ACTION FOR ENTERING LAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1342, 18 August 1877, Page 10

ACTION FOR ENTERING LAND.

The case M'Dermid v. the Corporation of Port Chalmers was heard before I. N. Watt, Esq., R"M., in the Supreme Court on Tuesday last. The executrix of the late Hugh M'Dermid sued the Corporation of Port Chalmers for entering, under the provisions of the Port Chalmers Water Worka Ordinance and the Lana Clauses Coiuolidation Act, upon section No. 59, Sawyer's Bay district, and laying a main therein, without making the deposit in the Supreme Court, as required by section 71 of the said Act. Wherefore she sought to recover the penalty of LlO. Mr Haggitt appeared for the plaintiff. Mr Macassey, for the defence, objected that the Court had no jurisdiction, inasmuch that under the Justices of Peace Act, 1866, the information should have been laid within six months of the commission of the offence ; and that the entering on the land had taken place in November last, and the water was brought through in January. In either case, the entry took place more than six months antecedent to the information being laid. Mr Haggitt, in reply, argued that the water was daily passing through the pipes, and that & fresh entry was made day by day. At 5 o'clock the Court adjourned, and at 10.30 on Saturday the Magistrate gave judgmsnt. He said he had consulted " Shelf ord on Railways," " Maxwell on the Interpretation of- Statutes," and had referred to Tlie Queei v. Pratt, in "Ellis and Blackburn's Reports," and other cases. He could not find any absolute definition of the term "entering," but he gathered from them that it must be a personal entry. In this case there was no evidence of a personal entry after November, 1876, and therefore the Court had no jurisdiction. The case would therefore be dismissed, without coste.