I have received from some of the Natives at Motueka a complaint as to the acquisition of part of the land, which I produce; also my answer. (These are appended to the Bishop's letter.) In all matters affecting the leases I am advised by the Solicitor, Mr. Sinclair. With reference to the Rev. Mr. Ronaldson's stipend, I don't know if it is necessary to make any remark, except, that Mr. page 298Ronaldson was in receipt of a larger salary than that which he receives here. It was only by offering £300 a year that I could obtain the services of a duly qualified teacher.

The Bishop produced a book, kept by himself, showing the sections leased, the rents received, and terms of leases, &c,

The Bishop read Bishop Hobhouse's statement respecting the trust, published in a report of the proceedings of the first Synod of the Diocese of Nelson, August, 1859, and handed in the following letter:—

Particulars of Estate and Trust.

Bishopdale, Nelson, 20th December, 1869.

Gentlemen,—

I beg to lay before you the following facts respecting the Wakarewa Estate, which passed into my hands from Bishop Hobhouse, whom I succeeded, in the year 1866, as Bishop of Nelson.

On my arrival in the Colony, in 1867, I found Mr. John Greenwood engaged as manager of the estate, and teacher to the Maoris, but on his resigning the office, I succeeded in obtaining, not without some difficulty, the services of a gentleman sufficiently qualified as a Maori scholar to carry on the necessary instruction. It was some months before I could supply the post, although the want was made generally known in this and the North Island. Several applied who were qualified either in Maori or English, but not in both.

The income from the estate is not at present sufficient to do more than provide a good master, who gives all his time to such Maoris as he can collect together on every day in the week.

The income of the trust is not at present sufficient to carry out the industrial training, even if the Natives were willing to accept it. The capitation grant of £10 per annum would not be sufficient to pay for their expenses, and it is not likely the Natives would pay the necessary balance themselves.

I have requested Mr. Ronaldson to hold school for the Natives both in the morning and evening, and his report as to attendances will be laid before you. During the winter months the attendance was good and encouraging; in spring and summer, the planting takes the Natives away, and it is difficult to keep the school together. Mr. Ronaldson visits the Natives in Takaka and Motupipi, and I was present last week at a meeting held at Motupipi, when twenty-five Natives were present, and agreed to contribute money or labour towards the erection of a school-room, the ground for which one of them was willing to give without charge. This school would be a kind of a branch school to that at Wakarewa, and the master might be subsidised from these funds, regarding the Trust as applicable to the whole of the Natives in the Nelson Bay.

The gross income of the trust last year was £354 3s. 5d. The property is divided up into forty-three holdings, spread over a considerable area; and the transfer of leases, looking after fulfilment of covenants, and the collection of the half-yearly rents and occasional arrears, require a considerable outlay of time, and have been efficiently attended to by a collector and bailiff resident close to the estate, Mr. F. Greenwood.

The stipend paid from the estate to the Rev. W. Ronaldson for last year was £285 10s. 7d.; and as on the occasion of his visits to the Natives he is invited to read English services, I have arranged that the contributions so given should reduce the stipend due from the trust to Mr. Ronaldson as teacher.

The College building is unfortunately situated as regards the Natives, unless it is used as a boarding school, and involves great labour in going to and fro—so much so that the teacher is at present absent from home often the whole day in winter time. By this plan, however, the trust is saved from paying rent for a teacher's residence.

The cost of collecting and looking after the property is at the rate of 10 per cent.; the insurance, repairs of the house, supply of fences, &c., according to leases and special agreements, amount to about £25 per annum, leaving at present an annual balance of income over expenditure of about £10. The rents are very slowly increasing; but by careful management I hope to carry out both branches of the schem[gap — reason: damage], and to render it an institution for promoting education both for Maoris and Europeans. The only difficulty of carrying it out at present is the insufficiency of funds. At present efficient teaching is secured for the Maoris; but, unless the funds be supplemented by the Government, there is no probability of the school becoming a boarding establishment, though I should be glad if the Commissioners were to see their way to recommending that a higher capitation grant should be made, and that it should be unaccompanied by conditions which would prevent our taking advantage of it.

My present plan in carrying out the Trust is to continue the existing arrangement which I have made with Mr. Ronaldson to the end of his term agreed upon, of three years from June 1868; and if, at the expiration of that period, the rental is sufficiently increased, to extend the benefits of the trust to those who are not Maoris, but come under the definition of the trust as "children of the Queen's subjects of all races, and of children of other poor and destitute persons, being inhabitants of islands in the Pacific Ocean," and to endeavour still to carry out the defined purposes of the trust for giving "religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language to the youth educated therein or maintained thereat."

In carrying out these objects I should be guided by the means at my disposal, and provide that, while religious instruction should be given, it should be under a conscience clause, of which I heartily approve, provided it is not so worded or enforced as to prevent the imparting of religious instruction as part of the school lessons, giving at the same time liberty and opportunity to parents who wished to withdraw their children at such times. With a conscience clause so administered, I do not anticipate any so-called "religious difficulty." Provided that the Maoris, so long as they were in the neighbourhood, had the first benefit of the trust, I should be glad to see the institution extend its operations, and it might form the nucleus of a large industrial school, not merely for its own vicinity, but for the country altogether—an area which is mentioned in the original Trust Deed, viz., islands in the Pacific Ocean.

I venture to suggest that some clause enabling a revision of such trusts, to be made at distant page 299intervals, might be inserted in making any such appropriations in future, as it would act as a stimulus to existing applications, and prevent accumulated abuses or funds laying wholly idle.

I have, &c.,

Andrew Burn Nelson.

To the Commissioner for enquiring into School Trusts, &c.