IMPORTANT TO FLAXMILLERS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1496, 19 July 1912, Page 5

IMPORTANT TO FLAXMILLERS.

")i. AN INJUNCTION,TO ISSUE. IBr Teleer»»h.-Fre!« AisooliitlonJ • -■ Palnierston North, July 18.; A case of very groat importance to flaxwaa'heard at the last sittingof th"e ' Supreme- Court at Palmerston, in which Pedroe, a settler oa the banks of tho Oroiia' River, '.sought to- 'showt tbatviour fl'ashiillew o'tr'the-banks of the Oroua, cast, or allowed, refuse rfronv.their mills''to flbw.or' get into the 'river,'with tho result , that the-water was polluted and, unfit for consumption by stock; further, that the'bed'of the river was/raised; causing the river in flood .time to overflow and flood plaintiff's land. Reserved judgment was delivered to-day, lin ..which; the Chief Justice (Sir Robart . Stout) decided in favour of plaintiff. ■ Ho said ■-. that defendants could not put effluents: from their mills into the river and Iso pollute,it. "It may be," he continued, ; "ttiat a considerable industry may be [crippled or destroyed if they cannot conjtinuewhat they have done, and it muy jl» that plaintiff's loss or damage will be Ismail; compared with the loss that defendants might suffer by an alteration in the'.present methods of disposal of effluents, .'but I cannot consider such results." The court held, however, that nono of the defendants were liable for the dam(age, sustained by the overflow, of the river. Judgment was given for £o damages fin- each action, with, costs on the lowest •scale,land an injunction to issue to pre,vent effluents from going into the river In its present state. ■ ', '•