A KNOTTY POINT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 28 September 1907, Page 5

A KNOTTY POINT.

SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS CATECHISED. At yesterday's meeting of the School Commissioners a letter was read from -Mr L. B. Webster in reference to the recent «ilc of leases by auction. "I regret,'' he wrote, "that 1 am compelled by the exigencies of the and mv "HO" to the public to bring under your notice a short review of the fact's as known to me which oecumd in „,„„. ~."" "''" • V ;"";,' Sa, . " l ''-■""''"'lds on the -Ist mst. In the first place your advertisement sets out the sections to be sold, in lots, iiiiu m a certain definite order »»-"»«'l }*•■■■■ 1 to 22. After lot, 19 he tod lowing text appears: "Lots 7 to 1.1 will be ollered at the upset rental of ■Ct per full quarter-acre, the smaller lots being calculated at the same rate. Note. . .. these lots will lie offered lo sua buyers, the highest bidder for the seel mil first put up having the oplion of taking adjacent lots at 'the same rcn|ta • I lus provision as lo options lie | believed lo be illegal. "On the mornin.r oi the sale your secretary, Mr Coikill, who probably knew 1 was a prospective iinyer spoke to me about the sale. He said that he had instructions to buy sce- !■.",'■ 10 > ", Hi, 17, 18, and in. Mr 1. cosier a.sko ( i, ..vy, lnl wil , you do . f J() and 11 are bought by someone else?"

Mr (. nrkill replied that his man would Have to take Ins chance. "In the ji„i a ol this conversation," continued the letier. "it is necessary -to consider veil it •happened aI. the sale. There Mr Shaw, ■he auctioneer, jmt up No. 1!) first, and Mr CorkiH acquired it for .Mr Johns • »dei- the optional clause lie then took "i' '». 11, Hi. 17, and IS, which were the sections he had mentioned to me as those he was instructed to buv. 4 protested to the auctioneer against his departing from the advertised order of sale but wilh no effect. Thus it will bo seen that the public never had the I'ltiiiiee of bidding for the other sections without being loaded with sections they did not require. .Mr l{ a l,y, for instance, wished to buy 11, HI, and 17, but these nere never ollered." Tile following aspect of the case appeared to the writer: J lie _ School Commissioners stood in a fiduciary relation to the public in respect or the lauds vested in them. The Commissioners were created by statute, and as. sue], must strictly follow the provisions ui the empowering Act. Under the Kduca ion Lcserves Act and the Public bodies' Powers Act, they had power to set by puolie auction leases of the land, vested in (hem for a term of "1 years with right of renewal, and provisions for compensation to outgoim* tenants for improvements. Now, was this

sale in .mendou a sale by jml.iie auction I «-ilna 1.,- moaning of the empowering] . Acts; Lots in, U, 10, 17, a,„i is wcl ? really not olleicd at all, the right bchi" given to the purchaser of lot 10 to take these lots at the same figure? Evidently •>y tins system if a valueless section were put up and the price bid for it made (he measure of value of adjacent \aluab:;. sections, the Commissioners,and through them their beneficiaries, would lie injured, Again, he asked, what was the meaning of the word ''adjacent" in the advertisement? If it meant lots abutting on the lot purchased, then neither Id, 15, or 17 abutted on section 10 and so the option had been wroiHy exercised. It it was not limited to sections abutting on the one purchased then the purchaser of the section fir.,t nut up might -pick the eyes out of the whole block." .Mr Webster quoted from an authority who said "in the ease of fiduciary vendors, if the property had 1k»oh advertised to be sold in one particular manner (as in lots) they should not sell i" any other way. as altogether or under a (lillcrent plan of allotment without >■,.. advertising the sale in accordance with the proposed alteration, otherwise they might incur liability to their beneficiaries.-' The matter of the Commis- . sioners' secretary acting for the purcha- , scr was. oi course, one for the Hoard ' Concluding, |,e Mibmitted that for these reasons the „ a le of leaseholds on (he ! 21st mst, was not a sale within terms

of the empowering .Acts, and that therefore it was ultra vires the powers of the Commissioners, and should be rcadvertised, and the sections re-sold He suggested (hat a full board should be convened for the consideration of this matter, which was regarded with a very great deal of interest bv the public. ' Ihe secretary was in the midst of an explanation when the Board decided unanimously to agree to the reuuost contained in the last sentence of the letter, and to invite Mr Webster to be present at the meeting when this matter is discussed.