COMPENSATION CASE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 119, 20 May 1912, Page 8

COMPENSATION CASE

M'LEOD r. HARBOUR BOARD The claim for £10,800 for land taken al Miramar was further heard before the Compensation Court (consisting of Mr. Justice Chapman and Messrs. W. G. Foster and Wm. Hannay, assessors) today. The parties were H. N". M'Leod, plaintiff, and the Wellington Harbour Board, defendants. • Mr. C. P. Skerrett, K.C., with him, Mr. M. Myers, appeared for plaintiff, and Mr. T. S. Weeton, with him Mr. T. Neave, for the board. The case for plaintiff woe closed, and Mi-. W<*tou opened for the defence this' afternoon. Counsel said there were practically two alternative claims by Mi-. M'Leod. ' There was a claim for the land regarded as a site for a brick-making concern, and . there- was a claim for the value of the j land looked at from a residential point of view. These claims were entirely' distinct as they were incompatible with one another. It wafc urged by the claimant that the land was valuable for residential purposes, because of its> height, but if Mr. M'Leod's brickmaking project were to be put into operation, j and the land levelled down to a -rock j bottom the land would lose its residential value. Therefore unless the court found that the claimant's commercial | scheme was feasible, the value of the | land should be assessed for residential purposes only. Prior to January, 1908, the brickmaking scheme, put forward by the claimant, was entirely in the air. It was only when the Harbour Board's plans were known that M'Leod took any active steps. Counsel outlined the evidence he proposed to call as to th« suitability of the rspoil for brickmaking. purposes. There was he said, no demand for second class metal, the only grade on the land taken. (Proceeding.)