DIAMOND JUBILEE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21966, 15 December 1936, Page 18

DIAMOND JUBILEE

* VIEW HILL PRIMARY SCHOOL LINK WITH EARLY DAYS OF DISTRICT The View Hill Primary School will celebrate the sixtieth year of its establishment to-morrow with a reunion gathering of old pupils at the school. With the subdivision of the View Hill run and the opening of several sawmills in the district about 1875 came the necessisty for a school. Five settlers, Messrs John and Andrew Baxter, A. Ferguson, S. Mounsey, and A. Wright, were responsible for its institution, and it was their children who attended on December 20, 1876, the day it was opened. Mr J. R. Gorton, who at that time owned the View Hill homestead block, was appointed chairman of the committee. Twelve' children answered to the first call. They were Thomas Baxter, Thomas Baxter, Alex. Baxter, Thomas and Alex. Ferguson, Janet Gilbertson, Annie, Margaret, and Thomas Mounsey, and Florence and Clara Wright. After the summer holidays there was a considerable increase of scholars. In 1877 there was a great influx of sawyers and others engaged in bush work and the roll number increased rapidly. It was not long before a second room was required and the roll increased to about 100. Up to the late ’eighties the school flourished, but toward the end of that decade and the beginning of the next the busn was nearly cut out, and there was a movement to the West Coast. The school declined till it became a one-teacher school, which it has since remained. During the 60 years the following teachers have been in charge: Messrs Comyns, John Mclntyre, Egbert Mayo, Andrew Malcolm, C. Densham, G. W. Maber, Robert Mounsey, Mrs -Dingwall, Misses M. Harvey, Newport, Smith, Wilson, Mounsey, Cottrell, and Methven. Mr Gorton was chairman for two years, Mr Harry Smith occupied the position for 20 years, except for a break of one year, and the present chairman, Mr A. A. Fantham, has held the position for 19 years. On the south side of the river, in the farming area, before 1880, can be recalled the names of Blain, Duder, Dudding, T. McGrath (1862), Abraham Ashworth, Gilchrist, W. J. Bassett, G. Budge, Rainey, Parlane, and Sirett, and on the north side, in the bush area, the Baxters (John and Andrew), Alex. Ferguson, T. Cleeve Stephen Mounsey. Arthur Wright, and Plaskett. !