ASSESSMENT COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 317, 31 May 1913, Page 3

ASSESSMENT COURT.

THE QUESTION OF COSTS. THE VALUER BETWEEN TWO STOOLS. When the Assessment Court had satisfactorily disposed of all objections yesterday morning, Mr. A. H. Johnstone made application for costs in each pf the cases—some fifty in all—.in wliicli. he had appeared. There were other cases in which a compromise had been arrived at. The application was submitted, under section 5, sub-section 25, of the Bating Act, in which it was set out j that the Court might, at its discretion. ; award reasonable costs to either party. Ho would submit at the outset that if there ever were cases where coats ought to be allowed it was these cases. He imagined that in the history of assessment .courts there had never been a session in which so many objections had been lodged and been so uniformly sucl cessful. It had been admitted by the town clerk- that tjie roll was not open,, for inspection during the time allowed by law, and ho (Mr. Johnstone) wished to show that from the very beginning, to the very end the Borough Council had been negligent in this matter. (Objectors had not had the opportunities which, by the law, they Were entitle'd to; yet, in spite of all these difficulties, 227 i objections had been lodged, and they had all been dealt with by the Court, commencing on April 10 and ending on May 20. At the outset Mr. Mills had admitted that lie had valued the borough high, as he thought it was for t'ie good of a town to have a high valuation. The objectors had pointed out that they wanted uniformity, and that there should be no anomalies. On the first day of the sessions, April 10, eight cases were dealt with, aud substantial reductions were granted in every case. It was quite plain that the valuer had made his valuations on an unsound basis. Mr. Mills had refused to compromise, and the objectors in desperation wrote saying that application for costs would have to be made. Even after that the efforts at' compromi»e had failed. Five days later Mr. Mills told the Court that, in his opinion, he did not feel inclined to make any compromise unless a third party were to act between them. In other words, the valuer wanted all the cases to be heard. That was after a very great number of cases had been dealt with and only two objections (by the same objector) thrown out. In justice to Mr. Mills, he would say that that gentleman had had very little time to do this laborious work, and the time allowed was scarcely fair to the valuer. As far as the objectors were concerned, they had done everything they very well could do. They had endeavored to meet the valuer, and had failed. Even after the valuer had seen the error of his way the objectors had discussed values with him with the utmost candor. Mr. Johnstone concluded his address by saying that the borough had been wrong, from beginning to end, wrong when they' did not allow these people sufficient time to inspect the roll, wrong when they persisted, after considerable experience, in forcing these people to . come into Court to waste the time, of the Court, of the counsel and of the witnesses, in substantiating these values. Mr. Crooke suggested that the Court might have been in error. Mr. Johnstone submitted that this was not so, and that the results had been eminently satisfactory. Mr. Quilliam: To the objectors! Mr. Johnstone admitted that he had never before heard of costs being allowed in such cases. He only desired costs for counsel and for expert witnesses. Mr. Quilliam, who appeared on behalf of the Council, opposed the granting of costs. Assuming for the moment, he said, that His Worship had power to grant costs, no sufficient reason had been given why any costs should be granted in these cases. He went on to say that the fact that time had been wasted did not concern the Council, who were entirely ignorant of all Court proceedings. Mr. Mills was in the Court solely in his position as valuer, and to produce such books and give evidence as the Court required. Mr. Johnstone had ' submitted that there had been a great waste of time, but the result had been of great benefit to the objectors, who had obtained all-round reductions of 25 per cent. If the case for the borough had been properly presented, these reductions would have been for a much smaller amount. The Court allowed too much leniency to Mr. Mills, and the way the time of the Court was wasted became quite notorious. Mr. Mills had no right to compromise; all lie had to do was to attend the Court to produce all books. Mr. Quilliam stated further that the borough was no party to the proceedings. Mr. Johnstone asked permission to make an explanation, in order to 6ave the time of the Court. He referred to the proceedings on the first day, when Mr. Mills stated that he represented the Borough Council, and had its authority for so doing. Mr. Quilliam denied that Mr. Mills had any authority to represent the borough. The Borough Council did not persist in bringing these cases forward, for the Council had taken no part in the proceedings. After both counsel had keenly debated question, His Worship reserved his decision.