ERROR OVER RATES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 25 November 1943, Page 3

ERROR OVER RATES

LAND NOT IN DISTRICT JUDGMENT FOR COMPANY Hamilton, Nov. 23. Reserved judgment has been given by Mr Justice Johnston in the case in which Now Zealand Forest Products, Limited (Mr J. Stanton), sought to recover £152 from the Tokoroa Rabbit Board (Mr J. F. Strong) for rates levied by the board on 18,310 acres of land owned by the plaintiff company. It was mistakenly assumed at the time the rates were levied that this land was within the boundaries of the board’s district. It was admitted that 13,350 acres of the company’s land was within the board’s district. His Honour said there was no dispute as to the facts. The statutory defence was that the board’s ratepayers ’ list and valuation roll included the whole of the company’s territory of 31,666 acres ,and that under the Rating Act, 1925, the ratebook was conclusive evidence in all Courts of the correctness of its contents. In His Honor’s opinion a property not within the district over which a relevant rating authority had power to levy rates could not be made rateable by the authority of its inclusion in the ratepayers’ list and valuation roll. A mistake could not extend the jurisdiction of an authority so erroneously compiling the list. Judgment was given for the plaintiff company for £152, the amount agreed upon as being overpaid.