A Catholic Māori high school would not be facing closure if a Crown land grant had been used as it was intended, the Waitangi Tribunal has been told.
Students at Hato Pētera College (file photo): The school's roll has dropped from 150 to 27 over the last six years. Photo: Supplied
Hato Petera College, which was the original beneficiary of the grant, is fighting for recognition that the money from the grant land sales should have gone to them.
A total of 376 acres was granted to the Catholic Church in Auckland's North Shore in 1850 with the purpose of supporting Māori education on the site, and later the maintenance of Hato Petera.
Lawyer Stuart Kett, of Tamaki Legal - which is representing claimant group Ngā Tauira Tāwhito ō Hato Petera - said since then, most of that land had been sold and the proceeds had not been fairly used to fund or support the school.
"The original reason for the grant was for the maintenance and support of Māori education on the Takapuna Crown grant lands," Mr Kett said.
"Those purposes, those duties, those obligations are for the church to provide that maintenance by way of the Crown grant lands."
Hato Petera now faces possible closure with the erosion of its buildings, struggles to retain staff, and a boarding facility that has been closed since last year.
The school has plummeted from a student roll count of 150 in the past six years to only 27.
Mr Kett said it was not clear how the proceeds from the grant land sales were spent, but it wasn't on Hato Petera.
"The diocese presumably is doing what it can, but unfortunately we haven't been able to access their financial records in terms of how they expended the proceeds of sale moneys in terms of benefiting Hato Petera.
"What we do know is Hato Petera is on a lot less land than it would have been had the original grant remained intact."
Hato Petera Trust member Ngarae Isaacs has had five children attend the school and said the current state of the college was diminishing.
She said the wider school community had done everything they could to help save it.
"We have done DIYs, we've done fundraising, you name it - we've done it.
"We have been working tirelessly to try and come to some kind of compromise with the governance boards that we are dealing with internally."
She said they had tried to hold hui to sort the matters out but were turned away.
Ms Isaacs is also a former hostel parent of the school, and said the boarding facility was the lifeblood of Hato Petera.
"We were using our own finances and we were using the community to do up the boarding so our kids could have a roof over their heads.
"Without the boarding facilities we have no school - that was the unique, special character of the school."
In the claimant group's final submissions Mr Kett asked that the Crown fund a new boarding facility and new buildings at the school.
The Catholic Church was contacted for comment but referred questions back to the school.