THE PARNELL BATTERY SITE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 184, 12 August 1885, Page 2

THE PARNELL BATTERY SITE.

Government's Occupation of tho Load

Validated.

The action brought by Mrs Frances Catherine) Kissling, of ParneU; against Messrs A\'cbb, White, Billing, and Coleman (sorgeants of the A. C. force) for possession and mosne profits of cortain land at Point Resolution taken by them for defence purposes, camo before His Honor Mr Justico Gillies at tho Supreme Court this morning. Mr 8.. Hoskoth appeared for tho plaintiff; Messrs C. .E. Button and Hudson Williamson (Crown Prosecutor) for the defendants Jlr Button remarked that tho Validating.Act, for tho receipt of which tho action had beon adjourned from last week, had now arrived and that its operation was retrospective. Clause 10 provided that " all land which subsequently to tho first day of January last has been taken used, or occupied for the purposos oi any f ortiflcation or any works connected therewith in any part of tho colony shall be deemed to have been so taken, used, or occupied under this Act. It appeared therefore that nothing romainod but to arrange the terms on which the action should be stayed. The money to be paid for the land was to bo settled by a Compensation Court,

In answer to the learned gontlcman, His Honor said that ho had a copy of the Act. Mr. Hosketh admitted that the Act being retrospective in its operation nothing remained but to let the matter go before a Compensation Court. Still it seemed to him that tho Act was hardly fair. The land which had been taken was part ufa valuable estate purchased as a site for a private residence, and yet according to clause 6, " Compensation for the lnnd taken or required to bo kept, free from obstruction shall bo settled by a Compensation Court in the province provided by Part 111. of said Act, but" (and herein was tho unfairness) "no person snail have any claim to compensation by reason of the firing of artillery from any fortification or the use or working thereof, or otherwise, under this Act, except for land actually taken or required to bo free from obstruction under tho powers of this Act." Tho site in question had been prepared at considerable expense aril it thoreloro seemed hard Unit nothing more could be claimed for itlthan tho actual value oi tho land. While tho Legislature hud thought tit to step in and tnko away the plaintiff's right of action the remedy offered her was very limited indeed. Besides there hRd been great delay in the matter. Ho asked that costs on a liberal scale should bo allowed.

. Mr Button said that he should offer no objection on tho part of the Government to the allowance of costs on a liberal scale. As tor the delay that had taken place in settling the mutter, the Government were not to blame for it. They had no machinery for dealing with the caso until Parliament had passed tho Act which was now before the Court. As for the damage which plaintili s property would sustain by tho severance of this portion of it, the same thing would havo happened if the Government had laken the neighbouring piece oj land. His Honor :-lt is a matter for compensation. His Honor then declared tho action stayed, defendants to pay costs in accordance with tho scale fixed for cases wherein the claim is £000,