Gilmore Aaron: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Gilmore Aaron: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:661;Page:9581] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to support the Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill brought to this House by my wonderful colleague Nicky Wagner. People have spoken lots about the various issues around this bill and one of the things we should think about is that this school has a very long and proud history. I was not a student of Christ’s College but some wonderful members of this House were including Sir Arthur Guinness a former Speaker of this House back in the early 1900s and of course Dr Michael Cullen. The other key people I remember vividly who went to Christ’s College were Robbie Deans and his brother from Christchurch. 
My experience of Christ’s College is that I have actually visited one of its bits of land. The college has bits of land all over the place in Canterbury which many runholders and farmers have given to the school in many ways. It owns some ski land with a ski lodge; in various forms it owns bits of land all around the city of Christchurch. 
Hon Members 
: Ha ha! 
AARON GILMORE 
: I find the laughing hysterics from the people across the House just hilarious. 
One of the interesting things is that this bill is very similar to the Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill and to other bills that have been before this House previously about tidying up. The Maori Trustee Amendment Bill was another example in that little bits of assets with multiple owners or with complicated trustee arrangements needed to be tidied up. This bill allows that tidying-up to happen. 
The Christ’s College board had the option to resolve its problems via amendments through the High Court and earlier today Mr Mallard asked why the board did not just go ahead and do that. Well it would cost about $50000 per action to take those actions through to the High Court to get those various trusts or bits of property changed and that would eat up very quickly the capital and assets that exist in these small bits of assets across the board. Despite the best aims and wishes of the original donors I believe that this bill will not harm the initial intent for the sums of money we are talking about and the amounts they bequeath will actually still go to a good cause in terms of the students of that fine institution. 
Unlike Mr Boscawen I went to a school called Shirley Boys High School and I was the first member ever of my school to be elected to this fine House. I am very proud to be the first ever member of my school to be before this House. I have many proud memories of encountering Christ’s College students during my time at school. 
Hone Harawira 
: Did you bash them? 
AARON GILMORE 
: Oh exactly! The interesting thing about this bill is that some concerns have been raised by the Opposition although I note that most of those members do support it and those concerns can be resolved very easily I believe in the select committee. We had a similar issue with the Methodist Church of New Zealand Trusts Bill. A number of concerns and issues at the first reading were resolved through the select committee process and my colleague from Selwyn the very capable Amy Adams did a very good job on that particular bill by amending some of its clauses to make it work in a much better and more sensible fashion. I have the utmost confidence in the Government Administration Committee to be able to do that; that committee is chaired of course by David Parker. 
I think that a lot of work will be done on this bill. It is a very simple bill but members opposite have pointed out some particular problems and issues. This bill is simply about the transfer of property. It is not about some treatise on national standards issues; it is nothing to do with that. This school is a very fine school and a very fine institution and the bill will allow it to do what it really wants to do in terms of its assets. I believe that the concerns that have been raised will be easily resolved. Dr Cullen as a former pupil of the school may have been a beneficiary of one of these existing scholarships. He may have been the child of a Second World War veteran; I do not know. I know that he received a scholarship to Christ’s College and he made a very fine point about that in his valedictory speech when he left this House. Some of the funds that exist are used for scholarships for the children of World War I World War II and Boer War veterans. 
I reiterate the importance of this bill to the school and the wonderful work that the member from Christchurch Nicky Wagner has done to bring this bill to the House. Accordingly I look forward to its progressing through the House.