DRAINAGE DISPUTE

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24226, 6 April 1944, Page 6

DRAINAGE DISPUTE

COUNTY COUNCIL’S APPEAL

Mr Justice Northcroft was occupied In the Supreme Court in Christchurch yesterday in hearing an appeal from a decision at Leeston by a stipendiary magistrate concerning a drainage matter. “Though the sum of money . involved is small,’’ said Mr T. A. GresSon (who appeared for the appellants, the Ellesmere County Council), “this appeal raises a question of great Importance to farmers and local bodies.”

The respondent was R. J. McMahon, farmer, of Lakeside, for whom Mr A. S. Nicholls appeared. Further legal argument will be heard before his Honour this morning.

The council, it was stated, had required McMahon to clear and remove all obstruction to the free flow of water from a drain on the frontage of his land to McConnell's road within one month from the date of service of its notice. McMahon had appealed to a magistrate against such an order, and he had failed to comply with it. The council, thereupon, had cleared the drain at a cost of £2B 19s 8d (which sum was claimed) On demanding that money, the respondent, declared counsel, had failed to pay. ~ It was contended for the respondent at the hearing before the Magistrate that he had complied with the notice, and that the work done by the council was not “the removal of obstructions,*’ but had amounted to deepening the drain. It had been held by the magistrate on February 25 that McMahon had done all that the council could require him to do, and that the work performed by the council had amounted to deepening the drain. In any event, he decided, the council should be non-suited on the ground that the notice was defective, in that it ordered McMahon to perform a duty which could not be specified,