CLAIM FOR RATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1926, Page 5

CLAIM FOR RATES.

COUNTS" COUNCIL V. COLLEGE. JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANTS. A claim by the Franklin County Council against the Wesley Training College Board, for £136 11/8 for rates was the subject of reserved judgment delivered to-day by Mr. Justice Reed. Mr. Beckerleg appeared for the plaintiff body and Mr. Richmond for the College. His Honor said: — " The matter comes before mc on a special case, which was supplemented at the hearing by the evidence of Mr. Clark, it/he Principal of the Wesley Training College. The case turns upon the interpretation to be placed on section 2 (g) of the Rating Act, 1908. That section exempts from rating: 'Lands ari buildings used for a school not carried on exclusively for pecuniary gain or profit.' Then follows a limitation as to the area so exempted, when the school is situated in a borough or town district, which this school is not. The point in issue is narrowed by the admission that the school in question is not carried on exclusively for pecuniary gain or profit, the only question left to be decided being whether the large area of land surrounding the school, comes within the section. " It is clear from the evidence that the greater part of the property is earned on as an ordinary farm. It is also clear hat the teaching of practical farming, if not the principal, is one of the principal activities of the school. The question suggests itself as to whether so large an area is necessary for that purpose. The only evidence before mc on this point is that of the principal, Mr. Clark, and he is most certainly of opinion that every acre is necessary, including the reverted land He gives logical reasons for his opinion. His view is that, for practical teaching, you must have conditions approximating to those of an ordinary farm. In the present case lam satisfied that all the necessary conditions are present, and judgment will be for the defendant with costs on the lowest scale."