RESERVED JUDGMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 202, 15 January 1913, Page 7

RESERVED JUDGMENT.

INTERESTING DECISION. Reserved judgment wa~ delivered t/V Mr. A. Ci-o.ii-.e. S.M.. in tin" Magistrate's Court ye-ii'i'diiy ill the civil ease in which tik' Tat-anaki County Council sought to recover the sum of C4ti •>> !M from the New Zealand iStnte-Cuaraiitced Advances Department, e.s the lir-t mortgagor of William Humphries, who was subsequently aUo joined a> a defendant. 'Pile claim was for rale-, struck by the Fitzroy Town !!onr<! (now defunct i for the two vear.-. l!ilil-l!l]-.'. 'Mr. J. 11. Quilliam appeared for the plaintiff hodv. Mr. .T. I!. Roy for the Advance, Office, "and Mr. F. "Wilson for Humphries. S'omc time after the rates became due, ■ii port ion of the town district was merged in the county. The defence contended that owing to ;i Haw in the legislation there was mo provi-ion made for the recovery by the Council of any rates outstanding to the Board at the time of the merger. The section of the .Counties Act bearing on the point, was not. they held, applicable to the present case, as only portion of the town district had been merged. In the course of his judgment, the Magistrate said that he did not think that a literal construction of the Act should be followed. T T nder the circumstances, he thought he was justified in placing a broader construction on it than that interpreted by the defence, and section 2(i of the Counties Act should be read us applying to part of the town district being merged, not merelv. as contended, to I he whole of a district./ Regarding another point rawed, he stated that he was inclined to agree with the defence that the first vear\ rat.cs--tho.se of KHii-ll- were not'recoverable, owiua to the statutory period of two year's having elapsed, lie had, however, lef:

the question open for further argument, if counsel desired.

Mr. Quilliam contended that the two years should dale from I lie time when the rates were last due to the Town Board, not when they were actually struck.

I Mr. Wilson, however, held otherwise, \ and, after going further into the ques--1 tion, the Magistrate finally held, in accordance with a law court decision of a number of years ago, that a rate becomes due when it is struck, not when 1 it is payable, and that judgment can. therefore, be given only within, and up to, two years of the date of sinking the rate. Judgment was accordingly given for the second year's rates, amountiits; to £23 15s Kid," and costs.