Mystery plot worth $lO,OOO goes missing

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 6

Mystery plot worth $lO,OOO goes missing

PA Auckland It was probably the most valuable piece of land in the country - while it lasted. It was a small plot in Ngahere Road, Pukekohe. The Valuation Department assessed its value at less than $lO,OOO. The Pukekohe Borough Council struck an annual rate of $79.20 on it ■The occupier of the land, the New Zealand Railways, did not have to pay rates because it was classified as Crown land. But it had paid a grant in lieu, to the same value as the rates, for a number of years without question. Then,• overnight, the “property” became worthless — because it had never existed.

The disappearance of Part Allotment 16 Pukekohe Parish, valuation reference 38704/141/1, has

left bureaucrats scratching heads in all directions. '

“I suppose someone put it on the valuation roll by mistake years ago and no one queried ... it,” the. borough treasurer (Mr A. C. Lyall) has said. “It is a mystery to all of us — a most peculiar business.” Someone at the New Zealand Railways office picked up the mistake this year and complained to the council that the Ngahere Road plot did not belong to the department.

The council checked to see who the true owner was and, eventually, the Valuation Department decided it was nobody — the property was nonexistent

At its . last meeting, the council decided to settle the account. It agreed, to write off the $79.20 rates owing, on .the property.