PROPERTY OFFERS TO GROWN

Evening Star, Issue 21743, 11 June 1934, Page 8

PROPERTY OFFERS TO GROWN

VALUER-GENERAL'S WIDE POWERS [Pn UxiTm Fsms Ahociatiox.] AUCKLAND, June 11. Information about the offering of properties to the Crown was given in an unofficial capacity by the president of the Assessment Court, Mr J. S. Hewitt, S.M., to-day. He answered questions before the court actually opened. He said the Valuer-General now had much wider powers than formerly. He had the right to take an offered property on behalf of the Government, or offer it to the local body concerned, or make any private arrangement. Property could not now be offered for less than the amount of the mortgage, plus rates and other charges owing on it. While an objector must still offer the property within fourteen days, the Valuer-General could take his own time in disposing of it. A property once offered could not be withdrawn. Mr Hewitt said he intended to rule that the valuation of the _ properties offered to the Crown be sustained. That would give’ the objector something to appeal against. “ What I am saying is unofficial,” he added, “ and is my opinion only. If I were in a private capacity I should consult a lawyer before offering a property to the Crown, because you may get a result you do not want.” When the court opened a large number of the eighty objectors offered properties to the Crown, in spite of what Mr Hewitt had said.