R.M. COURT, SPRING GROVE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 240, 8 October 1872, Page 2

R. M. COURT, SPRING GROVE.

[BeforeLbw-UEB BnoAh, Esq., R.M:, arid Hugh: Martin, Esq , J. P.] , Stanley y. Upper Motueka Road Board. Appeal from an' asses ment on the ground of incorrectness and unfairness in the valuation. and estimation of the acreage of appellant's! property. Mr. Henrj* Adams appeared for the appellant, •Mr. Fell appeared for the Board, with the understanding -that his doing so would not prejudice his right to object, to the jurisdictitibn of the Court on the ground that there was not proper proof of Rervice of notice. of. appeal. The Resident Magistrate intimated he should take any evidence forthcoming then, and adjourn the case for completion of the evidence and legal ■argument to Nelson. Mr. Adams then called. John Stanley, who deposed as follows :— I am. the owner of property in the Upper -Motueka Valley; the property has been assessed by the board at £5900, the annual rate on which amounts to £24 lis Bd. The first notice given by the Board appear in the Colonist of 10th September. No notices, as required by the Provincial Highway's Act, Sec. 23, have been given. I have sold parts of the land for which I : am assessed, about 160 acres altogether. None of the land I sold belongs :to me now. . The land I sold is assessed at £2 an sere. Some 600 or 700 acres have been washed away, and all that is assessed at £2 an acre. I consider £4000 <the lull .value of the property, and am ready to sell at that .price. Last yeir the Board assessed me at £3000. Cross-examined : Nothing is growing en the land washed away. A flax-mill is being put up by a man on Section 96 I have not concluded an y arrangements with him: yet. The land is .worth £1 per acre. Section. 75 was bought .by ;m£ in 185.7 for £l 4s. Bd.. an. acre. It. is stony; ,land. The whole of Section 9 1 is swept, away. Fgave 30a. anacre for Section 83 iv 1863; it" is a boundary piece between Drummond and myself; : it is more than ever it -was- worth. Land, was worth more ten years ago than it is'now. , William McGowan stated : lama farmer. I have been living in the country-.-O years. I have been cultivating and occupying land during that time. Scarcely any of Stanley's land is fit for agriculture. I doubt if the value is £4000; that would certainly be the outside value. Thomas Andrews stated : I know Stanley's place. I have been in tbe habit of xaluirig land "for years I consider the whole of his place not . worth more than £2000. I value the land according to the rental I think it would bring At this stage Mr Adams put in the Gazette of 24th June, 1872, and the case was adjourned to Nelson. » Coleman v. Upper Motueka Road Board. George Coleman, who conducted his own case, said : I signed a notice which was sent to me all ready written. .1 put it in an envelope,, and gave it to Holland to post. Holland did not see what was in the envelope. It was directed to the Secretary of the Board. The Resident Magistrate said that as the jurisdiction, of the Court' depended upon due service of notice seven days before the hearing' of the appeal, it was absolutely necessary to prove that the governing body, as the Act termed them,: had been served. This could. have been, done perhaps as in the other case, by delivering a copy to the Chairman personally. As the matter now stood, he felt compelled to rule. that the; proof of service of the notice was insufficient, and the appeal would be dismissed. : :< : •: Holland v. Upper Motueka Board. Mr Acton Adams' for the appellant. Mr Fell for the Board. - Henry Holland deposed : I wrote out a notice of ap'peaUwbich I gave personally. to.Mr. Louden 1 ,, the chairman of the Board, on the 2 1st September. I. saw him read it. T produce a copy of it. I am rated at £1000., .There, are. 732 japges,. pf. .wbi'cbu |"2? «re -easeno-cjU About 70 acr,ei'on)yl have been improved and fenced. I vaiue the place at £600^: and will take that for. it.— „ j Thomas Andrews said be valued the property at £539 15s. He value 4. according- to probable rental. Case adjourned. Nelson: x "' ; • ■'"- '-''•'■ "' J - Qibbsy. Upper MoiuekdrMoad Board. •Applicant appeared for himself. Mr. Eell for the.jß.oard. 'Williamv Gibbs said: I asked Louden, the chairman, if he would _ receive a notice., He refused. I served it or? '• another member of the Board personally, his name is C Orchard. I piodnee a.copys ?IfSeryed>it on^th-;2BtlLSeptem-ber. My property;.- assess-d^at £900. The real value is £422. There are about 1100 acres,, of Which'ifieoacVes'areleßsehold^t-'s »'MI lu'Yi Yd : Thomas Andrews gave eviderice at length of the valuation made by r fiun of Gibbs' property, and said thetotal^yalno was £4?2,.f,; 0 T ';' ; ;:pase;adjpurned.V 'V \. . : '- % -v. , ; ; .\ *;Y. '■'■ V 1 ''Fofi'JDonf^ :

A Southern Paprb, referring to the death., of; the iMaorin jchief/ styles, him " PatMahqneyl" A Shake, measuring Bft. 6in;in.;ler)g!,h, was caught ia Lyttelton harbor ou the 23rd ult, -„ .' * • : ; x YyY .'PiIBASAis'T !~A woman rinmedDevatiori, the wife of a belLringer, ia Wanjranui, is reported by the ■" Chronicle;" to have last week vomited up a living lizard. She is unable to acaouut for th'e'imy story, but she says ".she- >ban toll she has others yet remaining in her stomach. . A VQLUNTEKa was , ; summdned by .the captain of* the Taieri (Otago) Rifles for detention of accoutremeuls after being dismiss*-- for non-attendance. The magistrate decided in favor of the defendant, striking off tha muster roll not being a proper dismissal according to the Act. A spirited attempt is to be made in Auckland to revive the old Jockey Club. It is intend9.d,torinaugurate a two day's', race meeting: to.be.run some time^in the month of the New" Year, and to advertise such prizes as will bring aotne of the.b.est:'hloo;d of the province from all parts of the Colony. £500, it is said, is to be raised for" a Town Plato Race, and £200 for a handicap. The~' Wangariui Meat Curing..Company has upwards of 250 casks of cured meat ready for shipment. As each cask contains 336 pounds, the amount in hand at present is 84,000 lbs or 37^ ton b. The parcel will be Buippe.'l at once to London where at the present high rates at which fresh meat is selling, a good price will be received;-.- -. ;„•;.: ;-'\:7' Mr. Fox and Me..' Curtis. — Readers of Hansard cannot fail to have noticed how eagerly Mr. Fox seizes every opportunity to sneer and snarl at Mr. Curtis. They may also have observed that in tlie Superintendent of Nelson the late Premier occasionally meets with bis match, and that he does not always come off victorious in the encounters, to engage iv which he goes so far out of bis way. In the -last number of Hansard, under the heading "Larceny Bill Comraitiee," we ficd ; the following : — Mr. Fox, in asking the Hon. Mr. Curtis, when the Committee, on the Larceny Bill would report, said the House would; remember thatj at a very early Stage in the proceedings of; the session, the hon. member for Nelson City" (Mr. Curtis) not then filling the official position which be now did,, appeared before that audience for the first time in the capacity of a law reformer. They were extremely glad to see- him assuming that function, being, of course all .satisfied of his admirable fitness for the ofiice. The Bill which tbe hon. gentleman then proposed to introduce, either for reforming thieves or for the 'punishment of crime, was referred to a Select Committee, anil he (Mr. Fox) understood that the Committee had examined many witnesses, including at least one Judge of the Supreme Court, : and he did not know whom else, copable of throwing light on the subject. Some hon. members had intimated their intention "of taking steps towards a codification of the laws of this Colony, and he must confess that bis own inclination lay in the same direction, and* it would be very useful to them if they could have before them the light that must be thrown upon the initiatory attempts of the hon.-' member for Nelson iv the way of law reform by the evidence taken before the Committee, tie (Mr. Fox) had en' intention of giving some thought in his leisure moments to the subject,, and it would be very useful to have , the benefit of the honorable . member's ideas on the subject, and still more so of the evidence taken before the Committee. —Sir.. Curtis, in reply, said he thought the honorable member for liaDgjtikei must be aware that the subject which was brought befbre-the House by means of the Larceny Bill — namely, the general simplification of the"; laws of the Colony--' was ! ope of a character which required long, patient, and laborious investigation by the Committee to whom it was referred, and he 7coujd not help thinking that the honorable member was. possibly aware that there had been, during the present session, certain disturbing.! _fluencescal_Wate^ to' prevent that investigation being carried, on in ; . a .satisfactory and efficient manner, ..and the Comjmittee giving such an amount of ,attenticm to "what ;tO;,moßt honorable members' imust be a dull and dry subject, as, would enable then, to come. to anything like .a./&utisfactory t conclusion. -<. rAfc. the • same time,; he was a little Surprised to find the-- honorable gentleman take so much intefest l^^ the rhaUer. r &Bcau-^ iff, :6b*ject to the measure when it came before the"House. It seemed that the, honorable bad ceVt^ tie*) charge as Siiperin tendent of .tbWProV vince b if Nelson ; antl he really thought, ■Cro*^ kk. gen'tii.'in&n'i_ay 'ih'e ■ .'in^asur^HhiTt 7. it had some personal, application to ''mjffiapjt. Q7masl-ing^^