teaching farm

PHOTO: The teaching farm, once owned by the college and now leased by Taihape Area School. Photo: Supplied

Government officials are being accused of stealing a farm bought by a central North Island town for their schoolchildren to learn agriculture.

Taihape people established the teaching farm on 12 hectares next to Taihape College 30 years ago but the Ministry of Education has taken it and put it in the landbank for Treaty settlements, and the school can now only lease it.

The Ombudsman is looking at whether to investigate.

“It’s very unfortunate. I think you could effectively say that the community asset has been stolen by the Education Ministry,” Rangitīkei National MP Ian McKelvie said.

“And of course, it’s gotten into the process now where it’s very difficult to get it back from.”

The town’s high hopes have turned into an exhausting 17-year-long fight between country and city, going on under the radar between bureaucrats and those townspeople who believe they’ve been ripped off.

Jean Cherry, a retired nurse who lived in Taihape for 36 years, is one. Her father-in-law Jim Cherry sold the block cheaply to the college in 1989.

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