Tikipunga Protestant Children’s home applied to be liquidated

Justice Timothy Brewer has granted an application by Tikipunga Protestant Children's Home that it be liquidated. Photo / NZME

The High Court has accepted an unchallenged application by a Northland-based trust which catered for orphans and destitute children that it be liquidated and its surplus assets distributed.

Tikipunga Protestant Children’s Home — once the last privately-owned establishment of its type in New Zealand— has made numerous grants to charities around Northland in support of disadvantaged children.

It has given away almost all its money and is left with $22,937. If liquidated, the home would use this fund to pay legal and accounting fees. It proposes that any balance be donated to CCS Disability Action.

In 1925, Mr and Mrs Frederick Seymour Potter established and funded a trust to purchase an 11-hectare property in Corks Rd, Tikipunga

In 1936, a new deed of trust declared the purpose of the trust to be “for the benefit of orphans and destitute children who must be brought up in the Protestant faith”.

The home came into existence when the predecessor trust was incorporated in 1939 when the Potters donated more money so that, with a contribution from the local authority, an orphanage was built on the home’s land.

It operated the orphanage, adapting as social conditions changed, until 2012 when it closed because it was too expensive to continue. It was the last privately-owned establishment of its type in New Zealand.

The High Court amended the home’s trust deed in 2018 to enable it to sell its assets and use the proceeds “for the benefit of children from disadvantaged backgrounds”.

The home sold its assets and raised about $4.8 million. In addition, it sold land to the Whangārei District Council for $1 and granted WDC for $130,000 to establish a children’s playground, now known as Potter Park.

High Court Judge Timothy Brewer said the home has given away almost all its money and is left with $22,937.

Out of courtesy, the home served the application to be liquidated on the Attorney-General who did not identify any impediment to the application.

“I am satisfied that the home’s capital has reduced to the extent where it is no longer viable for it to continue. I am further satisfied that the home has reached this position through the proper and lawful exercise of its charitable purpose,” Justice Brewer said, while granting the application.

He appointed David Reyburn as the liquidator.