A PROPERTY-TAX DISPUTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 955, 20 June 1890, Page 15

A PROPERTY-TAX DISPUTE.

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Napier, Juno IG. Captain Preece, sitting as a Board of Review under tho Property Assessment Act, to-day heard a peculiar case. It was an objection made by Murray, Roberts and Co. to an alteration made in. their property, tax assessment by the Commissioner, who gave notice that he would disallow a deduction of a sum of £25,000, which Murray, Roberts and Co. claimed to deduct as debt due to the Bank of Australasia in this Colony. Mr Crombie appeared for the Department. The facts were clear enough, and there was no dispute as to them prior to October, 18SS. Murray, Roberts and Co. drew on their London agents, Sanderson, Murray and Co., three bills for the aggregate amount of £25,000, which were to be repaid by woo! sent to London in the season. The bills were purchased or discounted by the bank, and tho proceeds placed to the credit of Murray, Roberts, and Co. They contended that the debt was due to the bank, aa the firm were collaterally liable to the bank, and that they were therefore entitled to deduct tho amount. Mr Crombie urged that the debt yvss nob to the bank, aud that Murray, Roberts and Co. had no liability to the bank, except in the event of the bills not being honoured at maturity, and (hat that d:d not entitle them to deduct the £25,000 as a liability within the Colony, The case really turned on the interpretation of sub-section 3 of clause 17 of the Property Assessment Act, 1885. Judgment was reserved. June 17, In giving judgment in the property-tax case heard yesterday, the Resident Magistrate held that Murray Roberts and Co. must pay the tax on the sum of £25,030 in dis. pute, under section 17, sub-seotjon 3, aa the liability of the firm to the bank was only contingent on the drafts being dishonoured, and they could not have been sued for the amount on the Ist of October, ISSB.