In the following year, the Royal Commissioners on Universities and Secondary Schools supported this move in their report.

[1] The Hokitika High School Act 1883 was a piece of legislation championed by Gerard George Fitzgerald, member of parliament for the Hokitika electorate.

The legislation, passed in September 1883, allowed for the establishment of a high school in Hokitika, formulated how the school board was to be determined, and gave the mechanism of dealing with land endowment.

[2] The school board, which first met in February 1884, came together at regular interval but found that it would have insufficient funds to pay for a headmaster.

[3][4] The impasse was broken by The Hokitika High School Act 1883 Amendment Act, 1890, which was sponsored by the local MP Joseph Grimmond.