SQUATTERS FINED AND TOLD TO GET OUT

Chronicle (Levin), 24 May 1947, Page 6

SQUATTERS FINED AND TOLD TO GET OUT

WELLINGTON, May 23. Two Court actions were bfoughi against the Abel Tasman House sqUaiters almost simultaneously this morning. A few minutes after the Magistrate, Mr. Thompson, had fined nve husbands £10 each for trespass, the Hon. Mr. Justice Cornish, in chambers, granted the Wellington Ladies' Christian Association an injunction restrainmg the sqnatters from furtlier occupancy of Abel Tasman House, the injunctioxr to lie in the Court for 14 days in consideration of the faiiiilies ' assurance that all hoped to lind other accommodation within a fortnight. It was stated in the Magistrate's Court on behalf of defendants that one couple had been living in a converted tool- shed and aceumulated misery caused by social and economic circumstanees beyond their control, had forced them to enter the house which had been empty for some weoks. It was alsu stated that there were 3000 unsatisfied applications for houses in Wellington. The Magistrate said the Court could uot let natural sympathy override the fact that the law had been broken. "The penalty must be a serious one. It needs no stressing by me what the effect of the extension of this sort of act would have both on the law of the land and the rights of property. " In the Supreme Court chambers, when the motion for the injunction was heard before Mr. Justice Cornish, it was stated that the Ladies' Christian Asso ciation was waiting vacant possession of the preniises to hand the house to the E.S.A. as a hostel for disabled servicemen. In consideration o.f" the aifficult position of the squatters, the association suggested that the order lie in the Court. for 14 days. In granting the application the Judge awarden costs against all six defehdants, the five families still in occupancy to pay three guineas each and the other defpndant who left the premises on April 23, two guineas. •