APPEAL COURT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 172, 15 April 1919, Page 5

APPEAL COURT

RATES ON MACHINERY COUNCIL Y. GAS COMPANY The case of tho Auckland City Council v. the Auckland Gas Company was continued in tho Appeal Court yesterday. On tho bench were His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout), Mr. Justice Chapman, Mr. Justice bim, and Mr. Justice Hosting. Mr. C. P. Skerrett, K.C., wsth him Mr. J. Stanton, of Auckland, appeared for the Auckland City Council, aad Mr. H. P. Richmond, of Auckland, for the Auckland Gas Company. vi«_j This was an appeal by the Auckland City Council against a judgment ot His Honour Mr. Justice Cooper, and the appellants moved that so much of the judgment of His Honour delivered on December 19, 1918, in tho action in which the Auckland City Council was plaintiff and the Auckland tias Company was defendant, as holds that the defendants main pipes and gasometers are machinery and 60 excepted from tho definition of rateable property in the Eating Act, 1908, and exempt from rates, be reversed and judgment entered for the plaintiff in respoot of the rates levied thereon, on the ground that so muon of tho judgnient was wrong in law. _ , In the action in tho Supreme Court the city authorities claimed from tho Gas Company JSI6BO 13s. Bd. for rates on gasometere, and mains and pipes laid in tho public streets of the city. Hie Honour Mr. Justice Cooper, in his judgment, decided that tho defendant company had established its contention that the mains, pipes, and gasometers and governors, etc., were excepted from the definition of rateable property, and were immune from taxation. A purely legal point, but an important question under the Rating Act, was involved in tho case. Two mam questions arose. The first was whether a mitin and pipes being laid pursuant to statutory authority beneath the public streets of the city were rateable property within the meaning of the Rating Act,' 1908. Tho second question was whether, if the first question were answered in favour of the city,. the gas mains ond pipes were machinery fixed to the soil or not, and a subsidiary question arose whether gasometers and govornors were the same. Argument in the case at 4.30 p.m. and the Court reserved decision.