BEPORT.
The Limerick Endowments.
On August 4, 1890, we published three Draft Schemes, Nos.
90, 94 and 95, relating to Endowments in Limerick, as to which questions of difficulty were raised, and conflicting claims were put forward.
We held public inquiries at Limerick, both before Report, the publication of the Draft Schemes, and subsequently, for the investigation of these J8*^"8**' cases, and for the discussion of the objections presented to us.
Ultimately, in April, Report, 1892, after careful revision, the Schemes were signed by the Judicial Commissioners', J8i?'90'
and submitted for the approval of the Lord Lieutenant in Council.
Report,
1890-91, p.
24.
Scheme No.
90 deals, amongst other Endowments, with the public interest in the buildings formerly belonging to the Limerick Diocesan School, which are now vested in the Commissioners of Education.
They are held by the Rev.
Canon Gregg, as tenant from year to year to the Commissioners, and are used by him for the purposes of an Orphanage for poor Protestant girls.
Our Scheme proposed to give Canon Gregg a first charge for £450 upon the School premises, in respect of his expenditure upon them, and by way of allowance for good will.
Subject to that charge, the Scheme proposed to put the premises up for public sale, giving Canon Gregg liberty to bid, and absolute credit for £450 in the event of his becoming the purchaser.
The Scheme has been remitted to us by the Lord Lieutenant, with a declaration that Canon Gregg should be given a right of pre-emption, at a price to be ascertained by valuation, but that his claim to credits out of the purchase-money should be disallowed in any event.
We are at present engaged in obtaining an official valuation of the premises in order to give effect to this declaration in an amended Scheme.
Scheme No.
94 deals with the Endowments of public origin, formerly connected with the Limerick Model Farm, and vested in Trustees constituted by statute.
The lands and buildings are now used for the purposes of Mungret College, Limerick, an institution maintained by the Jesuit Order for the promotion of higher education.
The Scheme vests the premises absolutely in the present lessees, at a capital price of £2,500, or an annual rent of £125 ; and places this price or rent, with certain other funds amounting to about £2,000, under a Board of Trustees, for the promotion of Technical Education in the city and county of Limerick.
This Scheme has been finally approved by the Lord Lieutenant in Council.
The remaining Limerick Scheme, No.
95, deals with " The Leamy Endowment," and still presents peculiar difficulty.
The Endowment was founded in 1814 by William Leamy—" for the education of the Poor in Ireland, principally those in and about Limerick City."
It now consists of School buildings which were erected and opened in 1844, at a cost of about £4,000, together with a capital sum of about £10,500 Government Stock, lodged in Chancery.
From 1814 to 1844 the Endowment was in litigation.
In 1844, a primary School, intended for 400 pupils of all religious denomi¬ nations, was established under a Chancery Scheme.
That School was carried on for up¬ wards of twenty years, but, owing to religious differences, the attendance of pupils was al¬ ways small, and ultimately the School was closed, and so remained until 18 74.
It was then re-opened under a further Chancery Scheme, which provided for more advanced in¬ struction, intended to fit the pupils for employment in trading, mercantile, and manu¬ facturing pursuits.
The Governing Body is appointed by co-option, subject to the approval of the Court of Chancery, and has from time to time included some Roman Catholics.
Since its re-opening, the School has been attended almost exclusively by Protestant pupils, and it has practically become an Intermediate School, attended by children of the middle classes.
Although there are forty free pupils, who may, more or less correctly, be described as
" poor," the Endowment cannot be regarded as wholly or even mainly devoted to the charitable purpose intended by the Founder.
Owing to their objections to "mixed education," the Roman Catholic Governors have declined to take any part in the management of the School, and the number of Roman Catholic pupils has been reduced to four or five, while the total number of pupils has been hardly more than one-fourth of that for which the buildings were intended.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Leamy's School, great numbers of Roman.
Catholic poor children are without sufficient school accommodation, while the Limerick Model School, fully equipped at the public expense for about 550 pupils, is attended by about
Reporti 200, described to us as "all middle class Protestants."
We called attentions our issg-oo.
report for 1889-90, to the difficulty of dealing to the best advantage with thep,vl-
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