EVANS BAY RECLAMATION

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 246, 10 July 1908, Page 5

EVANS BAY RECLAMATION

BETTERMENT CLAUSE. MAYOR OP MIRAMAR EXPLAINS. To acquaint tho public with the position in which property-owners in nnd'about Evans Bay will find themselves should tho Wellington Harbour Board Empowering Bill becom'o law, with clauso 16 (The " Bettdrment Clause") unaltered, tho Mayor of Miramar explained tho position to tho Council at its meeting last evening. He was not oxpressingi any opinion on tho matter, ho said, but merely stating facts. The Council had, that day, lodged a petij tion against tho Bill. -Tho exact purport of clause 16, •referring' to "betterment, was not clearly understood by tho public; and, • further ,the clauso itself was constructed as such provisions usually wero. , In : the first place, tho clauso was to be applied by a local authority, not upon the residents of its own district, but'upon thoso outside its jurisdiction..-. Secondly, tho wording of tho clause'wafe such, that its powers were wider than those, under , tho ordinary betterments, for these reasons:— .. 1. It is not only referred .to tho Act in which is is ombodi&d,' but also to'any other Act under which,'tho Harbour. Board may or-may not bo carrying out reclamation and other works. -, 1 . , '•■ • • 2. It did not !: refer, as is commonly supposed; to tho' particular reclamation scheme under contemplation at Evans Bay, but to any othfer works—buildings, an exhibition, a show—which i tho Harbour 'Board might think fit to darry out. -Tho clauso was just fas effective in these respects as. in reclamation. ; ■-- ; ■ ■'' . , Further,..its reference to, other Acts and works gavo'.it a perpetual application. Miramar Peninsula, Kilbirnle,'Hataitai, and Maranui, would all be affected. . ' . Negotiations wore at'.present pending between the 'Council: and. tno Harbour Board, and the friendly spirit manifested by both parties w,ould no doubt,'lie hoped, lead to a satisfactory termination of; tho difficulty.

Shortly put, said the Mayor, to our reporter, tho Betterment'Clauso means this: — If a man owns property valued ■at £1000, and this value is enhanced by an additional £500 as the result of improvements effected in the prosperity', of tho neighbourhood by tho carrying out of reclamation and other works ..by tho Harbour Board, that body has a- claim 1 on' the £500,-. while tho property owner must pay increased taxes on a rateable "basis of £1500.