Rangi-ruru To Mark 75th Anniversary

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 2

Rangi-ruru To Mark 75th Anniversary

The seventy-fifth anniversary of Rangi-ruru Presbyterian Girls’ School will be celebrated from April 4to 6 this year. The school was founded in 1889 by Miss Helen Gibson who took over a school of about 18 pupils from the Misses Gresham.

The school, then known as Miss Gibson’s school, was on the comer of Webb street and Papanui road. In 1923 Miss Gibson moved the school to its present site in Hewitts road and it became known as Rangi-ruru. The name Rangi-ruru was suggested by a Maori friend of Miss Gibson’s father.

Miss Gibson was headmistress until she died in 1938. She was succeeded by her sister, Miss Ethel Gibson, who was headmistress for eight years. The school was taken over by the Presbyterian Church in 1946 and Miss May Farquharson was appointed headmistress until her marriage in 1947. The next headmistress was Miss R. O. Mason, who retired when she married, in 1951 Since then s M. G. Patrick has been headmistress. She was a language mistress at Queen Margaret College, Wellington, for six years before taking up her present position. When the school started it took pupils from primer one up, but six years ago the school stopped accepting primers and this year, for the first time, the school has only pupils from Form I on. The school now has a roll of nearly 500, 77 of whom are boarders. No Early Records No school records were kept until 1923, so as far as is known only two original pupils live in Christchurch, Misses May and Edith Waller. Another lives at Seven Oaks, England. She is Mrs R. G. E. England, formerly Jessie Turner.

A former pupil of the school. Miss M. E. Belcher, has spent the last six months

compiling the history of the school, which will be published before the anniversary celebrations.

Two years ago the prefects gave the school a large carved kauri plaque of the school crest, and this will be reproduced on the cover of the publication. The celebrations will begin on the morning of April 4 with a staff reunion. The chairman of the Board of Governors (the Very Rev. M. W. Wilson) will officially open the celebrations at a garden party in the afternoon. A dinner will be held in the evening for former pupils and members of staff. A service in the Cathedral will be conducted by Mr Wilson and the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren) on Sunday afternoon. At the school sports at Rugby Park on the Monday a race for former pupils will be held. A reception for the presentation of debutantes in the evening will be followed by an anniversary bait The debutantes will be presented to the president of Old Girls’ Association (Mrs N, R. Belcher).

Former pupils of the different decades will be given coloured badges to wear and a room will be set aside for each decade where photographs and mementoes will be displayed.

The Old Girls’ Association has a roll of more than 1400 and it is hoped that many

former pupils who are not members of the association will attend the celebrations. Replies to invitations have been received from, as far away as Auckland and Invercargill.