EDUCATION ENDOWMENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2318, 4 August 1898, Page 11

EDUCATION ENDOWMENTS.

THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION.

In view of the legislation proposed by the Premier, the Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times has been making an exhaustive search in the Blue Books to enable him to give a history of many of the educational endowments made. Over 50 years ago, during Sir Goorge Grey's first term of Governorship, while New Zealand was still

a Crown colony, some thousands of acres of rural land and scores of town and suburban allotments were dedicated to educational and charitable purposes by Crown grants. These endowments were placed under the control of the authorities of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Churches respectively under trust deeds, declaring ihol the object was to establish " .schools for the education of our children of both races, ;-nd ot the childien of our subjects of both races, and of the children of other poor and destitute poisons, being inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean, in trust, nevertheless, and for tho use or toward the maintenance of such schools, so long as religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language shall be given to the youth educated therein or maintained thereat." With the exception of some 3000 acres ai; Motueka granted to the Arglican Church, all these grants appear to have been in the North Island.

An area of 250 acres at Wanganui, embracing over oi:e-third of the site on which the town is built, wns given over to the Anglican Church by deed in the terms quoted above. In 1866 Mr Bryce and Mr "Watt, in the House of Representatives, diew the attention of the Government to " the great injury that had been clone to the district in j thus handing over, virtually for denomin- | ational purposes, nearly one-half of the town, including streets and reserves." They dodared that the >l condition of the trust was not being fulfilled, and no educat : onal benefits had resulted from this magnificent grant on behalf of the town," and they asked the advice of the Government as to what action should be taken. A bill to amend the Religious, Chai'itable, and Educational Tuuts Act was introduced iv 1871, setting forth that whereas the trusts had not been fulfilled it was de&iroble that a bod}' be set up and armed with the full power of dealing with the matter. The bill was referied to a select committee, but it seems to have been dropped at the end of the session. Five years later the subject of these trusts again came into prominent notice when the Wfiiiganui Fndowment School Bill was before the House. The object of this measure was to diveit the original trust to founding a college and grammar school. This bill was thrown cut on the second reading. In the course of debate Sir George Grey explained and defended his action in making grants for tbe purpose named, and Sir Robert Stout at the samo time said : "It was quite right that these lands should have been granted to the church at a time when there was no organised body to look after them, but now that there are school boards and other such bodies it is time to tnke the laud from those who originally held them in trust and hand them over to these bodies." That reasoning, sound though it undoubtedly was, did not prevail with the House. As a matter of fact, the dozen or more acts that had been passed dealing- with religious, charitable, and educational trusts have only had the effect of moie strongly confirming the churches in their possession of endowments. The Wesleyans, or, as they are quaintly styled in tbe act, "the people called Methodists, late in connection with the Rev. John Wesley," were the first to apply for conversion of these " trusts, conveyances, and assurances " into grants in the fee simple, and the various necessary measures tended to make Anglicans and Catholics equally secure in possession. These amending acts dealing with educational trusts extend over a period from 1858 to 1890.

In 1%9 a, commission was set up by Parliament to inquire into the condition of the Native educational and other trusts held directly under grant for the purposes of the trust. The commissioners found that certain institutions set up under these trusts wore " quite impotent for the purposes of the trusts," A most extraordinary stato of things was revealed in connection with grants to the Roman Catholic Church in Auckland. The commission found that four acres of land with college buildings had been sold to a private person under judgment of the Supreme Court for a private debt of about £300. With regard to lands in Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay to the extent of 7799 acres for Native schools, it was reported that " while the object of the management, the rendering of the estate productive of an annual income, had been nearly attained, the children of Native donors of land had grown up to maturity, deriving little or no benefit from the trust." Reporting particularly upon lands granted in trust to different religious denominations for the education of Maoris, or of Maoris and Europeans combined, tho commissioners said that with much regret they had come to the conclusion that " the attempts to effect tho objects for which the lands were granted have, generally speaking, even in cases where grants of public inonoy wore made in aid of them, resulted in failure. " In one case at least," they added, " the funds have been diverted from the trusts for which they were originally granted to objects of an entirely different character, and in one case a gross misappropriation of funds has taken place." The commission recommend the removal of such trustees, and the passing of an act empowering: the Government to appoint an ofii-

ciu.l _ trustee or trustees upon precisely the same trusts as those for which they were originally given, and that whenever advisable ail denominational distinctions should lie dis- , regarded. In that nay it hoped something might be done to have Maori children edu- | cateel as Europeans, and that thus "some portion, however small, of the Native race might j be rescued from the degradation and extinc- ■ tion tl.at otherwise seems to threaten them." , As showing how the religious bodies misapplied the tnioly, the report pointed out that the Welling lon Wesleyan Church was sold to the Provincial Government for £3500, and ; the proceeds appropriated to general pur- , poses of the Wcsleyau Church. Again, the | rents of the Wanganui lands were misapproj printed by the Anglican Church to' the crec- . tion of a schoolmaster's house and grammar . school, " which is not a fulfilment of the

trust, inasmuch as the class of children apparently intended to be benefited are not such as ran afford to pay the fees necessarily payable to entitle them to attend the school." The commissioners did not think that the grants for educational purposes in the provinces of Canterbury and Otago called for any particular reference, and they remarked that beneficial use had been ir.ade of revenue in Southland.

| A bill to found a high school at Wanganui wns pas.'cd in 1378, but .his measure had no bearing on the original trust endowments. 1 In 1879 the lands at Wanganui and the trust under which they arc held were the subject of an inquiry by a Select Committee of the House, appointed, with Mr Ballance as chairman, to report on the Wanganui Endowed School Bill. Tint i-ommiHee reported that while the management of the trust had not been satisfactory, the original design could not bo fulfilled because of circumstances beyond the control of the trustee. It recommended that a bill be passed constituting a board of governors of the school, and providing for the education of children of all denominations subject to a conscience clause. In giving evidence "before that committee. Sir Geoige Grey stated that the grant to the Anglican Church at Wanganui was in the .°ame terms as those to other religious denominations. The grant did not contemplate high schools, but rather poor schools, in which industrial training ehould be given to enable children to earn their own livelihood. The whole question, ho said, was so large and important and these endowments would become of such great value that "he thought if the Legislature interfered at all it ought to take charge of the whole system. These endowments,'' he said, "were worth much more than £300 a-year, but the whole scheme under which they were granted had broken down, and legislation was therefore \ necessary. The Auckland Hospital site was | granted upon similar (ei'ms, which regard the j people of both races and of the Pacific ] Islands being equally entitled to benefits." I He believed the grant of the Wanganui Hospital site had the same condition attached. Bishop Hadfield, in a letter addressed to the same committee, said that it would be "a gross act of spoliation" if the Legislature should confifcate the land granted to the Anglican Church on the ground that the j conditions of the trust had not been fulfilled. A bill was passed through the House in 1879 providing for local control of the endowed school under the charge of the Church of England, but it got no further than the first reading in the Council, and no legislation has since been proposed dealing with the subject of that trust, or making any change in the conditions upon which the general educational and charitable trusts created by Sir George Grey are held by re ligious denominations. This year, however, the whole question has again been raised in connection with litigation over the Porirua endowment and Anglican Church, now proceeding in the Supreme Covirt at Wellington. The proceeds of that endowment have not been devoted to the pvirpose of the trust, but the rents have been allowed to accumulate to the amount of £6000. The Supreme Coxirt is being moved to authorise that to bo net apart for scholarships. The Premier, therefore, gave notice of the Porirua School Bill in order to hold litigation in suspense until the Legislature deals with the question.

It is understood that there is no intention to pass piecemeal legislotion, but that a Cfenerol measure is being prepared and will be referred to a Solect Committee as soon as it, is ready for presentation to the House. The Porirua reserve was made on the ho me conditions as others with regard to the religioim and industrial training of children of "poor and destitute persons." of both ivccr in this colony and the islands of the Pacific.