TAUMATA-HIHIRAROA COMPENSATION CLAIMS : HEARING BEGINS IN GISBORNE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22665, 16 June 1948, Page 6

TAUMATA-HIHIRAROA COMPENSATION CLAIMS : HEARING BEGINS IN GISBORNE

(JLAIMS which originally involved sums aggregating £175,000 in compensation for land taken by the Crown for servicemen’s settlement in the Ngatapa area were taken under consideration by the Gisborne Land Sales Committee today at a special sitting which the balance of the week.

is expected to continue throughou

The blocks for which compensation is claimed are those known as Hihiroroa and Taumata, the latter having lately been re-named Hiwinui. In the case of Hiriroroa, a property of 4482 acres, the claimants are the trustees of the T. C. Williamson estate, and the original claim was for £69,000. The block passed into the possession of the Crown in 1946, and a group of exservicemen ballotees have been in occupation since February, 1947. The acquisition in this case embraced the whole of the station block, no retention area being set aside for the owners. Retention Area at Hiwinui

Land Sales Committee, and Messrs. I. F. Watt and F. H. Forge, members of the committee.

Mr. H. P. Richmond, Auckland, with him Mr. L. C. Parker, appeared for the trustees of the Hihiroroa block; and Mr. J. S. Wauchop, with him Mr. L. C. Parker, for the Taumata Investment Company, Limited, Mr. W. S. Kent, a solicitor from the head office of the Lands Department, Wellington, represented the Crown. Lands Department Plans

In the original scheme of subdivision for two blocks, it was proposed that seven discharged servicemen should be settled on Hiwinui and five on Hihiroroa. The men now in occupation of the blocks are employees of the Lands Department in the meantime, having been selected by ballot to work the properties until they reach the full-development stage. Selection in the ballot entitled them to an assurance of securing sections when the blocks are finally settled, but their sections were not individualised.

The Taumata Investment Company, Limited, are the claimants in respect of the 7357-acre Hiwinui block, which was taken over at the same time as Hihiroroa, subject to the exclusion of a retention area for the use of the owners. The claim for compensation in this case is £106,453.

The hearing opened today before Mr. H. D. Chrisp, chairman of the Gisborne