A.—No. 5a

RELIGIOUS, CHARITABLE, AND EDUCATIONAL TRUSTS COMMISSION. Wellington, 30th June, 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. Of these the more noticeable are the Poverty Bay Native School Estate, the Te Aute Native School Estate, the Napier School Estate, and the Wairoa School Reserve. The objects of the grant of 593 acres of land for the Poverty Bay Native School appear to have been steadily pursued until the disturbed state of the country caused its operations to be suspended. The Commissioners regret that of the buildings and improvements etfected upon this Estate, at a cost of £4,683 15s. 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 £1,848 75.; 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. lid. ; and sums advanced by the Bishop of "Waiapu, amounting to £982. The last-mentioned sum, and two other sums of about £50 and £45, are claimed by the Bishop against the Estate. The Trusts of the four Grants, comprizing 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 erected. 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 the Rev. Samuel "Williams, p. 4), it would have been reasonable to expect. (See also report of Mr. Henry Robert Russell, appendix to Journals of House 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 186S, amounting to the sum of £767 7s. Id. 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.

SECOND REPORT OF THE