LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS

Evening Star, Issue 12366, 2 December 1904, Page 1

LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS

the flaxbourne estate. The Compensation Court sat at Blenheim yerterday to resume the hearing of the case Clifford v. the Minister of Lands, in which a . c ‘ a UU--of £410,000 is made in connection with the taking of the Flaxbourne Estate under the compulsory provision of the Land for Settlements Act, Mr Justice Cooper presided, and the assessors are Mr J. G. Wilson (on behalf of the owners) and the Hon. T. Kennedy Macdonald (on behalf of the Government). Counsel for the claimants are Messrs Skerrett, Johnston (Wellington), and B. Conolly (Blenheim). Counsel for respondent are Messrs W. A. Sim (Dunedin), D. M. Findlay (Wellington), and R. M'Callum (Blenheim). The preliminary stages of the case were heard iu December last year. On this occasion the Mims ter put in an amended scheme of classification showing the total area to be--57,179 acres, of which 8,657 acres are classed as first-class and 20,571 acres a-s secondclass land. The claimants are Sir George Clifford (of Canterbury), Walter L. Clifford (of Flaxbourne), F. C. Clifford (London), and C. W, Clifford (Shropshire, England). They claim reservations amounting to 9,560 acres., The Court is now engaged in determining the classification of the land for the purpose of deciding the question of the reservations tb which the owners are entitled, and the amount of compensation for this purpose. The Crown opened by calling evidence to establish its suggested classification, and the whole of the day was occupied in taking the evidence of T. X. Broderick, Government surveyor, who carried out the work. The case is likely to last two or three weeks.