THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1929. TRUST GRANTS.

Wairarapa Age, 10 August 1929, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1929. TRUST GRANTS.

A rather surprising state of affairs was disclosed at the meeting of the Trust Lands Trust or. Thursday evening when the Trust had before it an opinion from its solicitor that the basia on which it has been making matriculation grants during something like a quarter of a century is not in accordance with the law. If this opinion stands, the Trust obviously will be under 'the necessity of amending its procedure. Some means no doubt can be found of making the grants on a legal basis, but the Trust certainly would not be justified in continuing to make grants of any kind on a basis declared by its own solicitor to be illegal The whole position should be cleared up without delay. In raising the question of legal sanction, Mr. 8. L. P. Free made it clear that he did not wish to disturb the existing grants, and as opinion now stands or the Trust there is no question of discontinuing the matriculation grants. The members generally should be able to agree with Mr. Free, however, that the position must be regularised and also with another of their new colleague«s, Mr. T. F. Watson, in his contention- that the basis on which the grants are made should be defined. At present there seems to be a little vagueness on the subject. If a matriculation grant of £lO per annum is made as a 1 matter of right to all students who matriculate and continue their education, this should be plainly stated. The grounds on which grants of a higher amount are made in some cases should also be made' generally known. It might, perhaps, be as well to determine these questions in light of independent expert advice. This could very well be done as part of a general survey by outside experts, such as we have more than once advocated, of the whole question of expending the endowment revenue with the greatest possible educational advantage to students and others in, the Small Farm Area. In ary case, the Trust is bound to take immediate action to meet the position created by the expressed opinion of its solicitor that it has no legal authority to make matriculation grants on the present basis. The simplest method of dealing with this problem appears to be that suggested some time ago by Mr. <P. A. Macomish. His suggestion was that the Trust should make small scholarship grants out of its ordinary fun J and supplement these to whatever extent was thought advisable out of the Scholarship Fund. Apparently this would fully meet the requirements of the legislation under which the Trust is operating.