TE AUTE TRUST COMMISSION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 135, 8 June 1906, Page 6

TE AUTE TRUST COMMISSION.

TO-DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. ; The Te Aute Commission resumed Its sittings this morning, having spent 4he previous day sitting in cam-era, going through Parliamentary reports and a mass of documents bearing on tho enquiry. The chairman made a statement regarding the questior that had arisen as to whether a second grant had been issued 'of tho Wanganui endowment. It appeared that in the original grant there was a mistake as to linkages. That was rectified in a second grant, but the engrossing clerk omitted some words which were in the original grant as to the conditions of the trust. They must take it, therefore, that the conditions of the trust were set out in the original grant. 1 F. W. Flanagan, chief draughtsman in the Land and Survey Department, pro-, duced a copy of the original plan of ths grant, dated October, 1852. A. Gualtsr, accountant, Wellington, and secretary to the Board of Trustees of th© Wanganui Collegiate School, gave formal evidenct;. W. C. Kensington, Under-Sccretary. for Crown Lands, said he had inspected the Te Aute. estate, with a viaw to- sec- j ing how far it was suitable for close Battlement. After deducting the land", taken for roads and railways he had oomo t to the conclusion that th© whole estate ' was fit for close settlement. It was one of the best kept estates of its kind that j he had been over. Ho thought that the terms of the last lease, 6s 6d- an acre.,~j made- three years ago, were fair, taking i tho estate as a whole. To the chairman : If the laud had been, cut up for close settlement it wouldprobably have brought a larger rental. It was a question, however, of whether trustees wto hr.d to keep up a going concern coold have cut it up in the sana* way as a- Government Department could do. He thoutrht, however, that public tenders should be called for. He had never in his life seen leasehold property better kept. To Mr. Hogg : About 3COO acres of the estats was suitab'.o for cutting up into areas of about acres. Thia concluded the taking of evidence in Wellington. The commission will leavefor Wanganui to-morrow morning, and sit there on 'Monday. . „ "