The Land Tax And Land Valuation Office And Advances To Settlers' Office are in Maling's Buildings, Worcester Street, opposite the Ladies' Club. Mr. A. P. O'Callanghan in the supervising valuer, and he has a staff of clerks. Valuations are supplied on payment of a fee. The Act under which the Valuation Department was established was passed in 1896. It provides for the periodical valuation of all landed properties in New Zealand, and for that purpose the colony is divided into special districts. The first valuation was made as at the 31st of March, 1896, and since then valuations in many parts of the colony have been revised as circumstances required. The valuations are for the purpose of land tax, local rates (in cases where rates are levied on the capital or on the unimproved value), stamp duties, and for several departments of the State.

Mr. Arthur Pyne O'Callaghan, Supervising Valuer of the Land Tax and Valuation Department in Christchurch, was born in Fermoy, Ireland, in 1837, and educated at Dublin University, where he graduated B.A. in 1850. Mr. O'Callaghan entered the Anglican Church, being ordained in England, and held a cure in Surrey for two years before coming to the Colony in 1863. Arriving at Lyttelton in the ship “Greyhound,” Mr. O'Callaghan had charge of the Oxford church for two years, after which he retired from the ministry to take up farming pursuits. For some twenty-five years Mr. O'Callaghan carried on a farm in Lincoln and in the Peninsula, during which time he was a member of the Springs Road Board for some years, and also represented the constituency in the House of Representatives during the years 1882–9. For some years Mr. O'Callaghan was in charge of the Lands Department in South Canterbury as land officer and valuator at Timaru, and when page 149 the Land Tax and Valuation Department was established in Christchurch in 1807, he was appointed Supervising Valuer. As a member of the Masonic Order, he is attached to Lincoln lodge, E.C. Mr. O'Callaghan was married in 1868, to a daughter of the Rev. William Pyne, Rector of Oxted, Surrey; that lady died in 1875, leaving one son and two daughters. In 1877 he was married to a daughter of Mr. W. M. Hindmarsh, of Reefton, by whom he has four sons and six daughters.