THE RATING ACT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 44, 20 February 1913, Page 7

THE RATING ACT.

OF INTEREST TO RATEPAYERS. (Per Press Association.) Wellington, February IS. A test case concerning rates were brought before Mr Justice Chapman at the Supreme Court this morning, on a summons removed from the Magistrate’s Court. The plaintiff was the Wellington City Corporation,, and the defendants were Hamilton Gilmer,M.L.C., Allen Maguire, settler, John clerk. Charles Perrin Skerrett, K.C., solicitor, and Mary An i Marclle., settler, all of Wellington. The defendants, it was set out in the statement of claim, are owners of the Trocadero Private Hotel, upon which the sum of £3O 13s lOd is due for electric heat, light, and power supplied pursuant to the provisions of the Ruling Act, 1908. The City Council, on June Ist, 1912, demanded this amount, which it was claimed was recoverable as a separate rate from tb ■ owners of the property. The demand was not complied with, and action was taken to recover the amount as a separate rate. Sir John Findlay stated that the question for the i Court was, whether a municipal corporation winch owns or controls gas or electric light supply is entitled t » * recover (under the Rating Act) irom a landlord as a separate i .‘a, ti r price of gas or electrical cur ray con- | sumed by a tenant lor iigat, beat, | or power, when the tenant had failed |to pay. Mr O’Shea, fity solicitor, I contended that under the Munir ip. i Corporations Act and the Rating j the Council possessed power to onion •* ■ this as a separate rnt n against tl ■ 1 landlord, and the amount was recoverable in the same way as the other rates. Decision was reserved.