AUCKLAND BAPTISTS IN LITIGATION OVER PROPERTY

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1949, Page 7

AUCKLAND BAPTISTS IN LITIGATION OVER PROPERTY

AUCKLAND, Oct 10.

An action to decide whether the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle Youth. l Camps Incorporated (the defendants) are the beneficial owners of a youth work property in the Waitakere ranges was begun before Mr Justice Finlay in the Supreme Court. Counsel for the plaintiffs, Mr Connell, said they sought a declaration that the property was held by the defendants on behalf of the church They sought a further declaration to restrain the defendants, from selling or otherwise disposing of the property. Mr Connell said that on March 31. Dr Alexander Hodge, one of the defendants, resigned from tlie ministry of the church. Some members of the church also left. In May the secretary of Youth Camps sent out a notice of meeting to consider .winding up Youth Camps. The notice was sent without the authority of the church officers and counsel claimed it was an imnroper notice. He contended that Youth Camps came into being as a subsidiary of the church. Ernest Arthur Eady, secretary ot the church, testified that the church did not desire the winding up of Youth Camps. The witness explained how money to buy the property had been raised by organisations within the church.