DRAINAGE DISPUTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 126, 18 August 1927, Page 18

DRAINAGE DISPUTE

LAND CLASSIFICATION The hearing' of objections to the Hauraki United Drainage Board’s classification of land for rating purposes in A class, following on the union, of Horahia and Hauraki Boards, was continued by Mr. F. W. Platts, S.M., yesterday. Evidence supporting the objectors’ claim was given by Mr. F. W. Walters, chairman of the Waitoa Drainage Board, Mr. J. E. Thompson, surveyor and engineer, and Mr. W. E. Hughes, chairman of the Hungahunga Drainage Board. Mr. E. L. Walton, on behalf of the united board, contended that the question for the court to decide hinged wholly on the proper system of classification and the basis on which a classifier should work as interpreted by section 38 of the Land Drainage Act, 1908. He proceeded to show that the board’s classification was correctly made. A Government commission last year had stated that the land would have been uninhabitable but for the board’s drainage works. The objections were really engineered by a small coterie of disgruntled and defeated candidates for office. Twelve months ago the objectors had been prepared to accept the A classification. The action of the board was supported by Mr. A. P. Grant, assistant engineer of the Public Works Department, Mr. E. Taylor, Land Drainage Department, and Mr. E. F. Adams, engineer, ; of Thames. , The case was not concluded.