VALUATION of GALATEA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 62, 15 September 1939, Page 5

VALUATION of GALATEA

decision of"court # r; : .26S AN , ACRE UNIMPROVED <CROWN FAILS TO GET OWN WAY *- . A Government attempt to have the unimproved value of the Galatea Estate fixed at £1 ah acre, failed when the Assessment Court held a sitting at Whakatane on, Wednesday. An objection was lodged by the Whakatane County Council and this was upheld, though the figure fixed :by, the court was 26s an acre, which is adduction on the old valuation. Mr A. A. McLachlan presided over Wthe court, and he had with him Messrs G. H. Finch, Government ' assessor, and A. Sutherland, county assessor. The district land valuer Mr i E. A. Meredith represented the 'Crown and My T. E. Hamerton appeared for the county. The hearing occupied about two "hours, and during it there was a good r -deal of criticism of the Government methods of developing the estate, :allegations being made that it had not proved a success and that it? ifuture success was at least doubtful. Mr Hamerton said that the estate Jiad been purchased about eight ;ycars ago for £4 l(te an the — jtotal price being something in, exW cess of £100,000. This case referred * to the residue of the estate amounting to about 20,000 acres. It w r as being farmed as a run. The land already settled by dairymen comprised the poorest part of the estate, and this residue consisted of the best Uand, VALUATION SLAUGHTERED. The unimproved valuation was being slaughtered, said Mr Hamerton, vand if an estate of that sort dropped £30 000 it would be a nightmare to a private owner. There was no justification for the huge reduction in capital value, nor was there any justification for 70 per cent of that, "drop being taken off the unimproved value. Samuel Clements Colmore Williams, land valuer Auckland, said he had been retained by the v Whakatane County Council. He .-spent four days last week on an inspection of Galatea and had prepared a report. On sight he estimated "the estate was worth £31,351 unim--proved. He then drew up a budget rand based his estimate on the net "income. Much of the money spent on the subdivision ox the estate was establishment cost and could not be tak•en into account in the productive value of the estate as a run. No private owner would attempt to farm -the country ns it was being farmed. It would be beyond all reason. His budget had been conservative. He had allowed for 338 bales of wool, when the estate had actually pro- ; Vfluced 450 bales. His lambing percent ages and calving percentages were "lower than those actually returned, which had astounded him when he 1 "heard them.

HIS INFORMANTS. "Mr Meredith: Who told you? Mr Williams: I don't feel at lib- * ' to prejudice any one bv revealing their namcs j but 1 made thorough inquiries. He added that many of his informants did not know to whom "they wer£ talking. Mr W-Tiarns continued that some ryegrass pastures on the estate had failed and were hot producing 10 cent of grass. The rest was moss. the whole area could be -easily cultivated, but he thought "there had been some mistakes made on it. He had valued the manager's 'house, the cottages and the woolshecl :a»d yards. He had ignored roading •costs which he considered was work done for the future development of -the estate as a dairying settlement. It was not of benefit as a run. To Mr Meredith he said that under conditions he would give "*an acre for the estate. No sub-di-visional roading would be necessary. Mr Meredith: Would you be prepared to give 30s an acre, and then find £60,000 for a road. Mr Williams: No I would not, and I don't think the Government did. > Mr Meredith: I would be prepared *to give evidence to that effect. Mr Williams: Cb]ly for Galatea? . The grassing of the estate had been said Mr The trouble had b that they were "English pastures before

the country was .ready. , r/The, whole > trouble with Galatea: wasi-thati.it, wris> not consolidated and he could not see it being consolidated iirider dairy cows. At the present rate iit<i might take another 100' yearis to bring it in . for dairy settlement. He would very much have liked to form a company and buy the land at 30s, but he would farm it the other way to the Government by putting the dairy farms on the richest end of the estate. ACCESS WAS NECESSARY. Returning to the roading question Mr Meredith said the Government had had to spend £60,000 on 3, road. There had been no access for the estate. Mr Hamerton said that there had been an access road to Rotorua. To a question by Mr .Meredith regarding land sales Mr Williams said that he understood the county had bought three acres at £'3 an acre. He had only looked casually at Grant's place. "You dori't think the roads ai e valuable?" said. Mr Meredith. "Not as a run," said Mr Williams The Government valuation of an acre was wrong, he continued. He valued the land at varying sums from 255, £2 and £3 an,.acre. It was similar to country valued by the Government in the north at £11 an acre. Cedric Havclock Brebner, county engineer, said he had had 15 years experience of Galatea. Prior to the i purchase the Te Teko-Murupara road fringed the estate and the estate was also connected with Rotorua by the old Gully Road. The access was rough but quite practicable. Quite recently the council had been forced to pay £3 an acre for land adjoining the dairying part. It was poor land. THE OLD ROAD. The council had agitated for the construction of the new Te Teko road because it gave better watering facilities for stock. The old road was a legal county road. The county had constructed the road to the Bluffs and the Government had finished it. The old road could have been, put into good order for a lew thousands. M r Meredith was asked whether he intended to give evidence, Mr Hamerton saying that he would like to i cross-examine him. Mr Meredith eventually agreed to go into the box to shorten matters. Mr Meredith said that a good deal of money had been spent on roading, and under the Valuation of Land Act that must be treated as an improvement. This applied to the access i and internal roads. The Crown spent. £60,000 on the access road, £8000 on the Murupara-Galatea road and £6000 on internal roading. He had only charged five per cent of the access load, wiped out the cost of the - Murupara road, and Avritten, down the cost of internal roading by 50 per cent. He valued the estate as a run. but he agreed that the roading was of little value for this purpose. "In my opinion Galatea is not Avorth a 'tin of fish' over the whole of it,'" he said. "I would not agree with Mr Williams that it is worth 30s an acre." He continued that though mis- ( takes had undoubtedly been made an ] honest effort had been made to grass ( the country. Some of the desert coun ( try was only worth 5s an acre. Mr McLachlan said it looked as , though the question of roading Avas j all that came between the tAvo par- ( ties. The roads must be viewed only : in connection AA 7 ith their influence on the production of the estate. The ( county road might faA*e been improved sufficiently. COUNTY WANTED ROAD. Mr Meredith said he could not : agree. The county pressed for a upav 1 road Avith a view to getting the avool i doAvn through the district and getting the trade instead of Rotorua. Mr Hamerton said there Avas s. ficczing Avorks here then, and the road had been constructed to help it. : The internal roads Avcre of benefit in handling stock, said Mr Meredith. They could also be used for carting manure, though he did not favour top-dressing on a run. EA'en danthonia and brown top 1 would not be the Avorse for super, said Mr McLachlan. They Avere the Avorst weeds in Ncav Zealand, countered Mr Meredith. They avouUl not fatten lambs. Mr Hamerton pointed out that the estate was carrying more stock bofore the Government took over than to-day. ' : Mr Meredith .! di<iV not : think the imnroyements would CQunter-act the deterioration in the estate. The im-

provements had actually been depreciated by, 'about £21,000, including 'I£6ooo l'or loading..-' "Can you justify it?'" said Mr Ham tt'ton. •;: ...i i\' 1 } <'■ hardlv,''.said Mr Meredith. ''The valuer can't justify it ? you -see" 1 said Mr Hamerton.jVlt-glFboiiy down to the fact that the capital value of the estate is less than what the Crown gave for it in depression time.'' Mr Hamerton emphasised that oniv the proportion of benefit from the roads should be taken into account; not the cost of loading. He submitted that Mr Meredith had not told them anything, but had admitted that it was a rough and ready valuation. Over and above the rates from the district, it was costing thccoun-y £1700 to keep the road open. The court adjourned for a few minutes while the assessors consulted. COURT'S DECISION. On the resumption Mr McLachlan said that they had given due weight to the valuable opinions of Messrs Williams and Meredith. Having due ■ regard to the valuation of Grant's property at 28s an acre, the court fixed a valuation of 26s an acre. This was almost half way between ( the county and government valua- < tion, but it had not been arrived at ( as the result of a compromise. It . had not been easy to arrive at a fair - figure. The court hoped that the es- ( tate would now prove successful. ,