NAPIER COMPENSATION COURT.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 26 September 1901, Page 3

NAPIER COMPENSATION COURT.

(per PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

' Napier, Sept. 25. At the Compensation Court to-day at the conclusion of the Kumeroa estate case, the claim of the trustees of the Forestgate property was heard.

This was a claim for land taken under the Land for Settlement Act. The claim is at the rate of £5 14s 9d per acre and the Government offers £3 17a 6d. The total amounts in each case being not definitely ascertainable owing to a doubt as o the exact acreage, the question of area will be settled between the parties after a fresh survey has been made. It had been known that the property consisted of between 8,500 and 9,C00 acres, and the claim was based on 8,777 acres. It is now stated however, that the correct acreage is exclusive of roads and of a block of 39 acres to which the Herrick family had. no right except that of occupiers.

The value of the land and the total amount of the award would be in accorddance with the ascertained acreage. Counsel for claimants quoted from the Parliamentary debate on the Forestgate property as reported in Hansard, where the Premier said the price the trustees offered for the land (£4 10s) the Government were prepared to give, and then they altered their minds and asked to withdraw it. Counsel for Government said that this was not evidence and the Premier had no authority to make any, offers binding the Colony.