LOCAL BODIES' RIGHTS

Waipa Post, Volume 47, Issue 3385, 26 October 1933, Page 4

LOCAL BODIES' RIGHTS

REGARDING UNPAID NATIVE RATES.

(By Telegraph. Press Association.) GISBORNE, Wednesday.

An important ruling regarding the collection of rates owing on native property is contained in a reserved judgment given by Mr Justice Blair in an action which was heard at the last sitting of the Supreme Court at Gisborne. The effect of the judgment is that where native land is administered by an authority handling native affairs a local body is entitled to recover payment of rates out of revenue without the necessity of enforcing a charging order on the land itself. The action centred round rates, originally amounting to £750, owing by the East Coast Commissioner to the Wlaikohu County Council for a period of six years. Following the issue of charging orders two years' rates were paid, and when a writ was subsequently taken out another sum was paid into Court. The East Coast Commissioner, however, took proceedings to set aside a summons of discovery which had been issued in relation to the working and revenue of the property, and it was on this that the case came to hearing. The judge decided that the whole question should be argued. Mr F. W. Nolan, for the comimissioner, advanced various grounds against the enforcement of payment the main contention being that the Council's remedy was confined to obtaining a charging order against the property. For the Council, Mr L. T. Burnard pointed out that the law made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a charging order aainst native land. He argued that section 105 of the Rating Act imposed a duty on the commissioner to pay rates provided hie derived any revenues from the properties rated. Mr Justice Blair's decision upholds the submiission made on behalf of the County Council.