COMPENSATION OASES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5497, 30 June 1879, Page 6

COMPENSATION OASES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—At the Hitting of the Compensation Court, in the case of Maxwell v. the Hon. the Minister for Public Works, his Ha. or Judge Gillies laid down the following rule for *the guidance of valuators : — *'I£ previous to the construction of the railway the land were laid out in building allotments, then it must be valued as building allotments. If it were used as a gentleman's residence, then it must be valued as a gentleman's residence. If it were used as a farm, then it must be valued as a farm." These were, I believe, his Honor's words, if not, they convey his precise meaning. This ruling, I believe, in accordance with the practice in England and in an old settled country, is probably fair and just; but; I submit, that in this country it cannot be, and, as a matter of fact, never is, applied. To prove this, I have no occasion to go further than the evidence ot the four Government valuators, these gentlemen were unanimous in giving evidence to the effect that the present value of the land in question is £100 per acre. One hundred pound per acre, for what ?—for a farm. On this piece of land there are about 27 acres clear, 5 to 7 are ploughable. Of the remainder about one-fourth is made np of solid rock and huge heaps of stones, the balance it would be utterly impossible to plough ; and I very, much doubt if one single acre could be dug with a epade. It is, therefore, evident that, either intentionally or unintentionally, they did take its value as building sites into account. It was shown m evidence that this farm carries from 24 to SO cows, and that .thesje have occasionally to he hand-fed. lam not sufficiently learned m the matter of cows to know what this number would produce per annum, but it strikes me they would pay very poor interest on land valued at £2700, and buitdiug3 worth from £500 to £600. Again, I ask, did any man ever buy 27 acres of land, within a mile and a half of the General Post-office, and not take into account its present and future value as building sites, or did any man in Mb Benses ever part with such a property without also taking this matter into consideration. One other proof that the value of such land for building purposes must be, and in this instance was, taken into account. The value of a similar piece of land 50 miles in the country would be something very small indeed, but taking into account its close proximity to town, and also remembering that nearly tho whole of it is utterly unploughable, its extreme outside value, as farm land, would be an average of £14 per acre, or £37S for the whole. Now, the Government offered Mr. Maxwell £300 as compensation, or within £78 of the total value. Is any comment necessary ? It will be Boen that in this valuation 1 have not taken the bnildings into account, but have simply treated the land as farm land. I should not have, troubled you with this letter, were it not for remarks freely passed about "excessive valuations." I fail to see how a land-valuer can do justico by his client without taking every circumstance affecting the value of his property into account.—l am, &c, i June 28, 1579. S. Vaile.