OTOROHANGA LAND DEAL

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 303, 21 December 1921, Page 6

OTOROHANGA LAND DEAL

j ACTION FOR SPECIFIC ' PERFORMANCE (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) • HAMILTON, this day. An action for specific performance to purchase a block of land was heard before Mr. Justice Stringer at Hamilton yesterday, in which plaintiff was John Byrnes, farmer, of Otorohanga. and defendant Jesse Jamea Hills, 0 £ I Palmerston North., I Plaintiff, according to Mr. G. P. Finlay his counsel, some time ago put his property into the hands of a land agens, and an agreement to sell was made with" defendant. When the time came for settlement, defendant failed, and a coni ference followed. Defendant asked for an extension of time, 'but he had still . failed to complete, and in the meantime I the land, which was bought at £35 per I acre, had, in consequence of the slump, dropped considerably in value. The defendant ai'ieged that he was induced to enter into the agreement and par a deposit of £300 on the faith of certain material nnsn:presentation» made by plaintiff or his agent that the I land referred to had a carrying capacity of 50 dairy cows or more, and that the whole of the land was ploughaWe. These representations, he contended, were untrue and misleading, because tiie land I had not at any time a carrying capacity ' of 50 dairy cows; that at least 120 acre's of the land was not ploughable. and could not be made ploughable except at great expense, and excepting the area iin bush and the etjnt acres of turnips, i>o acres of the remaining area was neither in grass nor rough feed. Defendant therefore counterclaimed for .the rescission of the agreement and the reI fund of his deposit. In the alternative he claimed £1200, the cost of clearing 120 acres of the land of stumps and logs and making it ploughable; £400 the cost of grassing the land; and £200 for the loss of the use of 120 acres for one season while the land was being cleared. I Shortly after the case was opened the parties conferred and a settlement wa3 I reached.