EMBARRASSING RAILWAY TUNNEL

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 455, 13 March 1909, Page 7

EMBARRASSING RAILWAY TUNNEL

6 CLAIM AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT.

l»I TKI.EGRAI-ll.— bI'BCIAI. COtmitSI'MNIIKNT.I Duncdln, March 12. A compensation case that threatens to last ft week or ten days has beguii here, it is a claim for compensation by tho Calton Hill Brick, Tile, and Township Company, which asks £9500 x from tho Government for the destruction of a kiln and the depreciation of the land generally owing to the piorcing-of a tunnel in connection with the railway duplication between Duncdin and Mosgiel. Mr. Stephens is the assessor for the claimant, and Mr. Gerald Fitzgerald, of Wellington, is Crown assessor. Mr. Solomon, in tho course of his opening address, said that tho claimants had a brickfield so well equipped as to induce peoplo to put in £4000 cash to work it. He frankly admitted that the works did not pay, but the purchasers wore experts, and one of them entered into a bond of £1000 to make bricks at 15s. per 100—bricks that were easily saleable at 30s. per 100. And it would bo shown that the brickworks could be made to pay. The result of the ; tunnelling had been to knock the kiln down, and to make the spot unsafe to build another kiln on. Durtetitn, March 12. The case in whioh the Calton Hill Brick Tilo and Township Company, Ltd., sued the Minister for Public Works for £9500 before the Supremo Court the claim is made up of £8000, representing the alleged destruction of kiln and loss of business, and £1500 for alleged depreciation in tho value of the laud.