TIMBER LAND DEAL

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17783, 7 August 1929, Page 8

TIMBER LAND DEAL

UNCOMPLETED PURCHASE CLAIM AGAINST STATE. QUESTION IN HOUSE. (Times Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Current reports that Dr. F. J. Rayner, of Auckland, is taking action against the Government, claiming damages in respect to an uncompleted timber land purchase, were given some basis of substantiation in the House of Representatives as a result of a question by Mr W. Lee Martin, Labour member for Raglan, this afternoon.

Mr Martin’s question, addressed to the Commissioner of State Forests, the Hon. W. B. Taverner, asked whether the attention of Mr Taverner had been drawn to a newspaper article in which particulars were given of an agreement between Dr. Rayner and Mr K. S. Williams, for the Commissioner of State Forests, it being stated that the timber rights of certain areas in the Rotorua district had been acquired from the natives for £5500, and that a speculator wanted to dispose of them for £IBO,OOO. If the facts were as reported, Mr Martin asked the Minister whether he would take the earliest opportunity of making a statement to the House on the matter. Mr Martin further asked whether the Minister could inform the House whether the Dr. Rayner mentioned in the article was the same Dr. Rayner who figured in a previous land deal when lie sold to the Railway Department for £27,000 a property he had purchased a few months previously for £3OOO. "The subject is one that is at the present time before the Courts in relation to an action pending against the Government,” replied Mr Taverner. “In the circumstances it is not considered proper to make a statement.” Mr W. E. Parry, Labour member for Auckland Central: But is it the same Dr. Rayner as was in the previous deal? Mr Taverner: As far as I am aware it is the same Dr. Rayner. The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, was given permission to' supplement Mr Taverner’s reply. "All I want to say is that the case is sub judice, and has nothing whatever to do with the present Government,” he said. Laughter from the Reform benches greeted the statement.