Judge orders Maori group off school site

Maori operating a tiny Northland school for seven months in defiance of an Education Ministry closure order have been told by a judge they must leave the school site by Wednesday.

District Court Judge Thomas Everitt has ordered members of a whanau group within Ngati Hine iwi to vacate the 1.65ha Orauta school site near Moerewa no later than 3pm on September 14 after hearing an application by the Crown to reclaim possession of the land.

The deadline may pass with no change, however, if the group, as seems likely, seeks to appeal against the decision.

Members of the group have been running 95-year-old Orauta school, renamed Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Maara o Hineamaru Ki Orauta, as an unregistered school with an unstated number of pupils under the umbrella of a Maori incorporation since late January.

That was when the Ministry of Education closed the then 29-pupil school, along with a number of others, following a ministerial review of primary schools in central Northland and the Russell Peninsula.

Ministry representatives have since been prevented from entering the school at Orauta.

But during a hearing before Judge Everitt in the Kaikohe court last month, Kim Thomas, appearing for the Attorney-General on behalf of the Crown, said it was believed there were no more than 10 pupils at the school now. Mr Thomas sought a court order for the school land to be vacated by its occupiers and returned to the Crown.

The action was brought against school management committee spokesman Ken Brown, his wife Teena Brown, Kene Martin and others "unlawfully in possession of the land".

In his reserved decision released yesterday, Judge Everitt ruled that the land is not subject to provisions of Te Ture Whenua Maori Land Act 1993, and that the Crown had established it was no longer needed for educational purposes.

Mr Brown and other defendants had refused to give up occupation of the school site, despite attempts by the Crown to resolve issues raised.

The judge said he was satisfied none of the defendants had any right, title or interest to the land and noted that the tenant of the house on the property, Kene Martin, had her tenancy there terminated by the Tenancy Tribunal last April.

"The simple issue in this case is not about the right of Maori persons to run a private school based on Maori language.

"The issue is the right of an owner of land to recover vacant possession of its land," Judge Everitt said.

Matters raised by the defendants "do not raise issues of defence recognisable in this court", he said.