Untitled

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2821, 28 February 1878, Page 2

The Assessment Court for hearing objections to the Valuation List for the Borough of Thames'will be opened tomorrow by Captain Fraser, Judge. There have been fifty-two objections lodged, the most of which are from burgesses, on the ground of excessive valuation. The principal appeals, however, are from mining companies and battery owner's having property on that part of the gold field within/ the Borough, and their ground of objection is,. that the land occupied by them is held " under lease, license or other authority, from the Crown for goldmining purposes " and for no other. There are some fifteen objections of this kind, and the issue has an importance to the Borough in that if the appeals are sustained the revenue from rates will be considerably diminished, and another year many other appeals may be lodged on the same grounds. Mr Edwin Hesketh, barrister, has been retained by the Borough Council to answer the appeals, while Mr J. E. Macdonald, of the firm of Macdonald and Miller, Borough solicitors, appears to sustain the appeals. The anomaly of the Borough solicitors appearing in Court against the Borough may not strike every one, but it certainly presents to our mind an illustration of the truism, " A man can* not serve two masters." We have no desire to discuss this point for although in pointing out the anomaly we cannot be accused of prejudicing the case, we refrain from further comment until the cases are over and Borough Councillors have had an opportunjty of expressing their opinions regarding a matter so closely affecting the finances'of the Borough and the pockets of the burgesses-