WHEREAS by an Act of the Provincial Council of Wellington, Session XVIII, number three, it was enacted that the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington might convey the lands particularly described in the First Schedule hereto to such persons as he thought fit, and their successors, as trustees for the Wanganui Volunteer Fire Brigade, subject to the insertion in any such conveyance of a condition that in the event of the trustees, or their successors, at any time thereafter disposing of the said lands or any portion thereof, or in the event of the rent thereof or proceeds therefrom being appropriated for any other purposes than those of the said Wanganui Volunteer Fire Brigade, the said lands should become and be charged with payment to the Superintendent of the sum of one hundred pounds as the price of the said land, to be paid on demand to the Treasurer of the Province: And whereas, in pursuance of the said enactment, the Superintendent, by deed of conveyance dated the fourteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, registered in the Deeds Registration Office, at Wellington, as number 13429, made between the Superintendent, of the one part, and Thomas Powell, William Hogg Watt, and Joseph William Robinson, the trustees of the Wanganui Volunteer Fire Brigade, of the other part, conveyed and assured the said lands to the said Thomas Powell, William Hogg Watt, and Joseph William Robinson, as such trustees, and their heirs, subject to the condition in the said in part hereinbefore recited enactment: And whereas the Wanganui Volunteer Fire Brigade was disbanded as from the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and eighteen: And whereas by deed of conveyance dated the eighteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and eighteen, registered in the Deeds Registration Office, at Wellington, as number 121844, made between Thomas Dick Cummins, Charles Vernon Powell, and George Spriggens, the then trustees of the Wanganui Volunteer Fire Brigade, of the one part, and the Mayor, Councillors, and Burgesses of the Borough of Wanganui (hereinafter called the Corporation), of the other part, the said Thomas Dick Cummins, Charles Vernon Powell, and George Spriggens, as such trustees, conveyed and assured the said lands to the Corporation, to hold unto the Corporation for municipal fire purposes: And whereas, pursuant to the provisions of the Fire Brigades Act, 1908, the Borough of Wanganui, being the district within the jurisdiction of the Wanganui Borough Council (hereinafter called the Council), was on the thirtieth day of October, nineteen hundred and eighteen, duly declared a fire district: And whereas the Wanganui Fire Board (hereinafter called the Board) has in terms of the Fire Brigades Act, 1908, been duly constituted: And whereas on the fourth day of April, nineteen hundred and nineteen, an originating summons was duly issued in the Supreme Court of New Zealand, Wellington District, wherein the Corporation was plaintiff and the Board defendant, for the purpose of determining, inter alia, the following questions—(a) Has the Board any rights, and, if so, what rights, under the trusts declared by the deeds of the fourteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and the eighteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and eighteen ? (b) Did either of the said deeds create a charitable trust; and, if so, is such trust now operative, or can the charitable trust be administered cy-pres? And whereas the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, on the twentieth day of October, nineteen hundred and nineteen, reversing the decision of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, adjudged and declared, inter alia, that the deed of the eighteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and eighteen, created a charitable trust, which cannot now be executed by the Corporation by reason of the existence of the Wanganui Fire District, and that a cy-pres scheme ought to be established for the administration of the trust so that the net income of the property may be paid to the Board for the purposes of fire-prevention: And whereas by order of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, made on the fourth day of May, nineteen hundred and twenty, the Corporation was granted final leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council from the final judgment of the Court of Appeal, and such appeal is now being prosecuted: And whereas on or about the tenth day of October, nineteen hundred and nineteen, the Board, pursuant to the terms of the Fire Brigades Act, 1908, purchased the lands described in the Second Schedule hereto for the purposes of the said Act: And whereas the Corporation and the Board have agreed to compromise, settle, and adjust all matters in dispute between them arising out of or by virtue of the said conveyances of the fourteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and the eighteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and eighteen, and the appeal to His Majesty in Council now pending: And whereas it is expedient that such compromise, settlement, and adjustment should be effected: And whereas such objects are not attainable otherwise than by legislation: