SUPREME COURT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 623, 28 September 1909, Page 6

SUPREME COURT.

PORIRUA COLLEGE BOARD LEASE. ITS COTTON-WOOD AND FENCES. A case in which the Porirua College Trust Board sued Mary Jane Jillett (Porirua) and Herbert John Jillett (Ohau) for .£250 damages for alleged breach of covenant was. heard yesterday before Mr. Justice Chapman and' a common jury of four—J. A. Hickmott (foreman), J. J. Fraser, Honry Green, and J. Jameson. Mr..Skerrott, K.C., with him Mr. F. B. Ward,, appeared for plaintiffs, and Mr. Menteath for defendants. Mr. Slcerrett said that the plaintiff board had been established for certain trust purposes connected with oducation. Part of their endowment consisted of a pieco of land, which was the subject of the present action. The defendants were the executors and trustees of William Jillett (deceased), who was a farmer at Porirua, and the lessee of this piece of land. The action,had been brought to'recover the sum of £200 damages for alleged neglect on the part of the late William Jillett, of fencing covenants contained in the lease, and £50 for alleged. neglect to grub and clear tauhina (cotton-wood) scrub, and othor noxious weeds on the land. The property consisted of 500 .acres, and was situated on the shores of Porirua Harbour. ,It was bounded on one side by Cook Strait On July 1, 1594, the land was leased by' the board to' Jillett, for fourteen years at a rental of about £200 per. annum.' The lease oxpired on July 1, 1908. Inserted in the leaso there were certain covenants—ordinary, conditions of lease—with others .which \ provided for the removal of tauhina, go'rse, 6crub, thistles, and other noxious weeds. The trustees allowed Jillett one year's rent in respect of certain;improvements which tho lease required him to ' put on" the'land. The lease also required him to erect substantial fences,, within four years from the commencement of his lease. The covenants were four in number:— (1) To erect a southern boundary fenco of he.art of totara and No. 8 galvanised wire; (2) to erect fences dividing the land into four portions;'(3) to keep the fences in good and substantial repair; and (4) to cut down and eradicate gorse and all other noxious weeds. Tho evidence would be that the greater part of the southern boundary fence had been put up in a slack and inefficient manner. Some of the posts were not'heart of totara, and the wire was black, instead of galvanised. Heart of totara fences would last for thirty years in country such as this, said Mr. Skerrott, but, when the. land was given up to the trustees, the fenco was decayed, and the wires were slack, and could not be strained. The property was offered for lease by public auction, and the board undertook to put the fences into good ■ and substantial repair. William., Newman, farmer, of Titahi Bay,, became the lessee, and the trustees found that none of the fences were sheep-proof. Endeavours were made to get Jillett to repair the fences,, but-ho maintained that he had done all that was required by the lease. Tho trustees called for tenders for the repairing of the fences, and a contract' for the'labour was let for, about £70. The cost of repairing was about £200. In tho southern boundary fence, 400 new posts were put in, 1000 battens, and 11 straining-posts,' and three-quarters of the wire was new wire. Defendants pleaded that William Jillett erected a fence, along the southern boundary, that the posts were of heart of totara, and that galvanised wires were used. It was contended that' William Jillett and the defendants had. faithfully fulfilled all covenants entered into by them with respect to the leaso, that, at its expiry, on Juno 30, : 1908, the. defendants' yielded up the land and the fences in good and substantial repair, and that tlo'land had been kept clear from tauhina, scrub, and all other noxious growths, ' Defendants denied, that they had been'guilty of any neglect or default which had caused damage to the plaintiffs. ■ >. The hearing of evidence, in support of de-fendants'-caso will occupy the Court to-day.