33

H.—2l

Friday, 2nd April, 1869. Present : Mr. Hart. Lot 3, Mangapai, Messrs. Hunter and O'Meara — Place of Interment. Mr. J". O'Meara, being duly sworn, states : My name is John O'Meara, lately resident at Mangapai, but now in Auckland. lam a farmer. (Copy of Eecord copy, iv. A., page 51, Grant of 5 acres, part of allotment 3, Mangapai, produced.) I know the land in question ; there were about ten or twelve graves in it when I left the district; it was not then fenced; it has been ploughed. The ground was divided, by a tacit consent, between the various religious communities, viz., Church of England, Wesleyans, Eoman Catholics, and Presbyterians. No dividing or enclosing fences have been yet erected. The cemetery was at one time used by the inhabitants of the neighbouring parishes. The district is moderately populated—there are perhaps 150 families resident there. It is proposed to enclose the ground, that it may be kept in an ornamental state. I was myself mainly instrumental in having the present improvements effected by ploughing and levelling. More might have been done but for the pressure of the times. I wish to correct my previous statement as to the parcelling out of the ground. The Wesleyans have a separate cemetery of about 3 acres. The three grantees were especially selected as representing the different religious bodies, and also three different parts of the district.

Saturday, 3rd April, 1869. Present: Mr. Hart, Mr. Heale, and Mr. Gisborne. Hospital and Grammar School Beserves. Mr. B. B. Lusk, being duly sworn, states :My name is Eobert Bailey Lusk. I reside in Parnell, near Auckland, and lam Provincial Accountant and Acting Treasurer. I have no control over the lands granted for the Hospital and Grammar School reserves, but the moneys received for them pass through my hands. Portions of, I believe, all the sections mentioned in the schedules to " The Auckland Hospital and Grammar School Beserves Act, 1856," either are now let or have been let and have fallen in. The letting has been by auction. The amount of rents actually received during the year ended 31st December, 1868, for the College and Grammar School reserves was £649 Is. 6d. The amount for which the reserves were let, and which they should have realized had the rents been duly paid up, was £693 7s. 6d. The sum of £6,000 is invested on mortgage, producing the sum of £600. This sum has arisen from accumulation of rents. The net revenue of the Grammar School endowment is at present about £1,200. There is in hand in the bank a sum of £1,383. An Act has been passed in the last Session of the Provincial Council for dealing with this income. The Act of the previous session authorized the appointment of trustees. Copies of these Acts could be supplied by the Clerk of the Council. I can supply information as to the rentals accruing from the hospital reserves. On the allotment No. 41 of section 3 of the suburbs (schedule A. No. 16) are erected the buildings occupied as the hospital and the old lunatic asylum, now used as a refuge for the destitute. The amount for which the endowments were let was £411 195.; the gross receipts of the year ending 31st December last were £372 9s. The net rental has been applied towards the support of the hospital. I will forward to the Commissioners a statement of the rentals and periods of leases of these endowments, and of the portions of them now unproductive. It is not considered that the present time would be a favourable one for submitting the now vacant lands to auction. (Becord copy produced.) The five sections at Bemuera in section 16 were let for a gross rental of £71 10s. Of this the sum of £29 is not receivable. The money has been applied to the maintenance of the common schools in the Province of Auckland. Of the lands reserved for common school endowments no others have produced any revenue except the section at Awhitu, which was let for three years, but only one year's rent was received. There are not, to my knowledge, any public buildings erected on any of these reserves, most of which are made prospectively, in the expectation of future wants.

Monday, sth Apeil, 1869. Present: Mr. Hart, Mr. Heale, and Mr. Gisborne. Lot 26, Section 4, City of Auckland, Mr. Ligar and Others—Mechanics' Institute. Mr. Whitaker, being duly sworn, states :My name is Frederick Whitaker. I reside in Auckland, and am a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court, and President of the Mechanics' Institute. I know the allotment No. 26 of section 4, on part of which the Mechanics' Institute is erected. (Becord copy, Eeg. iv., No. 2, Grant of 1 rood 9 perches, produced.) It is a wooden building, comprising a large hall, reading-room, library, and other rooms. The Institute has been in operation, with perhaps some little intermission, over twenty years. Of the original trustees, three are, to my belief, still alive, but two of them are absent from the colony—the remaining two are dead. One only, Mr. Black, is alive and resident. There has been no new appointment of which lam aware. The grant runs to certain trustees, and to their " executors, administrators, and assigns," but no practical difficulty having yet arisen, no question has yet come up about the appointment of successors to them of which I havejJheard.

5—H. 21.