H.-l

41

to Nelson College the land upon which the school then stood, together with mortgages to the value of £18,290, and money in the hank £1,710. According to the estimate of the governors the capital value of the estate in December, 1878, was £28,913 10s. 7c1., including the estimated value of the College buildings. Erom the accounts which have been furnished to us for the year 1879, it appears that the rents of reserves now amount to £483, and the interest on mortgage to £1,495. The trustees of the " fund for the public purposes of the settlement of Nelson" (14 and 15 Viet., c. 86) founded the College in 1857, and it was incorporated by " The Nelson College Act, 1858." The deed of foundation, which is recited in the Schedule to the Act, sets forth that the College is " for the education of youths and young men according to the scheme set forth in the Second Schedule." The Second Schedule states that " the object of the deed of foundation is to establish an educational institute, to be called ' Nelson College,' for the advancement of religion and morality, and the promotion of useful knowledge, by offering to the youth of the province general education of a superior character." It provides that " the course of instruction shall always include the English language and literature, one or more modern languages, geography, mathematics, classics, history, drawing, music, and such other branches of art or science as the Council shall from time to time determine. Further, upon all school days not being half-holidays, so soon as the necessary funds can be found to defray the extra expenses consequent upon such an arrangement, classes shall be kept open for the purpose of instruction for such two hours in the evening, between the hours of six o'clock p.m. and ten o'clock p.m., as the governors for the time being may direct." The final clause of the Schedule prescribes that "it shall be lawful for the governors of the College, whenever the funds of the institution shall in their opinion be sufficient for such purpose, with the assent of the Visitor, to establish one or more grammar schools within the Province of Nelson as branch schools, from which the more deserving pupils may be removed to enjoy the advantages of a higher and more advanced education." We are not aware of any evening classes being held in connection with the College, and it has no affiliated grammar schools. The evidence of the Secretary suggests: that the annual excess of income over expenditure is required for repairing' the College, and for rebuilding at some future day. It is right to say that the lands which are mentioned in several Parliamentary returns as reserves, are not reserves in the ordinary sense of the term, but lands purchased by the governors or received in exchange for lands forming part of the original endowment. The question has arisen whether this endowment can be considered as having been made out of public estate. To this question we shall revert in our concluding remarks on endowments. The endowments of Christ's College include a site of nearly ten acres, granted < in 1855 by a Provincial Ordinance, and being a portion of the Government ] Domain. This was a " free grant," msde in accordance with the Canterbury J Association's Reserves Ordinance. The other endowments consist of 596 acres of rural land, lO| acres of town land in Christchurch, 3 acres of town land in Lyttelton, and half an acre of town land at Dampier's Bay. We have no estimate of the capital value of these lands, but we observe that the rents received in ] 1878 and 1879 respectively amounted to £1,032 6s. Bd. and £1,178. The price of land sold to the original settlers was £3 an acre, of which £1 was nominally set apart for ecclesiastical and educational purposes. The money was not paid to the Church Property Trustees, but they received an equivalent in land, with the condition that they should convey one-fifth of the estate to the corporation of Christ's College. There is therefore a close resemblance between the origin of this trust and that of the trust of Nelson College. The Church Property Trustees are the I legal owners of other lands, reserved for "church and school," "school and cemetery," and so forth; but they state "that these lands, although originally] reserves, were afterwards purchased with moneys drawn from the ecclesiastical and educational fund," and "that the foundation of Christ's College, together with the support previously afforded to church schools, was held by the Association and their agent as a sufficient discharge of the obligations they had incurred to promote the cause of church education in the settlement." 6—H. 1.

int. Rep., avid., qq'3loo> 310L

Christ's College. ut- Ee P' Appx., p<

ibid., p. 46.

ibid., p. 10. ibid., p. n.