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Sydney City Council

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City Treasury Department I

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Rate Books, 1844-1928 [Municipal Council of Sydney]

Description

Unique IDAS-0018Start dateBetween 18th January 1844 and 31st December 1928Start date qualifiercircaFormatVolume - Leather BoundShort descriptionThis series of Rate Books, 1844-1928, records the amount of rates paid and the name of the rate payer. Rate Books are divided according to the electoral wards.DescriptionThis series of Rate Books were created by the City Treasury Department I (AG-0012) for the period 18/01/1844 to 31/12/1928. They record the amount of rates paid and the name of the rate payer. They do not record as much property information as the Assessment Books (AS-0017).

Apart from the general City rate, Council also levied rates at various times to cover:
- police (1844-1845)
- lighting (1845-1857)
- water (1883-1888)
- sewerage (1883-1890)
- Martin Place extension (1892-1992)
- Sydney Harbour Bridge (1923-1928), and
- main roads (1925-1928).

The Rate Books are divided according to the electoral wards. They usually record:
- rate number
- street
- name of person rated
- description of the property
- assessed annual value
- amount of the rate levied, and
- date paid.

Some of the rate books also record:
- name of the payee
- dimensions of the property, and
- name of the occupant.

The 1844 Rate Books for Brisbane, Gipps, Phillip, and Macquarie wards are arranged alphabetically by the name of the occupant or person rated.

Initially, rates were levied on the value of the buildings on the property. D L Clark notes that the ‘obvious defect in such a system was that the burden of taxation fell on people who improved their land, thus discouraging fuller utilisation of land and, in practice, encouraging speculation and land monopoly. Property owners were not encouraged to construct first quality buildings on their land as the rates on their land would automatically rise’. [D L Clark, ‘Roasting the landowner before a slow fire, The origins of rating on unimproved land values', in Jill Roe (ed.) Twentieth Century Sydney]. It also meant that there were large tracts of unoccupied land for which Council could not levy rates.

The Local Government Act of 1906 declared that the system of rating to be adopted lay in the hands of the local authorities. This led to the formation of a lobby group called the Rating on Unimproved Values League, of which the Lord Mayor of Sydney was patron.

The City Council was governed by the Sydney Corporation Act rather than the Local Government Act at that time. It began lobbying to have the Sydney Corporation Act amended so that it too could choose to assess rates based on unimproved capital value (UCV). From 1909, even though it was still required to rate property, only two books were produced, one based on the value of buildings, and one on the UCV.

In 1916, the Sydney Corporation (Amendment) (No 2) Act 1916, was adopted, and Council resolved to assess properties based on the UCV. From 1916 only one set of Rate Books was produced - based on UCV.

It appears that the Rate Books were created and maintained by the City Treasury Department I (AG-0012), as this Department included the rate servers and rate ledger keepers. However, the Assessment Books (AS-0017) were prepared by the assessors in the Town Clerk's Department (AG-0040).

It is not clear why the Rate Books held by Archives cease in 1928. Information about the dates that rates were paid is not contained in the assessment books after this date, so it appears that later volumes of Rate Books were destroyed. However no documentation about the destruction has been located so far.
Relationship summaryRELATED TO: Making of the Rate Book AS-1107 (1/4/1901 to c. 31/12/1928)
RELATED TO: Ward Field Books AS-0845 (01/01/1924 to 31/12/1928)
RELATED TO: Levying and collection of police rates AY-0076 (18/01/1844 to 31/12/1846)
RELATED TO: Levying and collection of rates AY-0014 (18/01/1844 to 31/12/1928) LanguageEnglish (eng)

Item

Incomplete Rate Book for Bourke, Brisbane, Macquarie, Phillip and Gipps Wards. (Alphabetical Name

Belmore Ward City Rate Book

Rate on Unimproved Capital Value (Main Roads, Bridge and City Rate)

Rate on Unimproved Capital Value (Belmore Ward Map - Main Roads, Bridge and City Rate)

Rate on Unimproved Capital Value (1923-Rate for Sydney Harbour Bridge Act of 1922)

Rate on Unimproved Capital Value

Rate on Unimproved Capital Value (Annual)

Belmore Ward City Rate Book

Macquarie Ward Rate Book (City Rate - No Index)

Series

Rate Books, 1974-1992 [City of Sydney]

Assessment Books, 1845-1950 [Municipal Council of Sydney / City of Sydney]

Access

Public access statusOpen to public access

Identification and Arrangement

Source system ID18System of arrangementBy Ward division, then chronological by year

Digitisation

Digitisation statusNot digitised

Data Quality

Authenticity & integrityThese are the original Rate Books of the Municipal Council of Sydney. The record has been held in the Council’s custody and has a high level of authenticity. Users should be aware that this is an historical record and the language used within the record was the language of the time it was captured, and may not reflect current community values or expectations.

Relationships

OrganisationSydney City CouncilRelated seriesWard Field BooksMaking of the Rate BookRate Books, 1974-1992 [City of Sydney]Creating agenciesCity Treasury Department IRelated activitiesLevying and collection of ratesLevying and collection of police rates

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Rate Books, 1844-1928 [Municipal Council of Sydney]