AN IMPORTANT POINT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10956, 19 July 1921, Page 6

AN IMPORTANT POINT

TIMBER ON 0..R.P. LEASES SHOULD ROYALTIES BE PAID TO CROWN OR TENANT? SIR JOHN SALMOND’S REMARKS. » (Special to “N.Z. Times.”) ' ' AUQKLAND, July 17. There were some interesting features in an • action heard by Sir John Salmond at tli6 Supreme Court, when two brothers claimed £2050 damages from a timber company, that sum being tho alleged value of royalties on 1,560,000 feet of timber cut dowA and removed from a property at Hokianga. The plaintiffs were Valentine Roy Beazley and William Beazley (Mr Gould), farmers Brondwood and the defendants were the Rangiora Timber Company, Ltd., Kohukoliu (Mr A. E. Skelt.on). It was explained by Mr Gould that the plaintiffs were the holders of an occupation license with right of purchase in respect of 1013 acres in. the Hokianga district. The block was in lleavy bush, and.there were the usual provisions as to residence and improvements. the first step towards improving the place being to remove the timber. BUSH AND TIMBER. ' ; His Honour: la the cutting of timber regarded as an improvement of land in possession of a man with an occupation license? I should have thought it was waste. , Mr Gould said that at the time (1906) the timber had no value, or, at any rate, little value. His Honour: Removal of bush is an improvement, but that is in a different category from timber. • Mr Gould explained that the plaintiffs’ father, now deceased, had mado an agreement with the defendant company to sell the timber on the land in qtiestinn, subject to certain royalties, much lower than those on which ‘ the present claim was based. The term of the agreement was ten years, hut the only work carried- out Under the agreement was during 1911. Operations were not TOnUmed By the defendant company until 3919, when the plaintiffs assumed that the company still had authority to take' the timber. They learned, however, that the option to renew - the agreement had not been, utilised, and they aemaTided certain royalties from the company, but no payments had been -made. '

ROYALTY TO GROWN OR TENANT? ”Mr A. E. Skelton said it Was admitted that his clients had cut the timber, -and that payment had ho b© made, but the defendant company did not know whether it was liable to the plaintiffs or to the Crown. It wti's through a mistake regarding the option ihat the defendant had become involved in the litigation. Mr Gould stated that there was no secrecy between idle Grown and the plaintiffs about the cutting of timbet. In the Hokianga district O.R.P. settlers for a considerable period had sold timber, aim judges had: ®poken of it as a recognised practice. Counsel contended that the timber on the land became the property of tHe. O.R.P. tenant. His Honour: Can he extract the minerals ? ■ Mr Ghjuld replied im the negative, and said it was not necessary to remove minerals to improve the land. His Honour: That assumes that the removal of timber is an improvement, if it ds valuable timber it is a waste. You contend that, in consideration of a trifling annual payment,' a Jen ant may denude the land of valuable timber.? * Mr Gould: It i® . only valuable through subsequent circumstances. His Honour: It would be a cheap way of running a sawmill to get an O.R.P. license, cut the timber, and then not exercise the right chase. ■ ' . IMPORTANT LEGAL POINT. His Honour, deciding an important preliminary.- legal point,said he was not prepared to say that an O.R.P. tenant necessarily had the right to make an agreement to sell the timber on his land. The plaintiffs, however, wOpe in possession ' of the land, and had an interest in the timber that the defendant company had removed, be: cause plaintiffs had an option to purchase the land with the timber on it. They were, therefore, entitled to sue the company. Whether they were entitled to the whole proceeds or. whether they had committed a waste of the property was a matter for theCrown and not for the court. The only question new was as to the proper measure of value. Evidence on this head was then tendered.