Porirua College Crust.

I.—History.

he Porirua College Estate consists of 500 acres of rough undulating ground situated at Witireia, which is the north extremity of a slip of land forming the west arm of Porirua Harbour. Here stood in 1848 the principal pah of the Ngatitoa tribe, which at that time numbered nearly 1000 persons, most of whom were settled in this district. Two young chiefs of the tribe, Matene Te Whiwi and Tamihana Te Rauparaha, had studied at St. John's College, Auckland, where, in accordance with the charter, English and Maoris were educated together. Desiring that a similar institution should be established near their own home, which should serve as a centre of education for the southern part of the Island, they and other chiefs made a proposal to Bishop Selwyn. They offered, and he accepted, a piece of land as a site for a "College for the English and Native youth, to be brought up together in the new principles of obedience to the Queen, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ," (See Tucker's Life of Selwyn, Vol. II., p. 342). In August, 1848, they wrote as follows to the Governor of New Zealand:—

Otaki,

16th August, 1848.

"Friend, Governor Grey,

"Greeting. It is a perfect consenting on our part that Witireia shall be given up to the Bishop for a College. We give it up, not merely as a place for the Bishop for the time being, but in continuation for those Bishops who shall follow and fill up his place, to the end that religion or faith in Christ may grow, and that it may be, as it were, a shelter against uncertain storms-that is, against the evils of this world. This is the full and final giving up of that place as a College for the Bishops of the Church of England,"

(Signed by

Te Rauparaha,

Tamihana Te Rauparaha,

Matene Te Whiwi

and five others,)

It is plain that the land thus made over to Bishop Selwyn was intended to be a site, and to serve as an endowment, for a school or college to be used primarily by English and Maoris, but also by Her Majesty's subjects of all races, and by poor inhabitants of islands in the Pacific which did not belong to the Crown; that it was to be under the control of the Bishops of the Church of England in this Colony, and that emphasis was laid on religious teaching.

Bishop Selwyn on the 24th August, 1859, in pursuance of "The Bishop of New Zealand's Trust Act, 1858," transferred page 5 the Trust to the General Synod "of the Church of the Province of New Zealand, commonly called the Church of England," which has since that time appointed Trustees and required reports from them.

Attempts were made to raise funds to erect and maintain the College, but failed. The Bishop himself contributed £200 which was expended on clearing the land and carrying a fence from the harbour to the sea coast. But the College was never built. The land was leased but the rental was small. From 1853 to 1865 it did not amount to more than £50; until 1882 it was £75; until 1889, £100; until 1896, £150; it is now £200.

From 1865 to 1874 grants were made from the accumulated rents for the education of Maori boys and girls at an Industrial School at Otaki, distant forty miles from Witireia. With this exception, the whole of the rents before and after that period have been invested. The amount which has thus accumulated was on the 30th June, 1897, £6,480 18s. 4d.

The Trustees have carefully husbanded the fund in the hope that a time might come when it would be possible for them to fulfil the Trust in spirit if not in letter. Witireia has now become an obviously unsuitable place for a school. It is near no Settlement whence supplies could be obtained for a boarding school, and there are too few persons inhabiting the district to make it advisable to build a day school. The Ngatitoa tribe has dwindled, if it has not entirely disappeared; twenty years ago it numbered less than forty persons, who were scattered over the North Island.

In 1895 the Trustees sought advice. Was it absolutely necessary according to the terms of the Trust, that the College should be built at Witireia? When this question was answered in the affirmative, it was decided to ask for direction from the General Synod at its next session in February, 1898. The Synod considered the matter very carefully. They held that £6,000 of capital together with the annual rental was a small sum where-with to erect and maintain a College. Further, it seemed to them that although the Crown Grant recites that children "of all races" were to be benefitted by the Trust, yet inasmuch as the income has been derived from a gift of the Maoris, it was fair that the children of that race should receive the advantages. The Synod accordingly directed that application should be made at once to the Supreme Court for power to expend the net rents and profits arising from the said Trust, and the net income of page 6 the fund, representing accumulated rentals and interest in the following manner, viz:—

"In the provision of exhibitions, enabling the children of parents residing in the provincial District of Wellington to be educated free of cost, at such schools of, or belonging to the Church of England, and situate in any part of New Zealand, as the Trustees shall select,

In July, 1898, the Trustees petitioned the Supreme Court that the Trusts might be varied in the manner above mentioned and the application was opposed by the Government on the ground that it was their intention to introduce legislation dealing with all Maori School Reserves. The hearing was then adjourned and nothing further was done until after the Session then commencing.

On the 25th November, 1898, as the Session had not been availed of by the Government, the Trustees commenced proceedings by writ in the Supreme Court, making the Solicitor-General Defendant, The above was the scheme submitted by the Trustees for adoption by the Supreme Court. The Solicitor- page 7 General, on behalf of the Government, filed a counter-scheme as follows:—