SUPREME COURT ACTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 20, 23 July 1910, Page 5

SUPREME COURT ACTION.

A motion for an injunction in a case of the Makerua Estate Company v. the Makerua Drainage Board was argued in the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr. Justice Cooper. Plaintiff moved to restrain defendant from taking a small piece of land t^tder powers contained in section 17 (&jf of the Drainage Act, within the provisions of the Public Works Act. By section 21 of the Drainage Act, where works were to be constructed on private land, a month's notice to the o>vner was necessary before the construction of the works was commenced. Mr. ,C. Izard, appearing for plaintiff, contended that if a board could take privalo lands oudcr section 17 (c) for any of the purposes of the Drainage Act, section 21 would be inoperative. lie sought to limit section 17 (c) to cases in which the land was required for some such work as a pumping station. Mr. M. Mvcrs, representing defendant, submitted Ihat the Drainage Board was undor no obligation to take land, and ii it elected not to do so section 21 applied, and there were no reasons for limiting its powers under section 17 (c). His Honour decided that the board had ample power under section 17 (c) to take the land in dispute. He held that section 21 only applied where the board sought to construct works on private land, and that there i\ab nothing to iimit its powers under section 17 (c) to take any land which in its opinion was necessary for any of the purposes authorised by the Act. Tho motion, accordingly, was dismissed, with coßtß.