THIRD EDITION BETTERMENT PRINCIPLE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17143, 27 December 1929, Page 13

THIRD EDITION BETTERMENT PRINCIPLE

TO BE A LIVE QUESTION PROVING INCREASED VALUE An interesting statement on the subject of betterment was made by the . iUayor, Mr G. A. Troup, at a recent meeting of the Wellington City Council. In his remarks he disclosed that it had been proposed to introduce a certain amendment to the Municipal Corporation Act l»st session to remove a certain anomaly in the Act, which, together with interpretations of it from the Bench, made the already existing provision in the Act for betterment unworkable, and, seemingly, against the spirit of that provision. Section 193 of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1920, sets out: "(1) Where the council widens any street in the borough or widens any part oil the length of any street, and lor that purpose takes or purchases or otherwise acquires land from one side only of the street, then and in every such case the owner, or the several owners, of land fronting upon or having any frontage to the opposite side oi the street shall pay to the council on account of betterment such sum or sums of money as may represent the increased value thereby given, or hkely to be given, to such lastmentioned lands respectively. . "(2) The several amounts to be paid to the council as aforesaid shall be ascertained in manner provided by the Public Works Act, 1908, or in a manner as near thereto as iu the opinion of the Compensation Court the circumJces of each case will admit, but so the council shall be Die claimant the owner or the several owners of so benefited as aforesaid shall be the respondents. Claims under this section may be made in the form numbered one in the fifth schedule hereto." A DIFFICULTY Thus the way has been made clear for the payment of betterment. But—and here is where the shoe pinches as far as local boaies are concerned—a subsequent amendment to the Act states that the local body must make its claim for betterment within 12 months of the completion of the work. The question has since arisen as to the interpretation of that amendment, as to whether it refers to the completion of the widening of the street, or that length of it included in the widening scheme, or whether it can be said to refer to individual properties. This point cropped up in a recent case in Auckland, when the Chief Justice ruled that it referred to individual properties. This judgment has been regarded as rather devastating, in view of the manner in which street widening schemes are now carried out in most New Zealand cities. . The process is to insist on owners building premises or rebuilding to set back the frontage to the new alignment defined under" the street-widening scheme. When only one or two properties are so set back in a year or two (the process is a very gradual one) local authorities naturally find it difficult to prove increased value and so establish their

claim for betterment. For that reason an amendment to the "Act was proposed to be made last session to make betterment a real force in city improvement, but as the Mayor pointed out, the Minister, the Hon. P. A de la Perelle, who had favored tho amendment, jettisoned the provisions at the last moment, and so gave the House no opportunity of considering the vital point at issuo, namely, the right to c%mi betterment at any time subject to ifrVeased value being proved. The question of 1 betterment is one which has received wide consideration in -many parts of the world, but notably in England, Germany and America. In arriving at conclusions respecting betterment as the result of street-widening, there has been much contention. The conclusion generally arrived at is that values may be increased by widening narrow streets into streets of moderate < breadth, but over and above a certain "breadth the value becomes affected adversely, as very wide streets become one-way avenues fo.- pedestrian traffic, owing to the risk of danger iu crossing "in these davs of heavy motor car traffic. The Mayor has promised to make the question a live one at the noxt Municipal Association Conference, so that, local authorities throughout ihe Dominion will doubtless be delving into this somewhat, complex subject.