FYI COOK ISLANDS NEWS, Wednesday 12 November 2014 Uncertain future Catholic college cash-strapped Catholic school Nukutere College faces an uncertain future as its 99-year lease expires on November 30. A community meeting has been called for this Thursday by Nukutere College Parent, Teacher Association chairman Munokoa Purea to be held at the St Joseph’s Hall starting at 6pm. College principal George Rasmussen says this meeting, although open to the general public, is purely to inform parents and teachers of the current challenge being faced by the school. The school does not have a perpetual right of renewal in the Deed of lease to the 1.1752 hectare piece of land the school is located on known as Ngatairi 46 and 46A. According to the Deed, the land and all improvements on it returns to the landowner when the lease expires on November 30. Improvements include all the school buildings, the Bishop’s residence, the historic cathedral, the early priests’ old house and the old cemetery where Father Bernadin Castanie and some early missionaries are buried. In a document released at Sunday mass by current Catholic Bishop Paul Donoghue, he says that while all of the landowners are open to a renewal of the lease, the holders of 6/10th of the land, most of whom reside overseas, have taken the view that they are entitled to full value for the land. Bishop Donoghue says that the landowners want the church to meet its obligation to pay the rental arrears on a review that should have been conducted in 1981. According to Bishop Donoghue the first review was conducted by Bishop Ubald Lehman in 1952. “At the time, he tried but was not successful to obtain a perpetual right of renewal of the lease of the land,” says Bishop Donoghue. The court at the time raised the rent from the original 10 pounds to 20 pounds ($40) per annum. “Unfortunately the 1981 rental review was overlooked by both the then Catholic Administrator (lessee) and the then sole owner of the land (lessor),” says Bishop Donoghue. The church continued to pay the 20 pounds ($40) due per annum until the present day. Bishop Donoghue adds that valuers for the landowners, Curnow and Tizard, have now assessed the capital value of the land for 1981 to be $65,000. “This could mean that the church arrears could be over $107,000 (five per cent of the capital value of the land) if we are to follow the valuation.” Bishop Donoghue further adds that the 6/10th share of the present landowners also expect the church to pay for the school buildings which were burnt in the fire in 2012. They estimate the cost to be around $580,000. “The burnt school buildings were paid for by New Zealand Aid in 2006, on condition that there was an agreement by the landowners to renew the lease and that the buildings were insured. As the time the sole owner had died, but New Zealand Aid was satisfied on the basis of an assurance by a representative of the broader family,” says Bishop Donoghue. “It has been made clear to us that only if these debts are cleared – the arrears, possibly the burnt buildings, the cost of valuation – would the landowners of whom own 6 of 10 shares of the land consider a renewal of lease.” “We have an immediate problem,” continues Bishop Donoghue. “As from December 1 those landowners say that if we remain, they wish us to pay rental payments of $4800 per month for the accommodation part and $2,400 per month for the school area (plus VAT) paid in advance. Neither the church not the school can afford these figures.” The question then is – can the Catholic community afford to pay out the huge financial cost which would enable this to happen? “Government has been sympathetic to our plight and is willing to help,” adds Bishop Donoghue. “It is considering taking some or all of the land by warrant however compensation by way of payments to the landowners would still be the responsibility of the Catholic community and likely to be a very large sum of money.” Since becoming Bishop of the Cook Islands in 2011, Bishop Donoghue says he has tried to find landowners in order to renew the lease. From February 2013 until the present, efforts have been made to meet with the ‘new’ landowners and through relatives to search for the children of three of the deceased owners – all of whom have been succeeded by 10 new owners. “Information has been kept confidential until now in order not to jeopardize these negotiations and in order not to disperse misinformation.” However Bishop Donoghue says that time has come to join with the Catholic Administrator in making these difficult decisions for the future of the school. “We all need to weigh up the costs and the disadvantages and advantages of the various options that face as a community in considering the future of the Catholic secondary school,” says Bishop Donoghue. Interested members of the public, especially the Catholic community, are encouraged to attend the meeting this Thursday at the St Joseph hall at 6pm to hear the options available to keep the school open and to offer any advice to those that will be making the final decision. “Can we afford to stay? This is the question I invite you all to consider deeply so that whatever decision we make in this matter, it is one that all of us can look back on and be confident it was the right decision in all these difficult circumstances.” - Matariki Wilson
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:30:44 +0000