COMPENSATION CLAIM FOR AWAROA BLOCK

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5328, 14 February 1947, Page 5

COMPENSATION CLAIM FOR AWAROA BLOCK

(Special to "Post")

Crown Witnesses Give Evidenee Of Value

WHAKATANE, Last Night. The hearing of the claim for £97,000 compensation for 1326 acres of the Awaroa Block at Edgecumbe, taken under the Servicemen's Settlement Act, was continued to-day before the Land Saies Court. * Detailed and technieal evidenee concerning production costs and the estimated returns on all six shlremilking farms was given. The question of the value of the 5000 gum and macroearpa trees was answered by the Crown ?vitness, Mr. Bruce Brown, senior fields officer for the State Advances Department, who claimed that any set valuation, &part from that as shelter, was fallaeious. Lengthy evidenee was led cdWeernifig the subsidence of the area, due to contraction of th'e peat base. The evidenee of Mr. Hugh Gavin, engineer to the Lands and Survey Department, was that low-lying sections of the estate had shimnlc since 1935 from three inches to four feet. He estimated . that eventually these areas would subside so much that they would require the establishing of a pumping area. Mr. R. Kay, one of the Crown counsel, summed up, after which His Honor, Mr. Justice Archer, said he would be prepared to hear counsel for claimants in the morning.