CLAIM FOR RATES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 332, 20 September 1932, Page 3

CLAIM FOR RATES

LOCAL BODIES AT LAW PETONE COUNCIL SUES WELLINGTON CITY CORPORATION. WATER-BORING DISCUSSED. Wellington, Tuesday. Two important local bodies, the Wellington City Gorporation and the Petone Borough Council, came to grips in the Magistrate's Court yesterday over the sum of £5 15s. The Petone Borough Council claims the anaount as rates due on a four-acre section opposite Gear Island, in whieh the city corporation, having obtained the section on license from the Government, bored for water early last year. The city corporation says that the sec- ! tion, with a pipe two or three inches in diameter projeeting from the middle, is part of a waterworks, and therefore exempt from rates under the iRating Act. The Petone Borough Council disagrees with that view. "The sum in dispute is, of course, trifling," said counsel for the Petone borough, opening his case. The piece j of land in question, he said, was occupied by the eity corporation under ' a license from the Crown, and the I Petone borough was of the opinion j that rates were due on it. In the no- i • tice of action the amount had been | given as £5 4s 7d, but the claim was | for £5- 15s, which was mad's up of the ' original amount plus 10 per eent. I "We'll let them off the 10 per cent., no doubt, if they pay," he said. Counsel for the city corporation said that the position the city took up was that the land was used for waterworks purposes and was consequently exempt from rates. "For some time," he said, "the Wellington City Council has been exploiting the possibility of obtaining ' water supplies for the city in the Hutt Valley, partieularly at Petone. ■ We made application to the Crown for permission to bore for water in that particular area. j

Viewed with Alarm. "The Petone council viewed our actions in that borough with a substantial degree of alarm, as the source from which we proposed to take water was higher than the source of their own supply, and they thought they might be affected," said counsel. "In consequence of that we are now prospecting on Gear Island, where bores are going down. The bore on the section in question was sunk to a depth of 423 feot, with quite satisfactory resuts. But the Petone borough had actually said that they would op'pose any attempt to exploit that piece of land for water-getting purposes." "In deferenee to the wishes of the borough of Petone, we are now boring on Gear Island, and the possibility is ' that if we find that Gear Island supplies us with enough water we'll hand this piece of land back to the Crown. But I want to emphasise," he added, "that the sole reason for the city corporation acquiring that piece of land was to hore for water." . "Now My Turn, " Counsel for the Petone borough ross to address the magistrate. "It is now my turn," he remarked, "to embark on a boring operation." He suhmitted that the term "waterwarks" as used in the Act bore its ordinary meaning, and that the section and pipe could not be exempt from rates. "There is not suffieient in the Act," he said, "to ' bring this piece of land within the ex- : emption conferred hy the Rating Act. ! In the section itself is a 3-inch pipe sticking a few feet out of the ground, with a plug on top. And that's all there is. It is suhmitted that that cannot be called a waterworks." Mr. T. B. McNeil, S.M., reserved bis decision. . i