OUT OF REVENUES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 252, 25 October 1933, Page 5

OUT OF REVENUES.

NATIVE LAND RATES. SUPREME COURT RULING. ILOCAIj BODIES' RIGHTS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) GISBORNE, this day. An important ruling concerning the collection of rates which are owing on native lands is contained in a reserved judgment given by Mr. Justice Blair in a case which was heard at the la<st session of the Supreme Court in Gisborne, the effect being to hold that local bodies are entitled to obtain payment out of revenues derived from the property concerned. The opinion was. previously held that the only course open in the case of rate default was to obtain a charging order upon the land itself, but this procedure had been proved more or less futile owing to the virtual impossibility of enforcing orders. Mr. Justice Blair's decision is that section 105 of the Rating Act imposes upon the native authorities a duty to pay rates if revenue has been derived from the property rated. The case in question was between the Waikohu County Council and the East Coast Commissioner, who administers large areas of native property. The commissioner was owing the council £750 in respect of six years' rates. When charging orders were issued two years' rates were paid, and when a writ was issued a further sum was paid into Court. For the Commissioner it was contended that the council's only remedy was to obtain a charging order against the property, but for the council it was argued that the Rating Act expressly required that rates should be met out of revenues from the property administered under such circumstances as in the case in question. This view was supported by the judge, anrl decision was. giv-en. accordingly.