RENT REDUCTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20281, 16 April 1934, Page 7

RENT REDUCTION.

Case of Railwaymen’s Houses. COURT ASKED TO DECIDE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, April 16. Whether the provision of the National Expediture Adjustment Act, relating to the reduction of rent, apply to railway houses rented from the department by railwaymen, is being con- , sidered by the Full Court to-day. Mr IT. F. O’Leary is appearing for plaintiff, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, and Mr P. B. Cooke is appearing for the Attorney-General and the Government Railways Board. Mr O’Leary stated that the society had issued an originating summons merely to ascertain the mode in which relief should be given under the statute, it being assumed at that stage that the statute applied to railway houses. The Crown then raised the question as to whether the Act applied at all, and the Court was now asked to determine this question. The Railways Board’s contention was that the men were not tenants, but servants, and did not pay rent. As the board owned approximately 3505 buildings, it was probably the biggest landlord in New Zealand. Mr O’Leary submitted, first, that, in the particular circumstances of occupancy of these dwellings by railwaymen, the relationship of landlord and tenant did exist. Even, however, if such relationship did not exist, he submitted that the statute still applied, because there were in existence between the men and the department contracts whereby the men undertook to pay rent, and that was all the statute required. The provisions of the Act relating to reduction in wages had been applied to the men, and, naturally, they felt aggrieved at not receiving the benefit of the rent reduction. (Proceeding.)