Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National): That was a speech delivered in the uniquely persuasive style of Dr Webb which of course some of us find intriguing given the way in which it is often pressed without much consideration for anybody else's views. While I do appreciate the Allan McLean Institute and the need that they have to change their Act I think it is important that it does go through a select committee to ensure that the intentions of the settlor are not unduly disrupted in these modern times.It's worth noting I think that Allan McLean was quite an interesting character a very upright man who came to New Zealand via Australia in about 1852. A lot of what he has set up here I'm sure—despite Dr Webb's concerns about the structure of the will that he left—would have been formed because of the circumstance his own mother found herself in when his father died leaving her with five relatively young children. He and his two other brothers did very well: runholders in Australia and then coming to the Waimakariri district initially before heading further south in the Canterbury district to acquire the leasehold on very large tracts of land. It was much later in his life when he was in his late 70s that the Government bought out those leases—he'd acquired them from his two brothers at that point—and a very high price was paid for those leases in order that some of that land could be made available to successive farmers in the Canterbury district.When you think about why he built a huge home—the McLean Mansion that still sits in Manchester Street that's currently I understand undergoing some restoration—why he built such a massive house to move in at the age of 80 and lived there for only five years what is pretty clear is that he always had the intention that that big facility would be made available to as he described it a home for women of refinement [and] education in … straitened circumstances". He left a huge bequest so I'm told: it was around £300000. If we take the mathematics of Paul Eagle—and I take a risk in suggesting that—that would make that around about some $200 million in today's money—a very large amount of money. Over the years the institute has stayed pretty faithful to the intention that he had; nearly 120 years in fact.So this change that's proposed to this bill on the face of it looks absolutely the right thing to do to ensure that that work does continue for quite some time to come. I just want to for a moment talk about the building itself—his own home that he built clearly with the intention in mind that it would become a home for women in the circumstances that he suggested. For a while it was used as a dental clinic once the institute moved its premises out into the Fendalton area—and the institute still holds a property on Fendalton Road. It's not unusual that the will that Dr Duncan Webb was holding up and expressing some difficulty in understanding was ultimately interpreted in an Act of Parliament. There's quite a lot of that happened in New Zealand; we have these things up and down the country and it would be interesting to see if there was a quicker way in which to deal with some of the needs of those institutions to change. I can think—also in Christchurch—I have a fairly good knowledge of the Riccarton Bush Trust for example which was set up largely at the generosity of the Deans family but also with some Government purchase money involved. So it is not an unusual circumstance that the House is dealing with—we've just dealt with the Cawthron Institute. I'm sure that the reason for the Cawthron Act some time after the "Allan McLean Act" was to put into a legal framework—a proper framework—the intentions of the executor of the will. So we will we will be looking at this bill in the select committee to make sure essentially that what is being asked is reasonable that what is being asked will provide a legislative basis for the work of the institute to continue for many many decades to come and that the intentions of Allan McLean are not lost inside the new arrangements. I think it would have been very good for us all had we not had to wait until Monday of this week to get a copy of the bill."