SCHOOL SITE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 100, 29 April 1940, Page 8

SCHOOL SITE.

ASSESSING VALUE.

A PAEROA PROPERTY.

CASE BEFORE THE COURT. A sitting of a Compensation Court to assess the value of a block of 13 scree 3 roods of land at Paeron taken a* a school site by the Auckland Education Board under the Public Works Act was held in the Supreme Court to-day. Mr. Justice Ostler presiding, with Mr." (i. L. West (for claimant) and Mr. W. Wallace (for the board) on the Bench. -Mr. Garland conducted the ense for the claimant. Harry R. Bush, of Thanie* who claimed £120 per acre, and Mr. R. P. Towle appeared for the Education Board. Outlining claimant's case. Mr. Garland the property was approximately 300 yard* from the main street of Paeron, on a high ridge, and was flat land. There was a dedicated but unformed road on the property. Claimants chief difficulty was that'the Government valuation of 1930 was £600 capital—£soo unimproved and £100 for improvement*. Against that Mr. Bush would be able to show that an acre and a quarter of adjoining property with a narrow frontage had been sold •by claimant to the Paeroa Tennie Club for £225, and a half-acre for a private residence for £110. That was in 1923. and the Government valuation in 1930 of the tennis club property was £150. In the year 1930. "said counsel, claimant had been offered £200 for an aero of the block now in dispute and had refused it. In 1934 he was asked if he would sell the block at £150 an acre and had declined. He had also refused an offer in 193G of £I.MM) for ten acres of the block. In 1937 the Education Board made an offer of £720 tor six acres of the block, which he agreed to accept, and then the board decided to take all the present area of 13 acres under the Public Works Act. He now made hi- claim £120 an acre, in accordance with his acceptance of the offer for the six acres, though he felt that was under its value. • Claimant gave evidence on these line*. In cross-examination he said his valuation of the land was not on farm land basis, but as a sirb-division proposition. Evidence as to values was given bv Edwin Edwards, land agent, of Paeroa. For the board, it was claimed by Mr! Towle that the property must Be assessed as rural property, with a slight added value by reason of proximity to the borough of Paeroa. The case is proceeding.