LYTTELTON SCHOOLS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 77, 7 May 1914, Page 9

LYTTELTON SCHOOLS.

FINE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.

The education of young Lyttelton is looked after thoroughly by three schools —there is the District High School, the West Lyttelton School, and the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy. The District High School shares with the v school at Akaroa the distinction of being one of the finest . educational institutions in Canterbury. The - present building, .which is situated in Oxford Street, was built by the Provincial Council in 1873,

and was opened the following year, but jfche school existed long before this building, the older portion of which is a two-storied structure of brick, in Gothic design, and the newer building is of one storey. As a District High. School it comprises both secondary and primary departments. It has an average attendance of 500 in its primary , classes, and between 2Q and in the secondary department. It is not a large number for a High School in a town of 4000 people, but the explanation is that parents who can afford to do so send their children to the schools in Christchurch when they have completed their ordinary State School education, and most of those who cannot afford to pay the fees of the Christchurch schools don't trouble to give their children- the extended education provided by the District High School, even though that education is free and is of as high a quality as that given in any of the Christchurch schools. - The Staff. Though scholars are educated there for the professions, for matriculation and 'Civil Service examinations, the fewness of them

indicates that . the facilities provided by the school are not taken advantage of. 'The staff of the school, for both departments, is composed of the head master, three assistant masters, four mistresses, four pupil teachers, and a probationer. The head master, Mr E. U. Just, was appointed to the position iiL 1890. He is a Victorian, and after. 15 years' experience of school teaching in Victoria he was in charge of schools on the West Coast, and for nine years was second master of the East Christchurch School. . An Incongruity. - In addition to the High School,-and next to it, technical classes in wood-

work and cookery are conducted in the old Colonists' Hall, a large but old building, erected in the beginning of Lyttelton's history by the Canterbury Association to serve as a meeting house and social hall. About twenty pupils attend each of the technical classes. Strangely enough the High School is situated next the gaol. It is not certain that the spectacle of prisoners being inarched to their work has any

corrective effect on the scholars, whether the proximity of the gaol enforces the of copy-book proverbs regarcling honesty—probably the children take the gaol, prisoners and 0,11, as a matter of course, having become accustomed' to it, but it hardly seems fitting that the corrective institution should stand cheek by jowl with the biggest school in Lyttelton. It ifot fitting "that a gaol should occupy a central position in any town, and this is realised' by the present Minister of Justice apparently, for it is the intention of the Hon. A. L. Herdman to establish a prison farm in North Canterbury, "and to demolish the gaol, or, at all events, to put it to some other uke. In the meantime the high walls of the prison occupy ia " central " position in the town, it is a public building certainly, but not one the citizens take a great pride in. \ The Other Schools. The West Lyttelton School was opened in 1887, and was placed under the headmaster of the High School, but as West Lyttelton extended it was made a main school in 1894. The attendance then was about 130, and the average attendance now is 200. The school, is conducted by a staff of two masters, the school mistress, and a pupil teacher. The Convent School is, of course, a Boman Catholic institution, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, and established in 1890 by the. Rev. Mother Aloysius. .The number of pupils attending ra about 90, and,the. tuition ranges from, primary education to High School standard. 7 .