RATING PROBLEM

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 169, 7 October 1927, Page 13

RATING PROBLEM

POSITION OF MORTGAGEE CASE IN APPEAL COURT Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. Tho Court of Appeal was engaged this morning hearing a case stated for its opinion in which the chairman and councillors and inhabitants of the County of Waitomo are plaintiffs and John Hamilton Miles, of Wellington, solicitor, is defendant. Defendant was, or is, the first mortgagee of 815 acres of land at Kawhia, held by Henry John McPeak and Patrick George McPeak, by lease in perpetuity from the Crown. On November 19, 1926, the County Council made a demand on him for £l4O 8s lid rates due and owing to March 31, 1927, which it holds it is entitled to do under section 70 of the Rating Act, 1925, which provides that at the option of the local authority the first mortgagee of the rateable land may be held liable for payment pf rates. On April 5 defendant, for no consideration, registered a release of his mortgage over the land. The question for the opinion of the court is whether the defendant was, and or is, the first mortg-agee of the rateable property within the meaning of section 70 of the Rating Act, 1925, and as such liable for payment of rates. The case is proceeding.