FARM LEASE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 18 July 1929, Page 9

FARM LEASE

ACTION FOR DAMAGES. The action brought by Daniel Jarvis Willis and Hallet Thomasine Willis, of Greatford, claiming damages from Edward Norman, of Jtlawera, for alleged breaches of covenant of a. farm lease was continued this afternoon, and it was not expected that finality would be reached to-day. In opening Mr. Houston mentioned that defendant had since paid his share of the rates and insurance premiums.

Arthur Wills, of Hawera, farmer, gave evidence concerning the state of the farm on a recent inspection, and said that gateways, fences, pastures, etc., had not been given the attention that they should have.

Cross-examined he denied that all the places owned by the Willis’s in the Ararata district were in a bad state of repair. The cowyard was the worst, in the district. Tie admitted that, the new purchasers of the place were pulling the fences down as they were going to farm sheep and had no use for them. Thomas Charles Hobbs, of Hawera. builder, deposed that the four buildings had fallen into disrepair, and he detailed the amount of work that was required to put them in good order.

To Mr. O’Doa. he admitted that one of the houses had apparently not been used during defendant’s tenancy. Similar evidence concerning the state of the buildings was given by Ernest Arthur Pacev, builder. He admitted, as had the two previous witnesses, that be had not se<jn the condition of the farm and buildings prior to defendant taking up the lease.

Samuel Blake, retired farmer and member of the Taranaki Land Board and the District Rural Intermediate Credits Board, said that the place hud not been properly farmed.