RAILWAYS AND LAND VALUE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 29, 3 February 1913, Page 7

RAILWAYS AND LAND VALUE.

A CLAIM TO COMPENSATION. Mr- Justice Cooper sat as President of the Assessment Court at on Friday and Saturday with Messrs. We Garrett and E. Bond as assessors, to hear the claim against the Public Works Department by Robert 8.033 for land taken for railway purposes at K.aiwaka. The claim was "for £897 2/8, comprising 17 acres 3 roods 29 perches, at £7 10/ per acre; 8 acres 26 perches at £4 per acre; £500 for Jos3 of stone quarry; £30 for 10,000 ft kauri removed; £100 for loss of water supply; £100 depreciation on account of severance. Mr. M. G. McGregor appeared for claimant, and Mr. Sehvyn Mays for the defendant.

Witnesses for claimant assessed the depreciation due to severance at from £150 to £45, and were of opinion that the advent of the railway had in no way enhanced the value of claimant's land. Witnesses for the Department assessed the depreciation at from £40 to £80, and expressed the opinion that claimant's land, with other land in the district, had appreciated in value by £1 per acre since the advent of the railway. Mr. Bold, land purchase officer, stated that the railway had already increased the value of Kaiwaka land by from £2 to £3 per acre, and that the rise would be still greater when the railway was working. Mr. Justice Cooper, commenting on the case, said that it raised most important and interesting points of law as to whether the Public Works Act made it incumbent on the Court to set off against any loss the claimant had suffered by railway construction, the increased value due to the advent of the railway, seeing that the increase was not restricted to claimant's property, but was common to all the land in the district.

Legal argument in connection with the case will be heard in Auckland to-morrow.