Chang Min Tat FJ:

By notice dated 26 August 1976, the Valuation Department of the Board of Management, Local Government, Penang (the respondent) served a notice of a proposed amendment of assessment on a property described as a columbarium next to No. 177 Batu Gantong Road, Penang on the Secretaries and Treasurers of the United Hokkien Cemetries (the appellant) on the round that the property had not previously been assessed. The assessment was to be with effect from 28 August 1975 on an unreduced annual value of $4,000.

The land on which the columbarium is erected is a cemetery for members of the Hokkien community in Penang. Though it is nowhere stated, it is to be assumed that it is licensed for such use. A crematorium has also been erected on the land. Both the cemetery grounds and the crematorium have been exempted from assessment.

But in respect of the columbarium, the respondent turned down the objection as did the High Court in Penang on appeal therefrom. The appellant now appeals to this Court.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a columbarium primarily as a pigeon-house or a dove cote from its derivation from "columba," the Latin word for a dove. A der