BOROUGH COUNCIL'S CLAIM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13583, 12 September 1908, Page 6

BOROUGH COUNCIL'S CLAIM.

.♦ . A QUESTION OF OWNERSHIP. [BY TELKGHAI'II. OWN COKRESPONIM'NT.] Thames, Friday. At the sitting of the Thames Magistrate's Court to-day an important case was heard, involving the liability of owners of property for a proportion of '.the cost of the concrete water-tables recently laid down by the Borough Council throughout the bor*ngh. The case was brought by the Borough Council against M. Teaedale, for the eum of £8 ss, being half the cost of the concrete water-table and footpath formed along the front of property held by him under lease in Willoughby-streot. Mr. Miller appear*} for the Council, and proved the claim as regards the amount of work done, and the proportiom charged against the allotments in the occupation, of the defendant. Mr. Clendon, who appeared for the d\fondant, stated that his client did not dispute the fact of tho work being done, or of the fair proportion charged against the allotment occupied by him, but based his defence on the fact that he was not in any legal sense the owner of the property, as, although he held a form of lease from the trustees in the Taipara estate, this was not a legal deed, inasmuch as the land was the property of native owners, and as such, could not be legally leased without the confirmation of the Native Land Trust Commissioners or the Land Court. As the deed under which his client held the allotment had not been confirmed, it was not a legal document, and the defendant was not the owner of the allotment in any sense, as he was really unlawfully in possession. Mr. Clendon quoted authorities in support of this contention, showing that an unconfirmed native lease was invalid. His Worship reserved his decision.