Training centre to be called Hogben House

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32589, 24 April 1971, Page 18

Training centre to be called Hogben House

A residential in-service training centre for teachers, the first in the South Island, to be set up at the former Rochester Hall at 15 Bealey Avenue, would be called Hogben House, said the Minister of Education (Mr Taiboys) yesterday.

Mr Taiboys made this announcement at a meeting of the North Canterbury Headmasters’ Association held at the Kirkwood Intermediate School.

Hogben House was being established at an opportune time and would fill an important need at the time of great educational expansion, said Mr Taiboys. “George Hogben, after whom the house will be named, was prominent in the field of education at the turn of the century, and was a man far ahead of his time in educational developments, and so 1 feel Hogben House has been well named,” Mr Taiboys said. In 1881, Hogben came to New Zealand as second master at the Christchurch Boys' High School,’ where he pioneered development in sport and cultural activities, and in 1885 was appointed Inspector of Schools in Canterbury. After being president of the North Canterbury Educational Institute in 1886-87, Hogben became rector of the Timaru High School in 1998, which under his direction, became the first school in New Zealand to introduce a course suited to the needs of pupils not proceeding to unvirsity.

Hogben was transferred to Wellington in 1899, where he was appointed Inspector-Gen-eral of Schools. In close partnership with the then Prime Minister and Minister of Education, R. J. Seddon. Hogben was responsible for the introduction of the free-place system in secondary schools, which led to a tremendous expansion in secondary education.

The form of teacher training, whereby there was a

teachers’ college in each of the four main centres of New Zealand, was also Hogben’s idea—and he was instrumental in the'eestablishment of technical and district high schools.

Hogben retired in 1915, soon after he had been made the first Director-General of Education having in 1914 drawn up the Education Act of that year. The in-service teachertraining centre would be the second in New Zealand to provide national courses for teachers, said the Regional Superintendent of the Department of Education (Mr H. M. McMillan). Regional courses for southern and central New Zealand would also be held at the centre, he said. “This will bring a lot. of people to Christchurch, both teacher-trainees and lecturers, who would not normally come here at all,” Mr McMillan said.