  We studied the properties of the young stellar populations in the NGC 299
cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud using observations obtained with the
Hubble Space Telescope in the $V, I$, and $H\alpha$ bands. We identified 250
stars with H$\alpha$ excess exceeding 5 $\sigma$ and an equivalent width of the
H$\alpha$ emission line of at least 20 \r{A}, indicating that these stars are
still undergoing accretion and therefore represent bona fide pre-main-sequence
(PMS) objects. For 240 of these stars, we derived the mass, age, and mass
accretion rate by comparing the observed photometry with theoretical models. We
find evidence for the existence of two populations of PMS stars, with median
ages of 25 and 50 Myr respectively. The average mass accretion rate for these
PMS stars is $\sim 5 \times 10^{-9}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, which is comparable
to the values found in other low-metallicity, low-density clusters in the
Magellanic Clouds, but is about a factor of three lower than those measured for
stars of similar mass and age in denser Magellanic Cloud stellar regions. Our
findings support the hypothesis that both the metallicity and density of the
forming environment can affect the mass accretion rate and thus the star
formation process in a region.
  A study of the spatial distribution of both massive stars and (low-mass) PMS
objects reveals that the former are clustered near the nominal centre of NGC
299, whereas the PMS stars are rather uniformly distributed over the field. To
explore whether the stars formed in an initially more diffuse or compact
structure, we studied the cluster's stellar density profile. We find a core
radius $r_c\simeq 0.6$ pc and a tidal radius $r_t\simeq 5.5$ pc, with an
implied concentration parameter $c \simeq 1$, suggesting that the cluster could
be dispersing into the field.
