DECISION ANNOUNCED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 25, 7 May 1947, Page 5

DECISION ANNOUNCED

THE HOLDSWORTH ESTATE COURT AWARDS £66,000 An award of £65,991 compensation to the owners of land at Edgecumbe, near Whakatane, which was taken over by the Crown for servicemen’s settlement, has been made by the Land Sales Court, presided over by Mr Justice Archer. The award covers an area of 1325 acres, that formerly was Rangitaiki swamp, which has been under development by the Holdsworth family for nearly 30 years.

The former proprietors, B. J. Holdsworth, C. G. Holdsworth -and M. A. Holdsworth, claimed £97,859. Mr K. J. Sim, K.C., and Mr R. F. Gambrill represented the claimants, and the Crown was represented by Mr Barnett and Mr R. Kay. With Mr Justice Archer on the bench were Messrs. W. Stewart and W. E. Scott.

It was shown in the hearing that the property was divided into seven fully-developed dairy farms, supporting 72 people, and that during the period in which it had been in the possession of the Holdsworth family most of the profits had been expended in bringing the land and improvements to their present high-ly-developed state. -The claimants based their case on returns from ten years’ working of the property and produced evidence that 1006 cows could be milked there, with an average annual production of 230 lb of butterfat, including allowance for the necessary proportion of dry stock.

The Crown offered £58,344 for the property and argued that it would support a smaller number of dairy cattle than suggested by the claimants. The award of the Court represents an over-all value of just under £SO an acre.