6

The command of an amount of capital twice
as great as that originally at their disposal
of course enabled the Trustees at once to extend
their operations, while at the same time the
final determination of the exact sum they
would have to expend, pending the
settlement of accounts, were necessarily allowed
to stand over.

It will be recollected that the sum set apart
for the promotion of Steam Service for the pro-
vince was £6,000. This has been added to by
£3,000, so that the sum now placed to the
credit of "steam" is £9,000. Of this the
Trustees have lent to the Nelson Coast Steam
Association a sum of £7,000, £4,000 in
the first instance, and subsequently £3,000.
Both loans are for five years, free of interest;
and with regard to the second sum, viz.,
£3,000, the association is bound to divide no
profit until it is paid. By means of the assis-
tance thus rendered, the association has been
enabled to place upon the coast that beautiful
small steamer the "Tasmanian Maid," and
there are few persons in the community who
have not even already experienced the advan-
tages which she has secured to, of rapid and
regular communication between the different
parts of the province.

The Reserve Religious Fund remains much
in the same position as before: a further invest-
ment of £150 from accruing interest has been
made on its behalf; and the total amount is
now £1,316 10s.

But the subject which has occupied the at-
tention of the Trustees most frequently and
earnestly, and which they have recognised as
the most important and responsible of the
duties devolved upon them, has been the estab-
lishment of the Nelson College. Various cir-
cumstances had conspired to postpone from
time to time the realization of this most im-
portant part of the scheme of the founders of
the Nelson settlement. While the amount of
money to be placed ultimately at the disposal
of the Trustees was unknown, it was of course
impossible for them to mature any plan for its
establishment; and when, disheartened by
delay, they had almost determined upon mak-
ing a commencement of the permanent build-
ing with funds of an uncertain amount, the
sudden stimulus given to trade by the Austra-
lian gold-fields caused the price of materials
and labour to go up to such a height, that they
were compelled to abandon their design. The
chief difficulty, however, which stood in their
way has, since the receipt of Mr. Lefevre's
report, been removed; and accordingly during
the past year the Trustees have been enabled,
with the proper data before them, to determine
what amount of money they would devote to a
college, and also in what manner they could
best launch the institution, and secure its per-
manent prosperity.

In considering this subject with all the care
and thoughtfulness which its importance de-
manded, two great difficulties or dangers have
always presented themselves to the Trustees;
one arising out of the nature of the consti-
tuency by which the Trustees are elected, the
other out of their triennial election.

It will not, it is apprehended, be contested
by any one, that the benefits of the Nelson
Trust Funds were intended for the inhabitants
of the Nelson settlement, which, according to
the original scheme, was to consist of 200,000
acres. Within this settlement every purchaser
of land became a subscriber towards certain
public purposes, which had for their object to
make it commodious and attractive; and there
can be little doubt that, had it been possible to
have carried out the original scheme in the
manner contemplated, the application of the
moneys to the different purposes specified
would long ere this have taken place, and the
purchasers of land, and the inhabitants gene-
rally of the settlement, would thus have had
secured to them the advantages of public ar-
rangements and institutions to which they had
subscribed their money, and which no doubt
with many were a powerful incentive to emi-
gration from their native country.

But, as is well known, difficulties presented
themselves of various kinds, some of them en-
tirely insurmountable; discouragement, uncer-
tainty, and delay followed. The funds for the
public purposes were almost lost sight of, and
might possibly have been entirely forgotten,
had it not been for the public-spirited exer-
tions of a few individuals. The rights of the
parties legally entitled to demand from the
New Zealand Company the fulfilment of its
contracts, gradually (by death, absence from the