ARAPUNI POWER LINE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 200, 24 August 1928, Page 8

ARAPUNI POWER LINE.

LAND TAKEN AT PANMURE. QUESTION OF COMPENSATION. DAIRY FARMER CLAIMS £4403. The hearing of a claim for £4403 against the Minister of Public Works in compensation for land taken by the Department at Panmure in connection with the erection of the main power line from Arapuni was commenced in the Supreme Court this morning. Mr. Justice Reed presided, and associated with him as assessors were Mr. John Alexander, for the Public Works Department, and Mr. M. Wynyard, for the claimant, John Thomas Kay. Mr. Y. R Meredith appeared for the Department, and Mr. T. R. Holmden for the claimant.

The claim was in respect of two pieces of land. One conisisting of 3J acres, claimant valued at £325 per acre; the other, of four acres, he valued at £400. Sums were claimed for reading and depreciation of the remainder of the property. The Court first inspected the land. Mr. Holmden said the claimant had been a dairy farmer at Panmure for 30 years. A strip of land two chains wide liad been acquired from Arapuni to Penrose at all places where the power line went through urban districts. The st i went through the claimant's farm. His land had not been regarded by the Department as farming - agricultural land. Six years ago Kay liad acquired ten acres of land on the opposite side of the road to his farm with the idea of cutting it up for subdivision. The average price paid for this land had been £190 an acre. In 1925 notice had been given the claimant of the Department's intention to take the land. He had pointed out to the Department an alternate route, which would have been less costly and not have cut into his property. This route was not accepted. Claimant had had plans prepared for both the subdivision of the ten acres and of the farm. The property acquired contained a well and a spring, over which a windmill had been erected. Claimant would have to make other provision for the watering of his stock. The farm wa« bounded on two sides by the Panmure-Penrose Road and Barrack Road, and the ten acre piece, from which the four acres had been taken, ran from Barrack Road through to the main Panmure-Otahuhu concrete highway. Evidence regarding the value of the land was then heard. (Proceeding.)