Land Compensation Claims.

Patea Mail, 26 January 1882, Page 3

Land Compensation Claims.

Mb. H. M. Brewer lias settled several claims for compensation on account of land taken to form the railway at Patea and Kakaramea. He returned to Wanganui this afternoon, and will not be iu Patea again till the second week iu February. The claims in this district have this peculiarity, that the long period occupied iu constructing the line towards Manutahi, and the absence of the usual condition requiring contractors to fence before turning a sod, caused annoyances to farmers of a kind that are not usually taken into account. For example, in assessing the value of land taken at per acre, it is not usual to include in the price of.the land any losses sustained through fences not being put up. Yet it is only reasonable that compensation should be given for losses of any kind resulting from railway construction. Even where loss of time is esused by hunting after cattle straying through fences left open by workmen on the line, what right has Government to inflict that loss, or any other loss, on a farmer ? Where cattle or sheep have been lost through the same want of fencing, why should that loss fall on a farmer ? If it suits the Government to leave fences down, the Government takes the risk and should pay the losses ensuing. If claimants find there is an objection on the part of Government to take these incidental losses into account, and if Government will pay only for land taken at per acre, with some proper allowance for severance of a strip from the rest of a farm, there is still another course open. It seems to us that the exceptional conditions under which this section to Manutahi has.been constructed should justify a special and separate claim being made for such losses as have resulted from what is called leisurely construction. Some annoyances, some kinds of losses, and many insults endured, cannot be expressed in figures. There are incidental damages and losses which can be so expressed, and these might well take the form of a separate special claim, apart from value of land. ,To try to get an increased value per acre on account of these incidental losses is a fatal mistake. 5 You Swon’t get it. Try the other tack. An arbitration case is fixed to he heard at Fatea early in February. Mr Dime, Waitolara, claims a special value for gravel-pit opened and worked on his land. His claim altogether is one that the Government is resisting, and by arrangement the arbitration is to be heard iu the Patea R.M. Court. The rule as to arbitration cases is that claims over £SOO may be heard in the Supreme. Court, before the Judge and two assessors acting as arbitrators. Claims below £SOO may be heard in the same way in the R.M. Court, and assessors may be dispensed with to save expense if the parties agree to have the case decided by the R.M. alone.