CITY COUNCIL SUED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 386, 21 June 1928, Page 15

CITY COUNCIL SUED

CLAIM IN WELLINGTON land for playground timber COMPANY’S ACTION Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. [ \ claim is proceeding before Mr. justice Reed in the Supreme Court, in which Millars West Australian Hardwoods Company. Ltd., is seeking £9,108 compensation for approximately stx*acres of land taken by the Wellington City Corporation for the children’s playground at Miramar. In opening the case for the company ilr. M. Myers, K.C., said the company rui acquired the land in 1919 for about £:,000. It was not required for speculative or sabdivisional purposes, I but to provide an area for an extra limber mill and for stacking purposes. He contended that the value of land had Increased as much as six-fold in Miramar in the last six or seven years. The company, after the council had taken the whole six acres for a children’s playground when a single acre would have done, had negotiated for five acres at Lyall Bay at the price of £1,500 per acre, and it was on that basis that the claim was made. The Lyall Bay land, which required filling, was not so suitable, but the company concluded what it considered a contract. The corporation revoked its decision to take the land and as the owners of the Lyall Bay area informed the company that the contract was not binding, the company wrote accepting that position and declaring the negotiations off. A. few days later the company informed the corporation that the mill buildings would be begun and then later the corporation advised receipt of notice to rescind the revocation. The position was then that the company could not renew negotiations for rhe Lyall Bay site even if it wanted to.