LAW QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2782, 10 July 1907, Page 51

LAW QUERIES.

[Answered hy a Stlicitor of the Supreme Ceurt of Sex^Zealtmi. Letters mnd Telegrams must be tkdressed l» "LEX" do JSdiior, otag» Witness, nunedin.]

A. W. B.— Yes; you must pay the rate. Cheque.— (l) Yes ; Bis liable for the cost of service of the summons. (2) It is quite legaL M. G. — Yes. The company retains possession of the title deeds until the mortgage is discharged. West Coaster.— You may destroy any deg at laige biting or attacking your sheep ot cattle. Oxkarxj. — You cannot, under the circumstances, compel the new neighbours to pay half the cost of the erection of the fence. Iktehested Party. — A contractor cannot claim compensation as a worker under the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act. Anxious One.— (l> The land may be devised to the younger son. (2) The elder brother cannot claim the land by reason of bis seniority in age. Anxious.— (l) A statement so drawjx up is an account stated — i.e., an admission that^ a certain sum is due to the creditor. (2) No. (3) It does not require a etamp. (4) No. A Constant Reader.— (l) No. The owner of the sheep is responsible. (2) Yes, if there is a contract to pay wages. (3) B will be liable then. (4) Tn« District Railway Engineer, Dunedin. Perplexed. — The explanation is simply that the practice of inserting the maiden Christian name before the surname acquired by marriage has been long settled and sanctioned by cut-ton* and usage. In Doubt.— <l) You may withdraw your application, but the withdrawal must be actually communicated to the company before notice of allotment is posted or given. (2) Not if you are in time. Constant Reader.— The leasehold property passes to the administrator of the father's estate. The other members of the family may have an interest in the property under deceased's will, or. if there was no will, they will have a claim as upon an intestate. Farmer. — The occupiers of contiguous lands bear the cost of repairing the fence separating their lands in equal proportions. The occupier desiring to repair a boundary fence may serve a notice upon the contiguous occupier requiring him to assist in repairing such fence, and if such occupier refuses or neglects so to do for the space of one week ■after service of the notice the first-mentioned occupier may do .the work himself, and recover half the cost thereof from the occupier making default. Old Subscriber.— (l) The cost of obtaining a divorce is a matter of arrangement with a solicitor. As there is no fixed scale, it is impossible to state the lowest charge. (2) It is easier and less expensive to apply for a summary separation order. (3) The wife may petition the Supreme Court for a dissolution of marriage if the husband has during four years and upwards been an habitual drunkard, <and has either habitually left the wife without means of support, or habitually been guilty of cruelty towards her. (4) Nat unless the money has been a recent gift from the husband.