SUPREME COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 101, 14 September 1912, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. A petition of an unusual nature came before Mr. Justice Williams in camera at the Supreme Court to-day, when a young couple asked the Court' to decree that their proposed marriage was a right and proper one. The girl concerned is 10 years old, and her father, who is a farmer at Chaslands, withheld his consent to her marriage to n young man from Ratanui. The petition was dimissed with costs and disbursements. A new development in a divorce case came before the Supreme Court to-day. On June 12 Samuel Finkle petitioned for a divorce against Mabel Finkle, John Alfred Shirley being joined as co-respond-ent. The Court granted a rule nisi to-day. Mr. Fraser moved for leave for the Solicitor-General to intervene, the faet on which the Solicitor-General based his application being that the husband and wife had resumed cohabitation since the granting of the rule. There was no appearance of the parties. Mr. Justice Williams asked Mr. Fraser whether intervention was necessary, and Mr. Fraser replied that he thought it was. The Court granted leave to intervene. A QUESTION OF TAXATION. Dunedin, Last Night. A rather interesting point was raised on an appeal by J. G. Finch (of Oamaru) against the Commissioner of Stamps in connection with the assessment of duty on a transfer to his r ons of the undivided moiety of his propei v. His sons had paid £IOO to the fati. r on land which was subject to a mortgage. The Commissioner claimed that gift duty was payable on the equity of redemption of the whole property, and not only on the equity of redemption of the moiety transferred; and further that no deduction should be made in respect of £IOO paid in cash. His Honor said that he should think it would be payable only on the undivided moiety transferred. Mr. Fraser contended that by the operation of section 9 of the Amendment Act, 1911, any payment to a donor must be disregarded, and duty paid on the whole value of the property. His Honor remarked that it certainly came as a shock to a conveyancer to hear it contended that the conveyance of an undivided moiety of a parcel of land amounted to a reservation of the other moiety to the transferror. He illustrated the argument of the Commissioner's claim in the way that if property worth £lOOl was sold for £IOOO that would constitute a gift of £lOOl. After hearing argument, his Honor reserved the point.