ASSESSMENT COURT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 15

ASSESSMENT COURT.

BRUCE COUNTY. A sitting of i,he Assessment Court for the Bruce County Wai? held in the Courthouse on Monday 1 befoie Mr &H. Carew, S.M. Mr Fraser, Duni edio, appeared for the Government valuer, Mr M'Kerrow. GENERAL OBJECTIONS. George Graham, Clarendon Hiding, objected to ths valuation placed on the improvements on I his property. These were assessed at £586. — His ! Worship said that he was satisfied £25 should be i added to tie improvements and £25 to the i capital value. Feter Williamson objected to the valuation placed ou his property as being too high. It was was assessed at £4300, which he contended was £900 too much. He called Donald M'Donald, who also gave evidence. — Ihe objection was disallowed. v . David Fyfe, Kapita, Milburn, objected to the value placed'on his improvements. The improvements on the area was reduced from £195 to £170, aud the valuation of a four-roomed house thereon from £62 to £59. Michaal Wisniski, farmer, Waihola, objected to the valuation of £54 placed on his property, of which £34 were for improvements. — Valuation reduced to £44. GREENIIELD ESTATE. Mr James Smith lodged an appeal against the ! assessment of 22,024 acres at Greenfield, the i capital value of which was assessed at £86.061 aud the improvements at £27,500. The capital value was agreed to by Mr Smith, who, however, set down the unimproved value at £34,278 and the improved value at £51,875, leaving a difference in dispute of £23,707. i Mr Fraser api>eared for the valuer, aud Mr Donald Reid (of Milton) for the objector. A conference ensued between the parties, and the following it^ms were admitted :— Drains, i £1000 ; buildings, £3900 • concrete dip and tanks, £600 ; stone dam, £200 ; plantation, £1240. The ■ following items w^rs in dispute :— 253 lniles of i fencing, which the objector said was valued at £50 a mile and the department at £40 to £45. Gates ami droppers and brackets were also dis- ; puted by the valuer as being included in the j valuation of the fence. Wire netting was also in J dispute, and the Co3t of clearing and sowing down in English grass, acd also f>ix miles of metalled roads. Mr D. Reid said he did not object to the capital value, but contended that the value of Ihe improvements was to 3 low. In 1892 the Goverumeat valuation amounted to £41,000 odd. Mr Smith had estimated the improvements much higher, but did not then object. It «yould be shown that year after year Mr Smith had put the earnings of the run into the run, aad that had averaged for the last seven years £7000 a year. Every year Mr Smith had spent between £700 and £800 on manure alone. Upwards of 60 men were employed on the run all the year round, and about £1500 was spent in sowinggrass every year. When Mr Smith took the country up it took two acres to carry one poor sheep, and the run carried only 10,000 sheep, and the wool was 3£lb per sheep. Now it carried 40,000 cheep, and fattened on an average 20,000, and the wool averaged 7Jlb ger sheep. James Smith (the objector) gave evidence that he valued his fencing at £50 a mile, excluding wire netting, droppers, aud gates. He had 140 wooden gstes, which were vrorfch £1 each. There were 160 iron gate , which were worth £3 apiece. These were in good condition. There were 20,000 j droppers, which were valued at 12s a thousand. j Fifteen miles of them were up, and eight of them ■ went to the chain. There were nine or ten miles ' of wive netting. The brackets on the fence were : valued at £100. ■O.'hen the home yards cost £400, and the Glenore yards about £150. These yards were valued by the valuer at £400, which was admitted to lie a fair value. As to land cleared j there was 18,500 acres clear, aud in addition there ! were 1000 acre-< surface sown and partly cleared. • There was before clearing heavy manuka scrub all over the estate, and it -was a3 thick as it could grow. The roots had to be grubbed and burnt. It cost to clear, burn, and trench the ground over 10s per acre. It was a low amount. The most of • it had been broken up 7iu deep with a swing plough. It cost from 15s to 20s to plough, and !it was harrowed twice at 3s per acre. j It was then cross ploughed at 10s per acre, and harrowed again (two strokes) at 2s. Turnips were then sown, and the cost of that was 6d sowing, and 6d harrowing. That was what it co3t to put the land into cultivation. After the turnips it cost 16s an acre to sow down Greenfield in grass, 'lhafc was for grass seed alone. Then there was the labour. In all it cost £3 6s 9d to bring it into its present condition from its original state. From the time he first got his crop of grass it had not deteriorated. On the contrary, it had increased in value. When he started the estate carried one-half poor merino sheop to the acre. There were 7000 lambs with a death rate of not less than 7 per cent. It carried now two shpep to the acre, and he now fattened from 9000 to 13,0 0 lambs every year. His average s.\les for fat sheep was 20,000, and ths weight of the wool was 7*lb per sheep. In the early days it was 3Jlb per sheep. There were 1000 acres surface sown, and the cost to get it into that condition was about 5s per acre. There were about six miles and a-half of metalled roads which cost £4 per chain, or in all £2080. In 1892 the improvements were put down at £11,130, now they were put down at £'28,168. In other words the Government was putting all the valuation ou the unimproved value. Queen's Hill, adjoining Begg's estate, was a portion of his (Mr Smith's) estate. The grass there was not so good as the other part, but it waa good grass. He sowed down 1500 acres in new grass every year.

To Mr Fraser : He bought the bulk of his property in 1863. He cropped on the average 800 acres a year. When he put down the grass it was put down with the object of raising it again in seven or eight years. He was satisfied with the capital value. If he were valuing the property as an outsider he would value the improvements much niora and the capital value a little liiore. The carrying capacity of the ground was two crosibred sheep to the acre. He valued the Anlgowan at £S 10s an acre. It cost 6s per ton to bring stuff down to Balclutha. As for the roads through the county, he waa taxed for them He paid between £300 and £400 a year in taxatioD. He believed there were 260 miles of fencing on the estate. It was partly one barbed and partly two barbed, with seven wire 3. He valued his fencing at £50 per mile. The iron gates weighed ljcwt. The droppers were simply used for keeping the sheep from passing through to the other eide. There were about 11 miles of wire netting, which cost 12s 6d per chain. The land, if it were now as when he took it up, would be only worth 30s an acre all over.

To Mr Reid : His pasture seven or eight years old was as good and better than many other pastures two years old. He could make year after year 7s per acre off his grass land. James Greive, farmer, residing at Tuapeka Mouth, on the boundary of Greenfield estate, said he had seen the estate 28 years ago in its rough state. Manuka grew mostly on the ridges and matagouri on the flats. It would take 10s an acre to grub, burn, and trench it. To break it up with a swing plough and prepare it for an oat crop or a turnip crop would cost £2 4s per acre exclusive of the 10s for clearing. The grass when he was there the other day was in good order, and since Mr Smith took it up the estate had increased largely in value. The pasture was kept above the times.

William Livingstone, farmer, Waitahuna, gave evidence that he had seen the grass recently, which was of an excellent character. It was not an easy matter to break up maiden ground. To break up Greenfield— grub, burn, and trench— and prepare for seed would cost £2 4s per acre. That was breaking up with a single-furrow plough. He drove many miles over fhe estate

Alexander Nelson, fanner, Lovell's Flat, and county clerk, said he had becu a valuer for the past 25 years. He had been runny times on Greenfield station. He had valued Greenfield station and also Roxburgh station. Roxburgh was a better property in its natural state than Greenfield. The latter was the better property now. There was no pompaiison at all now, which was due to Mr Smith's good farming and improvements. The unimproved value of Coombe Hay and Landell's stations had decreased. The oulinary cost of putting natural ground inco ordei ready for seed had bsen to him £2 2s 6d. Hss ground was not so bad to work as Greenfield. There was a better scrub on his, costing 2s to 2a Gri to clear. He saw Greenfield with the scrub, and he thought that the amount fix*.d by Mr Smith to clear it of this — namely, 10s— was less than it cost. The grass at Greenfield was first-rate. The value of the grass wos 253 or 30s per acre. The assessment by the Government of 10s was perfectly outrageous. To Mr Fraser : Mr Smith was only an ordinary member of the council. Witness had valued the property repeatedly for the road board and the county. The capital value fixed by the Government at £3 15s was tco high— higher than anything else in the district. It would not fetch more than £3 10s at auction. To Mr Reid : If Roxburgh had put £7000 a year into the estate for years past it might be like Greenfield. David Tweedie said he started work on Greenfield in 1566. and worked there for 11 years. It was nearly all scrub, with clear patches here and there. William Lees Craig, Government district valuer for Maniototo and other counties, said he was on Greenfield estate on Saturday last. .He saw most of the station and a good deal of the stock. The stock was in very good condition. The j grass- was good. He believed it carried 35,000 ! fcheep, but by the appearance of the grass it was j understocked. He knew that'fat sheep were going ! to the freezers. The grass could have been mowD, i and ho did not expect to find it in that state. To Mr Fraser : A /ais- value for the fence he saw, exclusive cf the netting, was 10s per chain all over. That was the selling value of the fencing as improvements to the estate, He included the iron gates. The fencing would cost new 15s on an average, including gates. Taking it as a whole, all over 10s an acre would be a fair value for the grass. To Mr Reid : Ten shillings an acre was the largest, amount he had allowed for grass, and he had allowed Mr Smith the largest amount he had yet allowed. John Tougb, farmer, Tokoinairiro, stated that he had recently passed through Greenfield on his way to value another property. The grass on Queen's Hill was very good grass — the best he had seen at this time ot the year. It was as good as anything he had seen in the Milton district in December. The grass was somewhat long, and was worth 25s an acre. David Thompson, farmer, Tokomairiro, said he recently examined the grass at Queen's Hill, Greenfield, and it was very good. Very little was to he seen like it at this ssason. It was worth £1 to 30s an acre. To Mr Fraser : Witness thought the letting value was £1 per acre. David Bryce, farmer at Lqvell's Flat, said he examined Queen's Hill, and said it was worth £1 per acre as letting value. This concluded the evidence for the objectors. Mr Fraser said that the evidence led in the direction of the value of the grass was absolutely erroneous. He submitted that in the case of a property worked in a rotation of ciops of which grass waa simply a crop in rotation it would not be right to take the value of the grass as laid down by his, learned friend. At the most it was not laid down for more than seven or eight years. Mr Reid : That is permaneut pasture here. Mr Fraser aaid he did not know if it should be taken as an improvement at all. The department had assessed tha value of grans everywhere at 10s per acre, and that had been accepted all over the Oamaru district, and by such estates as the Australian Laud Company's aud Clydavale. He contended that the value of the grass land was fairly assessed at 30s. The court should look at the manuev in which it wa' put down and the purpose for which it was put down. It was not permanent. He cropped 800 acres a year Mr ReiJ : White crops for his stock? Mr Fraser ; Not £800 for his stock? Mr Reid : Yes. His Worship : Mr Smith should be asked. Mr Smith said he put down 800 acies in crop for stock and seed for his own use. He did not sell crops He sold none this year nor last. He sold some bushels of chaff one year, but these sales formed very little part of his work. j Mr Fraser (continuing) said : As to adding to \ die cost of improvements he could only say that i the act would have to speak for itself. He would call the valuer who made the valuation. John Adam 3, valuer, said he valued the stockyatds at Greenfield at £200. The fencing waa in fair condition, and a good pries for them all round was £45 per mile. He first put down £40 and stretched it to £15 per mile, including everyihing, droppers and all. The fencing probably cost £56 per mile. He valued the grass as a rent 10a psr acre. He looked upon the grass as a crop. ' He did not agree with those witnesses who put it as high as 303. He did not go into the cost of clearing the giound originally. William Dallas, firmer, Balclutha, assessed the value of the fencing .at Greenfield at about 10s a chain. The value of the grass land he would put down at 10s an acre, taking it all round — the old with the new. To Mr Reid : About 1400 acres of Pillans's ground —the roughest portion — waa bought by Mr Miller at £2 an acre. Andrew M'Kerrow, chief valuer, said that he examined Greenfield. He thought 10s was a fair \ alue for the grass and 10s a chain for the fencing. To Mr Reid : Witness took a casual view of the fenciug. Witness could not tell how many kowhai posts there were in the fencing. The fencing was principally standards and kowhai posts. In hia opinion to put up fencing like that new would be 12s 6d per chain. If Mr Smith said it cost him 14s, he thought it would be 100 much. The' fence might last 25 years with repairs. The maximum sum he allowed for grass was 10s. To Mr Fraser : That covered other districts besides this. His Worship reserved his decision.