EDUCATIONAL ESTATES IN HAWKE'S BAY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1077, 24 August 1869, Page 3

EDUCATIONAL ESTATES IN HAWKE'S BAY.

The following is the second report of the religious, charitable, and educational trusts commission, which, with the evidence, was j lately published as a parliamentary paper : — Wellington, June 30, 1869.' May it please your Excellency,— The Commissioners, in continuation of the report and minutes submitted by them to your Excellency on the 25th May, 1869, have now to transmit the minutes of evidence taken in relation to the subjects of their inquiry in the province of Hawke's Bay. The objects of the grant of 593 acres of j land for the Poverty Bay native school appear to have been steadily pursued until j the disturbed state of the country caused its operations to be suspended. The Com- j missioners regret that ofthe buildings and I improvements effected upon this estate, at a cost of £4,683. 155. 3d., a considerable portion has been destroyed, and that the remaining portion is, for want of occupation, exposed to injury and decay. The expense of those buildings and improvements was defrayed by means of grants from Government amounting to £1,84875. ; grants from the Church Missionary Society, amounting to £1,266 13s. 4d. ; proceeds of cattle, the original stock of which was contributed from private sources, amounting to £586 14s. lld. ; and sums advanced by the Bishop of Waiapu, amounting to £982. The last-mentioned sum, and too other sums of about £50 and £45 are claimed by the Bishop against the estate. The trusts of the four grants, comprising in all 7,799 acres of land (since slightly altered in extent and boundary by exchanges) for the Te Aute Native School or College, appear to have been accepted upon the understanding that a school would be erected upon part of the estate at the expense of the Government, that a sum of £500 would be granted by the Government for the purchase of sheep, and that a certain allowance of at least £300 per annum would be granted by the Government towards the maintenance of the school, payment of a schoolmaster, and improvements of the estate. The school was not so ereoted. The £500, on account of the high price at the time, sufficed to purchase 250 ewes only. The annual grant was continued for the years 1854 to 1859 inclusive. During these years a school was maintained, the attendance at which, though small, was as considerable as, under the circumstances stated (see evidence of tho Rev. Samuel Williams, p. 4), it would hnve been reasonable to expect. See also rs-pnrt of Mr. Henry Robert Russell, appenilix to Journals of Houso of Representatives. for 1862, E. No. 4, p. 31.) Upon the cessation of the annual grants (practically in 1859), the estate producing no income applicable to the support of a school, and having sustained a severe loss by fire, the school was discontinued. The object of the management since has been to improve the property until it should be capable of producing an income in some measure adequate to the support of a school. The annual profits beyond those which have accumulated in the form of improvements have been insufficient, after payment of current expenses and interest, to repay the moneys advanced, and leave a debt due from the estate, at the end of the year 1868, amounting to the sum of £767 7s. ld. The annual value of the estate has been increased from £10 in 1853 to between £500 and £600 at the present time. The sheep have increased to the number of 6,137 at the muster in 1868, and it is clearly shown that the improvements of the property have been judiciously effected. It will, nevertheless, bo apparent that while the object of the management — the rendering the estate productive of an available income — has been nearly attained, the children of the native donors of the land have grown up to maturity deriving little or no benefit from the trust. This hasled to complaints from donors and representa* tives of donors, having some show of reason in them. ! The state of the accounts and Rental of the Napier school estate is very satisfactory. The land, two town allotments, in Napier, of one rood each, was purchased with a sum of £10, taken out of moneys originally contributed for the maintenance of a school in thatytownj The action of the trustees • toward^ establishing a school is in abeyance, pend* ing the construction of a scheme for its management by His Honor Mr. Justice Johnston, to whom the papers and accounts relating to the property have been referred. The delay in the establishment of a school upon the scheme to be so devised will probably enable the funds (at present about £850) to accumulate until they become sufficient for the erection of convenient buildings, while the annual rental (£235 165.) will be a valuable endowment towards the expense of maintaining it. In respect of the Town of Clyde School reserve, it appears, from the statement: of Mr. Sturm, that before the native title to the district in which this reserve is situated was extinguished, a piece of land, part of the present reserve, was set apart for a school for the education of native and half-caste children; that trustees were appoiuted, and a sohoolhouse built, which is still standing and occupied; and Mr. M'Lean states that, when the district was ceded by the natives, no express stipulation was made in respect oi the land on which the school-house stands. This land, as part of a large quantity, has been reserved in the ordinary way for educational purposes. The propriety of measures to impress on the land,, upon which the sohoolhouse stands, the trusts upon which it was originally given, has been suggested ; to the comiwssioi-ersf ■-■ r „..i