Important Decision Affecting Taranaki Lands.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 238, 12 October 1904, Page 4

Important Decision Affecting Taranaki Lands.

At the last sitting of the Supremo Court a petition for declaration that ! Mr .lames Conway has established his title to KeetlioM 1510, N C w Ply- [ mouth, was hoard, Mr J. n. Hoy appearing for petitioner, and Mr William Kerr for the Public Trustee Judge Edwards has forwarded the following judgment :—"This is a potition under "The Unclaimed Land Act, 1894," for a declaration that the petitioner Ims established his I title to section 1510, Now Plymouth, by viirtue of continuous adverse occupation. The l a nd in ques- j tion was granted by a Crown grant dated June 6th, 1884, to Mary Garside, of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, Yorkshire, England, spinster. The evidence is that petitioner has been in possession of the land claimed for twenty years and upwards, but it is of a very vague character It is not, however, necessary to consi-Jer it, as the grantee of ' the land appears from the grant to have been a person resident in England, and there is no evidence that she has ever visited the colony. The case therefore falls within'the rule laid down in the judgment of Mr Justice Wilttamsl in KpHy v.' /Bontinck, 22 N.Z.L.H. (C.A.) at p. 254, that whore a ]>erson is domiciled in England, and where there is no evidence that lie has ever resided in the colony, a prima facie case has been hiade out to show that at a ny specified period such person was not within the colony, and the burden of proving that he was within the colony at the time specified is shifted. This doctrine and its application to the present case was not disputed by counsel for the petitioner, but ho contends that I havo nevertheless* power to make an order declaring that the petitioner has established his title to my satisfaction by virtue of the last paragraph of section 14 of the statuto. This provision runs: 'l'pon any proceeding under this section the judge may accept and act upon and be satisfied with any evidence, and may make an order declaring the claimant to lie the owner of the lgnd, real estate, or money, although such claimant may bo unablo to adduce evidence which would entitle him to judgment in an action of ejectment, or a decree in an action for specific performance, and the judge may have regard to the special circumstances of each case in dotennining the character and sufficiency of the evidence of title adduced.' Whatever this provision may authorise, it is, in my opinion, plain v t!iat it docs not authorise mn to disregard a set/tied rule of law under which there is a prima facie case against the petitioner's claim, in tho absence of any evidence or presumption to rebut that prima facie case. The petition must thereforu be dismissed."

The l>est ironstone in the world is found in Canada. It yields GO per cent, of iron ; average English ironstone contains 41 per cent, of iron. An electrical apparatus for healing ladies' curling tone's Ims been placed i'n every state cabin on board the new Hamburg-American liner lllutcher.