed in section two hereof for ascertaining the rateable value of pastoral lands of the Crown.

Nothing herein contained shall authorise the alteration of any rateable value except when such rateable value has been affected by the addition or removal of buildings, and then only to the extent to which the rateable value has been so affected.

If any such alteration be in the nature of a division of any rateable property, the rateable values of each division of a property so divided may be altered, provided that the rateable value of all such divisions equals in the whole the rateable value of the property as on the roll prior to such alteration, unless where buildings have either been added or removed, in which case the new aggregate value may be increased or diminished only to the extent of the value of such buildings.

Any such alterations, upon being initialled by the Chairman, shall be deemed thenceforth to form part of such valuation-roll, but with page 12out releasing any person from liability for any rates due at the time of the making of such alterations.

36.Objections may be made to such alterations. Every person to be affected by any alteration or addition in a valuation-roll made by any local authority under any powers authorising it in that behalf shall be entitled to object by lodging an objection with the local authority, and to have the objection heard before any Magistrate, who, for the purposes of this section, shall have all the powers and authorities of an Assessment Court.
All notices and other proceedings provided with respect to original valuations, and the objections against the same, and the hearing thereof before an Assessment Court, shall, mutatis mutandis, apply with respect to the alterations or additions in a valuation-roll, objections, and the hearing thereof before a Magistrate under the provisions of this section.