RAILWAY HOUSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1934, Page 7

RAILWAY HOUSES

RENT REDUCTION CLAIM

CASE BEFORE FULL COURT

[FEB PBESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, April 16. Whether the provisions . of the

tional Expenditure Adjustment Act, relating to the reduction of rent, apply to railway houses rented from the Department by railwaymen, is being considered by the Full Court, this morning. Mr H. F. O’Leary is appearing for the plaintiff, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, and Mr. P. B. Cooke is appearing for the Attorney-General and the Government Railways Board. Mr. O’Leary stated that the Society issued an originating summons, merely to ascertain the mode in which relief should be given under the Statute, it being assumed at that, stage that, the Statute applied to railway houses. The Crown then raised the Question as to whether the Act applied to all, and the Court was now asked to determine this question. The Railway Board’s contention was

that the men were not tenants, but servants, and did not pay rent. As the Board owned approximately 3505 buildings, it was probably the biggest landlord in New Zealand.

Mr. O’Leary submitted, first, that in

the particular circumstances of the occupancy of these dwellings by the railwaymen, the relationship of landlord and tenant did not exist. Even.

’however, if such a relationship did not exist, he submitted that the statute still applied, because there were in existence between the men and the Department contracts whereby the men undertook to pay rent, and that was all the statute required. The provisions of the Act relating to reduction in wages had been applied to the men, and naturally they felt aggrieved at not receiving the benefit of rent reduction.

The case r is proceeding.