different type in similar or different localities has always to be kept in mind, to ensure just treatment of the ratepayer and of the assessing body which, in fact represents the community as a whole. The inapplicability of a rental receipt does not necessarily connote irregularity on the part of the fassessee, although, og everyone knows, in this imperfect world, ingenuity misguidedly may produce collusive action between landlord and tenant with the object of securing a lower assessment. There fare other and perfectly respectable grounds for not accepting the rent receipt as a proper basis for determining the appropriate figure on which the assessment is made. The Council gives instances: where pretferential rent is accorded by the landlord for business or family reasons; where the tenant's intreduction of improvements has consider-Jably enhanced the value of the property; where commutation of part the rent has occurred; where the rent is paid partly in' cash—for Jwhich the receipt is given—and partly by service of one kind or. another. When the majority of taxpayers bear their full share taxation, it is obviously just that provision should be made to ensure. that these special assessments—"an infinitesimal proportion of the whole", to quote from the Council's statement—correct any inequality.
'The Chinese Ratepayers' Association has looked at this matter from the wrong end of the telescope. It takes the case where the Council's lotteers, regarding the $100 rental as below the true value, raise the basis. lof assessment of $150 on which the 14 per cent. rate fs levied. Tt then Jargues that thereby the Council hi actually increased the rate for that particular tenant from 14 per cent {to 21 per cent, The Council brings ithe telescope into the right relation with the eye by pointing out that if the tenant paid 14 per cent. on a rent receipt of $100 when the fair rental was $150, he would actually throwing an additional burden jon the community as a whole for whereas his fellow-ratepayers would [be paying at the rate of 14 per cent... the would be contributing only 9.3 per cent. of his rateable resources ito the Council's revenue. The Association. as a responsible body of responsible citizens, cannot of course support the view that i should Jencourage the evasion of their obligations by a small class of the community. The greatest good of [the greatest number should be the paramount principle for guidance of jarly administration and the supjnorters of that administration. The JCouneil. in recent years, has been Imore vigilant in detecting cases of evasion. It has properly tightened jue its machinery in that regard. This action must be approved and especially at a time when the voice of public opinion here is emphat-{cally urging the importance of reducing expenditure to which the efffctent collection of revenue is an obvious corollary. The Rate Assessment Committee, composed of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.