Marsden School

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31530, 18 November 1967, Page 4

Marsden School

[Reviewed by 07 Marsden. The History of a New Zealand School for Girls. By Tosti Murray. Published by the Marsden School Old Girls’ Association. Printed at the Caxton Press. A book of this nature could well be one of limited reader interest only—to those who have, in some way, been connected with the school over the best part of a century. The writer, however, has done such a prodigious amount of research, and put her findings together with such skill and charm, that anyone with an interest in the history of New Zealand, particularly from the point of view of social and educational development for Young Ladies, will be well repaid by reading it. When the school was taken over from Miss Baber by the Anglican church in 1920, it was named, appropriately, the Samuel ..Marsden Diocesan School for Girls. The author therefore begins her story with a delightful chapter on the life of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, New Zealand’s first missionary, even giving us his humble letter to “Dear Betsy,” in which he ventures to beg her hand in marriage. "... I persuade myself I should be happy in the enjoyment of you more than any other, yet I do not wish to purchase my own peace at the expense of your comfort, but only if you think you would be happy. Then I cheerfully offer you

my hand and heart (as far as it is proper I should give it to the creature) whenever you please.’’ After much frustration Marsden, an Englishman, came to New Zealand from Australia in 1814 and founded the first school in this country.

Intermingling many touching and amusing anecdotes with facts and figures and extracts from scores of letters written over the years by staff, pupils and friends, the writer gives a living and colourful picture of the life of one of the oldest educational establishments in our land. The old school on Fitzherbert Terrace, so homely and cosy, where emphasis on culture, deportment and social behaviour was of supreme importance, has, of necessity, given way to a fine, modern establishment on a hill in Karori where the young are drilled for passing examinations, and trained to earn their own livings—a policy far removed from that of its Victorian birth, when, in 1878, a skirt could be bought for 3/11, a felt hat for 1/- and strong, grey corsets for 2/9 a pair. The book is generously illustrated with pictures from earliest days to the present Characteristically, however, the writer, a boarder at Marsden in the twenties, and beloved by all who know her, has not included a portrait of herself, which is a pity.