On a recent programme on Maori television, it was alleged that “the Catholic Church’ was “reneging” on its responsibility for Hato Paora College.
It seems that this perception is being actively promoted. The interviewer made repeated attempts to get the panel to agree that “the Church” was “reneging”. The Minister of Maori Affairs agreed with her.
I am therefore obliged to show why this perception is entirely false. I do so in the interests of moving forward. However, moving forward requires that we understand the past and the present. If we do not learn from our track record, our planning will be based on unreal expectations, and the future will be no different from the past.
On the programme, I was quoted as giving “an assurance that Hato Paora College will not close”. This is not quite what I said. At the annual prize giving, I did indeed give a public assurance that closing the school was not my agenda. I said “our agenda is not to close the school, but to save it”. I then acknowledged that this will be a struggle, because whether or not we succeed depends on whether we can raise the ten million dollars needed to upgrade the hostel.
For several years now, I have been saying that the Church does not have such a large sum, nor any capital at all, for further expenditure on the College. Attempts have been made by me personally, and by others acting on my behalf, to make sure this was understood both by government ministers and key stakeholders. It seems that this message has still not got through.
Resources that are required for the many other charitable works of the Church, and some of which are tagged for specific activities, cannot be simply diverted to give further support to a school which has, proportionately speaking, received far more help from the Church than any other school.
No school hostel in the Diocese of Palmerston North has as much support from “the Church” as Hato Paora College. In fact, the only significant financial contribution to the hostel has come from Church sources. These include loans (for which the diocese itself has to borrow), and contributions from the Society of Mary. It also includes income from the farm (originally bought by the Catholic people of the diocese for Catholic Maori education). So far Hato Paora College has been the only beneficiary of this resource, which makes it the only Catholic Maori College that has received that kind of income, which must have amounted to around three million dollars over the last 20 years.
In contrast, there has been no significant financial help for the hostel from the college’s immediate stakeholders or the government. (I understand the government has made substantial grants in favour of two other Maori boarding schools (Te Aute and Hukerere) to rescue them from the same situation that Hato Paora is in today.)
On the TV programme, reference was made to proposals to sell the farm, reinvest the capital, and make the income available to the colleges. This makes sense if it brings in a greater income than what we get through leasing the farm. Contrary to what was said on the programme, it has always been our intention to make this income available in favour of two colleges – Hato Paora and Hato Hohepa. (It is only in the event of HPC closing, if it ever had to do this, that we would then have to look for other ways of supporting the education of Maori boys from this same asset.)
Our commitment of this asset to the ongoing education of Maori children is also the over-riding reason why there can be no question of us spending the capital. If even part of the capital is spent, the College will have lost its main source of income. It is meaningless to talk of getting sufficient income from hostel fees because only 9 years ago these were in arrears to the extent of $580,000 (a large proportion of which had finally to be written off, that is paid by the Church), and over the last two years, only 1/3rd of parents have paid school fees. Furthermore, it has become clear that many Maori are not interested in sending their children to Maori boarding colleges. Clearly, therefore, the income necessary for meeting the ongoing capital and operational costs of the hostel would not come from the fees that parents pay.
Only substantial grants will meet the present needs because there is no chance the Trust Board could meet any interest on borrowed money.
Therefore, I intend to keep the capital intact in order to earn the money necessary to supplement the boarding fee contributions of parents. Consequently, we will not be spending it, nor risk losing the farm through mortgage, or through suspensory loan.
The reason for the conditions attached to the Deed of Covenant when the Trust Board was set up in 1986 was precisely to make sure that this asset could not get lost to Maori education, - or to the Catholic people of the Diocese of Palmerston North to whom it belongs as patrimony of the Church, and who have made it available for Catholic Maori education. If the diocese had not placed these restrictions on what could be done with the farm, by now it would probably have been sold to meet running costs, maintenance, and arrears on hostel fees, and for repaying large loans taken out by the Trust Board.
The diocese will continue to play its full part and will co-operate willingly with the Strategic Planning Group chaired by Professor Mason Durie.
Finally, there also seems a misperception about the use of Maori land by “the Church”. Wherever Maori land has been given to the Church for specific purposes, and is no longer required for those purposes, the Diocese of Palmerston North has given it back. All other land has been purchased. If any of it is the subject of claims against the Crown before the Waitangi Tribunal, the Diocese of Palmerston North will not stand in the way of the Tribunal’s work.
I ask that all concerned become fully informed about the policies and practices of the Diocese of Palmerston North. Erroneous statements are no help to the Church or to the Maori people.
Bishop Peter Cullinane
Bishop of Palmerston North
5 December 2005
Copyright 2008 Catholic Communications for the NZ Catholic Bishops' Conference
