Wanganui Endowment.

As regards the endowment at Wanganui being held on similar terms, the only resemblance is that the conditions of the grants are somewhat the same, but the principle involved is very different. The land included in the Wanganui endowment was not Native reserve land, nor had the Natives any interest in it at the time. The endowment was made out of land that originally formed part of the Town of Wanganui or Petre, but, owing to the requirements of the place not needing a town site of the dimensions that were first laid off, it was reduced in size about 1849; and at the time the grant was made, in 1852, the land included in it was in the position of suburban land, but the page 4main point to be observed in connection with the case is that the land in question, at the time it was set apart, was not the property of the Natives, but belonged to the Crown, and it was competent for the Governor, if he had the power to dedicate it, to set it apart for the purpose set forth in the grant, i.e., for the use and towards the maintenance of a school for the education of children of poor and destitute persons being inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean, &c.

The dedication of the aforesaid land to this purpose did not contravene any Trust, or deprive any person of their property, as was done in the case of the Motueka grant, as the land in question was lying waste at the time, and had not been appropriated to any other use.