CORRESPONDENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 230, 30 October 1873, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[We do not necessarily endorse the opinions expressed by our correspondents.]

To ihe Editor of the >Vaikato TjMßfl. SIXi — In -your issue of ahis- week appears a condensed report of a case of appeal against Highway rates— Hunt v. Kirikiriroa Highway Board. ' As the case involes a principle, and the decision j?iven in it may hereafter be quoted j s a prece lent, I will thank you to publish the grounds upon which the. Board deemed it their duty to defen I the action. While fnlly recognising the power of the Court, under the empowering clauses of the Highways A.ct, to deal with the assessment of the district in case of appeal as they may think proper, the Board, upon the closing of the case for the plaintiff, submitted- Ist: That as tl c complaint and summons made the appeal against the property of plaintiff iv the district of Hamilton, the defendants had to deal with the property of the plaintiff in the dis nut of Kirikiriroa only ; and as there is a Han.ilt »n Higbw iy district as well as the Kirikiriroa, the objection must be held to be fatal. This th,e Bench overruled. 2ud : That the plaintiff must be nonsuited on the grounds that he had anticipated the action of the Board ; that the Board had not finally settled the assessment list nor signed the same, as required by the Highways Act, until the 15th instant, three days subsequent to the summons in the Court being taken out, and five days from the service of notice of appeal — the notice of appeal being given while the Board sat to hear appeals. That a reasonable time had not elapsed for the Board to comply with the ' requirements of the Act before legal proceedings were instituted by the plaintiff against the Board. That there was no evidence adduced by the plaintiff to show that the Biatd had finally settled the roll, in accordance with the requirements of the Highways Act, upon which he took action. That the Board cnild not be called upon to answer a complaint of which there was no ground, and of which they were not cognisant. That all the actions of the Board were entered in the minutes of their proceedings. That the plaintiff's property, with others, was reduced to a fair valuation, and so entered on the 15th instant. That the roll showing such reduction was signed by the Chairman and advertised in the local papers, notice of the same having been served on all (4) the persons who objected at the time of such being made. The minute book, letter book, newspaper, and rate roll were put in as evidence of the fact to sustain the objection. These objections were overrule I by the Bench, and the Board were required to defend the action. They merely gave the evidence upon which they reduced the properties referred to, and upon which the roll was finally settled. Verdict passed f"r plaintiff with £3 8s costs. It is needless to comment upon the ruling of the Court on either objection. As to the first, the merest tyro in the profession could not fail to perceive that the Kirikiriroa Board had nothing whatever to do with the property of the plaintiff in the Hamilton Highway district ; and the Court, in overruling the second objection taken by the Board and ordering the defence to proceed, entertained a case tli; t bad no foundation in law or fact, there being no data upon which to adjudicate. If the argument is to hold good that it is necessary to give certain discretionary poweis to R.M. Courts, it must also have been contemplated by the Legislature that persons should be employed qualified to read, interpret, «ad define the spirit ; and worthing of such Ada aa they ma.y he called upon to consider applicable to any case, Without prejudice ; and < aiso not to evade responsibility by giving a decision fcaafc j would prohibit » case being carriea into a superior court i in consequence of the expenses that might be incurred j or | that they would be sheltered by that halo of inesponsi- ! bility— error of judgment— which they are allowed to plead in extenuation of their magisterial acts. — Yours, &c, I Albebt Potter, A Member of the Kirikiriroa D. 8., Hamilton. 25th October, 1873.