REUNION PLANNED

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30667, 5 February 1965, Page 8

REUNION PLANNED

Little River School Ninety-two yeare of European schooling at Little River will be marked by a reunion of former pupils, teachers, and committee at Little River from March 12 to 14. A big attendance is expected and enrolments are still being received. A ball will be held on Friday, March 12, a conversazione and banquet on the Saturday, and a thanksgiving service on Sunday. Mr L. J. Joblin is ehairman and Mr J. D.R. White secretary of the organising committee. Educational history at Little River goes back to 1860, when a Maori school was established by Mr W. L. Buller. He maintained it at his own expense for three years until control was taken over by a committee under the sponsorship of Canon James Stack. Attempts to combine the Maori school with the European school were unsuccessful until the closing of the Maori school in 1943.

The first European school was opened in 1873 by the Canterbury Education Board, with a roll of 20 boys and 14 girls. Mr Westropp was the first headmaster. A new school was built in Cooptown, a mile or so from the township, in 1881, and the old school became the Roman Catholic Church. The “new” school was burnt down in 1939, and teaching was done in temporary quarters until, after repeated protests by the school committee at the delay, a new building was opened in 1942. From a maximum of 169 in 1889, the school roll in the middle term of 1964 was 54.