THE PORIRUA NATIVE SCHOOL TRUST.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10818, 8 December 1902, Page 4

THE PORIRUA NATIVE SCHOOL TRUST.

The other day we published a cable message stating that the hearing 6f the,argument in the appeal f case of Wallis v.'.the, Solicitor-General of New Zpaland had concluded . before the Privy Council, which had reserved judgment. This cablegram refers -to the lands , at Porirua given inauy years ago in, trust, on certain conditions for. the establishment- of a native school, . and to the appeal Bishop of Wellington and tlie trustees v. the Solicitor-iGeueral. The brief history of the litigation ia'that, it being allegedly -impossible to carry out the trust strictly on its .original terms, the present appellants submitted a scheme for a cy pres adminstration, and the SolicitorGeneral, on behalf of the Crown, submitted an alternative scheme, both of "which were disapproved by 1 Chief Justice Prendergast, who held, however, that the trust could be administered cy pres. Then the present appellants proposed another scheme, which was approved Wy Chief Justice Stout and Mr -Justice Edward^, whoconsidered themselves, bound on the cy pres question by Chief Justice Prendergast's decision. The Solicitor-General appealed to the,, Court of Appeal, which re- ', versed the judgments, below and held that the original trust had failed, and that the whole property and trust fund reverted to the Crown. It is from this, judgment that tho_ Bishop and the trainees are now ap- . pealing to the Privy Council," which has before it the whole question of "whether a cy.pres administration of ■ the trust is possible, or. whether the property reverts sto5 to jbhe Crown.- Judgment -in tMs ease will. Jbe^waited with domn'defcable'nitere'st ' by people in this colony, where' .there, are other educational and other trusts which have not been carried out strictly in accordance with the 'conditions u'nde"r which they -were granted, notably the Industrial School Trust of Wanganui, which is, ever and anon the subject of debate in the columns of the local press..