RAILWAY HOUSES

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1934, Page 6

RAILWAY HOUSES

COURT RESERVES DECISION.

[PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, April 16

Argument was continued, before the Full Court, on the question as to whether the provisions of the National Expenditure Adjustment Act, relating to the reduction of rent, apply to railway houses rented from the Department by railwaymen. Mr P. B. Cooke, appearing for the Attorney-General and the Railways la,aid, stated that the Railways Department had always . generously treated its men, and had, in fact, lost heavily on railway houses. He submitted that the Statute did not apply to auy contracts under which a landowner, oi* a third person had discietion to assess rent and to alter it from time to time. The Act, he said, applied only to fixed rent —i.e., rent fixed for a definite period in such a way as to be unalterable unless both parties agreed to an alteration. If the rent were alterable without the consent of both parties, then it was not fixed within the meaning of the Statute. The permanent head of the railways had the power, under the regulations, to assess and to alter rents at any time, and these rents were, therefore, not fixed, and the Statute did not apply to them. He further submitted that the legislation applied only to tenancies at will, or monthly or weekly tenancies. Further, he contended that it applied only to contracts for the payment of rent, and that, where dwellings were occupied by employees for the purpose of their duties, there was no tenancy, and the monies paid were not rent. The railwaymen, were, therefore, not tenants of the Department if they were occupying their dwellings for the purpose of the efficient performance of their duties.

The Court reserved its decision