ROYAL COMMISSION FINDS TAUPO PRIMARY MUFTI DAY $47.20 SHORT

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mufti Day Fundraiser at a Taupo-area primary school has delivered its 340-page report. It finds the $47.20 shortfall was, on the balance of probabilities, a failure of collective will.

The Terms of Reference required three findings. How many children arrived without a coin. Whether the sulphur had corroded the tin's slot. And the status of a Year 4 boy who donated $2 and then asked for $1.50 change. The Commission finds he was within his rights, but morally on thin ice.

The Commission heard evidence from 34 witnesses. PTA chair Deidre Wallington-Voss said the day had been "a triumph in spirit, if not in ledger." Under cross-examination she conceded she had counted the tin three times and got three different numbers. "I was distracted," she said. "The Year 6s were doing the luge dance."

Counsel assisting raised the matter of Barnaby Prendergast, aged 8. Barnaby attended in full mufti but produced, in lieu of a coin, a laminated IOU signed by his mother. The Commission finds this is not legal tender. Teacher aide Margaret Fenn called it "the most Taupo thing I've seen all term."

A board representative told the Commission the day raised "a solid amount, all things considered." She later clarified that "all things" included the sulphur, two tourists on the field, and one parent who brought an EFTPOS machine "just in case." The Commission finds this parent was the only adult who understood the assignment.

Recommendation 14: future mufti days require a minimum donation of $2. Recommendation 17: the Year 4 boy may keep his $1.50, but must be told this is not how fundraising works. The Commission adjourns. It puts me in mind of the pier fete of 1974, though the coins then were bigger.