G.—s

Account* of receipts and disbursements for each year since 1859, with the exception of from the 30th June, 1664, to the 30th June, 1808, will be found in Appendix X. These are very voluminous, but are, with that exception, complete. The present trustees appointed by the Synod of the Church of England are the Bishop of Nelson, the Yen. Archdeacon Grace, and the Rev. Mr. Kempthorne. The trust was at its origin fulfilled by the establishment of a school for Maoris at Motueka, which was carried on until 1857, when from various causes it was closed, and remained closed until 1862, when another attempt to establish a Native school was made, aided by a grant from the Native Department of £200 and £70 for maintenance of pupils, but this failed in the following year. The school was again opened in 1868, and with more or less success was carried on either as a day or a boarding school for Natives up to 1881, when an atempt to establish a Native school was abandoned. The failure is attributed to various causes: to dissatisfaction on the part of the Natives at the loss of the occupation of the land, and a disposition to bring about to closing of the school; to political excitement outside the district in which members of the tribes to which the local Natives belonged were concerned; to the exodus of the Native population, and other causes, for none of which the trustees were responsible. They appear to have done their best, at considerable cost to the estate, to keep the school together, but failed. Up to this time the trust appears to have been recognised as one strictly for the benefit of the Native race. In 1888 the trustees expended some of their accumulated funds in the erection of a building which they used as an orphanage for the reception and maintenance of destitute orphan children of both races, and this institution has been carried on successfully up to the present time. On the 30th June last there were 43 inmates from four to sixteen years of age, of whom 30 were boys and 13 girls. Of these, 3 boys and 2 girls were Maoris or half-castes. Of the inmates, 35 are paid for at rates varying from ss. to 7s. per week; 3 are entirely free, and the 5 Maoris or half-castes are practically tree, as no payments beyond one of £2 have been received on account of them. The cost of maintenance and management amounts to Bs. per head per week. The accounts of the trust show a present income of over £434 a year, which may be reduced to £350 net, which would shortly enable it to maintain an increased number of free inmates in the institution. There is one element, of the institution which your Commissioners consider fails to carry out the intention of the trust. It is now practically a school or institution for destitute and neglected children. Hitherto these have been with few exceptions children sent to it by a society called the the St. Andrew's Orphanage, the present manager of which is a trustee of that institution, and also one of the trustees of this trust. We do not understand that the benefits of the trust were intended specially for one class of the community, and your Commissioners are of opinion that in order to give fuller effect to the intentions of the trust the doors of the institution should be opened wider, so as to admit children other than those of the class described, and give it a broader character, and that the special claims of Natives and hali'-castes to the benefits of the trust should be more distinctly given effect to. In this institution the fact that the trust was established chiefly in the interest of the Maori** should not be overlooked by the Trustees, but should be kept by them prominently in view. Maoris who have appeared before us have opposed this orphanage on the ground that it does not comply with the trust, and have asked that a free boarding-school for Natives, in which technical teaching shall be a leading feature, should take its place, or that failing that the land should be restored to them. As to the administration of the trust land estate, your Commissioners regret that they cannot report favourably. It seems not to have been managed to the best advantage. The estate, as already mentioned, is valued at £20,251. Deducting therefrom the capital value of the orphanagesite, 35J acres, with the buildings, £2,953, from which no rent is derived, leaves the value of the balance of the estate, £17,298, in the occupation of forty tenants, yielding a gross rental of £437, equal to only 2J per cent, on the capital value, which appears a very inadequate return. This result appears to us greatly due to laxity in dealing with the tenants to whom unbusinesslike concessions have been made in the matter of rent. We feel it necessary to refer to the circumstances attending the renewals of leases in 1901. On that occasion twenty-nine leases were renewed to previous tenants who had held under leases containing a clause declaring that all erections and buildings erected or placed on the said land, whether affixed to the freehold or otherwise, should become the property of the Bishop. Yet, yielding to what has been described by the Bishop as a " clamour," the trustees in fixing the new rentals ignored the improvements, and granted new leases at rentals which total only £20 more than those payable under the expiring leases made twenty-one years previously. The holders of the expiring leases desired that tha value of the improvements existing on the lands held under those leases should, in fixing the new rent, be excluded

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