New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, AUGUST 26.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4814, 26 August 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) SATURDAY, AUGUST 26.

The decision of the House of Representatives on the question of the second reading of the Wanganui Endowed Schools Bill was not creditable. A monopoly of the worst kind is preserved,_ for the present at least, by that decision, although fact and argument were alike against the majority. It was quite plain, however, that the Government, Mr. Bryce, and the more sensible portion of the House had to contend against an influence there was no resisting, that of prejudiced and what are called vested interests. Not a few members who voted against the second reading of the Bill were themselves aware of school trusts within their own districts which had been as completely diverted from their original purposes as that of Wanganui, and they felt that to permit a revision of the Wanganui trust would be to let in a light upon those mismanaged concerns in which they themselves were concerned. One of the members for Wellington city, Mr. George Hunter, M. H. R., as a trustee of the Wanganui lands felt himself, we presume, bound to make out a case for himself and his fellow trustees; but his speech was ineffective, because do what he could he was unable to make a good out of a bad case. Let us see the absolute position of this trust. The schedule to the Bill contains a copy of the original grant setting apart 250 acres at Wanganui, some four and twenty years ago, for the education of children of poor and destitute persons, being inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean. A Royal Commission, appointed in 1868 to enquire ' into Educational Trusts, reported that the Wanganui trust had hot been fulfilled, and recommended certain changes. The wording of the report ran: — “ The committee regret thaty owing to the refusal of the Government to furnish, for the information of the committee, a copy of the opinion of the Attorney-General on the Industrial School Estate at Wanganui, they are not in as full posession of the legal bearings of the case as could be desired. The committee, however, are satisfied that the spirit and intention of the grant have not been fulfilled. They find that the grant was the subject of inquiry by a Royal Commission in 1869, which resulted in the, following report being made : ‘ Wanganui Industrial School Estate.— This was a grant of about one-third of the then existing town site of Wanganui to trustees of one religious denomination, for the purposes of education. The whole of the land had been laid out in Streets and quarter-acre sections, the former of which were shut up by the grant, and the latter abolished, and the extension of the town in that direction precluded. The rents of this estate have been appropriated to the erection of a schoolmaster’s house and grammar school, except a small portion to the support of the school, which, though excellent of its kind, is not a fulfilment of the trust contemplated, inasmuch as the class' of children apparently intended by the grant to be benefited are not such 'as can afford to pay the fees necessarily payable,- to enable them to attend!the school. Looking at the magnitude of; the grant; andi the loss which the people of the place have suffered by the diversion of the land from its original purpose, the

commissioners recommend that the land should, whenever practicable, be laid ont again, and rendered available for town purposes, and that the annual proceeds should be so appropriated as to give the inhabitants of every denomination and every class a fair share in the benefits accruing from the grant.’ In the opinion of this committee the Government ought to take the subject of this trust into their most serious consideration during the recess, with a view to such legislative action next session as may bo required for the purpose of placing the valuable estate in question under trustees periodically elected, and for insuring the application of the proceeds to the purposes originally intended by the grant.” A petition from the Wanganui Corporation was presented to the House last year. The trustees, with the exception of Bishop Hadfxbld, have not been in Wanganui for years. The school is conducted for the benefit of the children of poor and destitute persons by charging each pupil a fee of £6 per annum. The school as a consequence is attended by the children of the wealthy classes. The number attending the school in 18C9 was 4,3 ; it is now about 20. The total income derived from the lands, which form now an integral portion of the town of Wanganui, is about £3OO, and we have the authority of those on the spot and best acquainted with the circumstances of the estate for saying that if it were properly managed the sum derived from it should be nearer £ISOO than £3OO. The property comprehends about one-third of the township of Wanganui, and has no streets laid out through it though it was supposed to have been marked out in quarter-acre sections. The estate is evidently managed on a comfortable conservative sort of system, so much so as regards comfort that until quite a recent date wo believe an annual dinner was given to the tenants out of the rentals. These tenants are some ten in number, and the most heartily honored toast at their little annual, festivity, was that of the health of the trustees, a delicate mode of acknowledging, it is to be presumed, the lowness of the rents they were called upon to pay. Now, wo put it to any reasoning being whether this mode of managing the trust carries out its purposes, or whether there is not need for instant change in its conduct. The school is not a public school in any sense. So far as the “children of poor and destitute people ” are concerned the fees charged are perfectly prohibitive to other than the wealthy classes. Finally, it is worth notice that the estate and institution are managed by a commission agent on commission a fact which speaks volumes for the attention bestowed upon it by the trustees. We need write no more. If these facts will not convince hon. members it is useless to reason with them. As for the answer that the question should be tried first in the law courts, that is all nonsense. Who is going to the expense of a costly suit, which the defendants would fight step by step and stage by stage up to the last court of appeal in England? The tendency of recent legislation in England assures us that the ultimate decision would be against the trustees, but what private individuals are going to the expense necessary to arriveatthat decision? And whichever way the decision went it is plain that the trust would pay most of the lawyers’ fees, and perhaps be swamped by doing so. One thing may be noticed, however, as we said, several votes were given against the second reading of the Bill, in order to stop at the outset any desire to interfere with such mismanaged trusts as that of the Wanganui Endowed School, to which there are many similar in the colony. This is a great mistake. The present defeat will only make the next attack general, and the facts now disclosed will help to a vote that will be sweeping in its effects.