H.—2la

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1866. Vouchers. £ s. d. £ s. d. Aug. 31. To T. K. Newton, being refund of an advance made by him for insurance of school-building in 1860 ... No. 5. ... 319 0 Dec. 14. To Routledge. Kennedy & Co., auctioneers, for commission and charges on allotments offered for lease, and for advertising ... ... ... No. 6. ... 8 0 6 £43 7 6 Note.—All allotments now leased. Edward Catchpool, Napier, 14th April, 1869. Acting Trustee. Memo. —By special arrangement the auctioneers were to be allowed 10s. 6d. for each allotment put up by them in eases where no sales were effected.—E.C.

Saturday, 17th April, 1869. Present:—Mr. Hart. Napier Hospital Reserve. Dr. Hitchings examined :My name is Thomas Hitchings. I reside at Napier, and am a surgeon. I am surgeon to the Napier Hospital. It is built on what is known as the Napier Hospital reserve. It is a weatherboard building, shingle roof; contains seven rooms, affording accommodation for sixteen or seventeen patients, but on emergencies we have accommodated forty to fifty wounded Natives. A portion of the reserve may have been devoted to the purposes of a road for the general accommodation of the neighbourhood. There is an outbuilding used as a wash-house. I believe the enclosure and buildings used for meteorological purposes are a portion of the reserve. A portion of the ground is used as a grass plot for the recreation of the convalescent. A small garden is cultivated by the master, and another portion is used as a yard for the ordinary purposes of the institution. The institution is supported by the Province, assisted by a small charge, to such patients as can afford to pay it, of 2s. per diem.

Tuesday, 27th April, 1869. Present: —Mr. Hart. Lots of Town of Clyde — School. In reference to sections Nos. 467 to 473, 637 to 643, 651 to 657, 815 to 821, consecutively and inclusively, in the town of Clyde, Mr. Sturm tenders the following information: My name is Frederick William Christian Sturm. I reside at Napier, and am a nurseryman and seedsman. From 1839 to 1866, on and off, I lived at Mohaka, twenty miles north of the Wairoa. In the beginning of 1856 there were a number of Half-caste children, the Wairoa being the residence of whalers in the summer time. In the year in which Hawke's Bay was separated from Wellington, the Natives having in 1856, about February, agreed to give the land for a school, I applied to Dr.- Featherston for assistance, which he promised. This was never fulfilled by reason of the separation. The whaling having fallen off, we could not raise the funds for the building until the Hawke's Bay Province contributed a moiety of the cost. About 1860 we fenced in the land. Mr. Joseph Carroll, who lives at the Wairoa, kept the accounts, paid the moneys for the school building, and has the deed, I believe, unless he has given it up to Mr. McLean. The Natives gave the land that it should be for the benefit of Native children as well as of Half-castes or European children, so long as they came clean and neat, the parents paying the usual school fee, it being understood that they would be taught the English language. The trustees were at first Messrs. Joseph Carroll, John Mitchell, and William Morris; the next were Carroll, Morris, and myself. Morris and I have ceased to be trustees, and I do not not know if any others have been appointed in our places. Some of the settlers objected to Maori children being admitted, but I remonstrated, and it was settled that, if clean and neat, they had a right to be admitted. There have been as many pupils at one time as twenty-nine, at least. These were all Half-castes. I only know of two Maori children being there at any one time. Mr. Joseph Carroll has resided there continuously, and can give full information. Donald McLean, Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, tenders the following information : I acted for the Province of Hawke's Bay on the purchase from the Maoris of the district known as the township of Clyde at the Wairoa. This took place in or about the year 1864. Previous to this, namely, about the year 1860, the Maoris had given a piece of land to trustees for a school. This land was not in terms excepted from the land ceded by the Maoris by their deed of the 2nd November, 1864, but it was my intention that the object for which the land was set apart should be continued. The Government had assisted from 1860 or thereabouts, and the school had been under Government inspection, and was provided with the usual appliances in use in Provincial schools. There was no express stipulation made at the time of the purchase, but the land was partly fenced in and the school was built. Samuel Locke, being duly sworn, states :lam a surveyor, and reside at Napier. In 1864 and 1865", I was in charge of the Wairoa District, as a Government Agent for the carrying out of the land purchases, then in progress, from the Natives, and watch the progress of the Natives. From the Maori chiefs, and from Messrs. Carroll, Sturm and Morris, who acted as Trustees of the land in the township of Clyde in that district, I learned that the land the possession of which was, before the sale to the Government of the district delivered to those gentlemen as Trustees for school purposes,