RAILWAY PROPERTY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11250, 30 June 1922, Page 8

RAILWAY PROPERTY

ASSESSMENT OF LAND. VALUATION OF KAIWARRA ESTATE. In a suit heard before His Honoui Mr Justice Reed yesterday, Alexander and John Cameron claimed against the Railway Department for £2587. On the bench, seated beside His Honour, were Air A. H. Miles, the assessor for the claimants, and Mr W. Ferguson, assessor for the Railway Department. Air T. C. A. Hislop appeared for the claimants, and Air P. S. K. Alacassey, Crown Prosecutor, for th© Railway Department. l r nm the evidence, it appeared that, in March. 1920, by proclamation, the Alinister for Railways took over an area of over three acres of land at Kai* warra. for the purpose of erecting hquses for the railway (servants. the question of price being left for assessment by the court. In trying to determine the factor of value, Air Hislop asserted that a property opposite to this had been bought by the Education Department for £llOO. The value of it in 1914 was £650, but in 1921 £990, an increase of 50 per cent., the price paid by the Education Board itself representing an increase of 15 per cent. The valuation of the Cameron estate in 1914 was £1285, and upon the basis of an increase of 56 per cent, alone, the claimants were entitled to £1900; but there was yet to b£ added the fairly-calculated percentage corresponding to the foregoing, to obtain the assumed 1921 valuation, there being a future alleged for the land in the way of warehouses, factories, dwellinghouses. In this connection, counsel held that the Cameron estate was better land than the Education Board’s, «unc© very much less excavation would be needed to put the property into proper building shape. Expert evidence as to the values ,of Jawd was taken, Mr P. S. K. Macasaey, for the railway authorities, maintaining that no private individual could 'posGibly have opened up the land aa well as the department had done it, there being no restrictions such as a private corporation would -have Imposed. The cost to the department, so far, he said, for all roading and survey work was £2724, without counting the fees of the engineers, whereas the coist to a private syndicate would have been quite £3933 for the same work. Air Alacassey further contended that the Cameron land was too hilly for factory sites, and too far away from the railway and water frontages; while, as to building sections, no houses other than the 44 erected by the Railway Department had been built in Kaiwarra during the past ten years. In regard to the school land, he contended, further, that the piece bought by the Education Department was Lie only level and suitable piece near the houses of the railwaymen. The case is proceeding.