WEEDONS SCHOOL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26528, 17 September 1951, Page 8

WEEDONS SCHOOL

80TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

89 FORMER PUPILS ATTEND

Eighty-nine former pupils of the Weedons School answered the roll call at the 80th anniversary celebrations of the school on Saturday morning. The oldest former pupil to answer the roll was Mr R. Gudsell, aged 88, who attended the school when it was opened in 1871. The oldest female pupil was Mrs William Duder, formerly Ada Coard, who first attended the school in 1877.

Former pupils answered the roll in eight decades, as follows: 1871 to 1880, five answered; 1881 to 1990, six: 1891 to 1900, 11; 1901 to 1910, 13; 1911 to 1920, 19; 1921 to 1930, 17; 1931 to 1940, 16; 1941 to 1950, two. The present roll strength of the school is 20.

One of the oldest former pupils, Mr J. Hampton, rang the school bell during the afternoon.

A toast to the Canterbury Education Board was proposed at a banquet by Mr A. A. Dingwall, the chairman of the board (Mr S. J. Irwin) replying. Mr A. G. Phillips proposed a toast to the school committee, and Mr H. C. Wild proposed a toast to the teaching staffs, past' and present. Replying to this toast, the oldest former teacher present, Mrs I. Turner. said she hoped there would be a new building at Weedons for the school’s centenary. Her parents had come to New Zealand from Lancashire in 1863, said Mrs Duder, who cut the jubilee cake at the banquet. They had settled at Weedons in 1870, and Mrs Duder was born two years later. “Except for a few months in Whakatane, I have lived my whole life within earshot of railways,” she said. “My father worked as a railway ganger, and he was in the party which made the first trip through the tunnel from Lyttelton to Christchurch.” She had been familiar with the Main South road when there was only one dwelling on the whole stretch from Templeton to the Black Horse Hotel near Hagley Park, said Mrs Duder. “At that time the Christchurch Hospital was a small building with an enormous bluegum tree by the gate.” His father had also been a ganger on the railway at Templeton, said the oldest former pupil present, Mr R. Gudsell. "In 1870 my parents shifted to Weedons, and for a while until the Weedons School was built I had to do a lot of walking to get to and from the Templeton School,” he said. "At that time Templeton was the first stage on Cobb and Company’s coach route to Timaru, and when the railway was extended beyond Templeton, the company shifted its stables to the Selwyn, where they are still.” Mr Gudsell’s father had been a member of the first Weedons School committee.

After six years of schooling, Mr Gudsell went at the age of 13 to work on the extension to the Midland railway line from Waddington to Sheffield. His work consisted of levering up each sleeper with an iron bar while the spikes were driven home. He went to Australia when he was 17, and he spent some years there in the mining industry. He later became president of the Newcastle Miners’ Association. “I have been a labour leader all my life,” Mr Gudsell added.

Together with Mr P. Branthwaite, he had inaugurated the New Zealand Pensioners’ Association in 1939, and he was now the patron of the association, said Mr Gudsell. Mr Gudsell lives at the pensioners’settlement at Howardville. Burnham.