Opinion.

Assuming that the document produced to us headed "Report, etc.," correctly sets out the objects of the Institution, we are of opinion that the authorities of that Institution were justified in paying those missioners or Native teachers who had been trained as such and were doing their work so far as they could in the then circumstances. Apparently, among other things, the Institution was intended to supply Native teachers" placed at the outposts in the capacity of teachers and schoolmasters," or assistant missioners. If there had been no war, and the work that these persons were doing was such that they could legitimately have been paid for, then we think that the authorities were justified in paying them sustenance money, although they did not carry on their work owing to the war. They were, we assume, ready and willing to go on with their work, and, in fact, did so, so far as the state of war permitted them.

If our assumptions are right, we think the authorities were justified in payment of the sustenance money. We return documents herewith.