OLD-ORDER CHANGETH

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 135, 4 December 1935, Page 13

OLD- ORDER CHANGETH

CLYDE QUAY SCHOOL

FINE CAREER CLOSES

Had not fate decreed otherwise, the Clyde : Quay School would, in four years| time have been celebrating • the jubilee' of its foundation in 1889. But the city's progress and expansion has brought it about that the site upon which the school stands can be more advantageously utilised for fire-fight-ing purposes than for the instruction of the rising generation. To find a fresh site for a school is easier than to find a suitable site for a central fire brigade station. Hence it comes about that on December s 20. next pupils will assemble in the school buildings for the last time. On.the following day expupils intend to hold a social gathering at their old school, and the bell which has continuously for 46 years marked the passage of the school year by its clanging will be ceremoniously dismantled. The Clyde Quay School will then, officially, cease to exist, but it will live long in the memories and hearts of many thousands of ex-pupils. Clyde, Quay School consists of two buildings. The first was erected in' 1888 at a cost of £2111 and opened at the beginning of the following year. To erect such a building today would cost at least twice that sum, in the opinion of an expert builder. The school was popular at the outset, for the district was rapidly developing in the direction of Roseneath and the Slopes of Mount Victoria. The modern generation probably has but meagre ideas as to what Wellington was like in the days when the Clyde Quay School . was -first opened. At that time half of Te Aro fiat and practically all Courtenay Place were residerftial areas, and many children attended the school from Vivian, Taranaki, and Grainger Streets. It soon became necessary to add: to the school and an infant department was erected in 1890. Subsequently in 1923 the nucleus of a new school was erected in Elizabeth Street. To this the infant department was transferred, the old infant school then being devoted to special classes for retardate pupils. The original building had eight classrooms, the first addition providing four more rooms and the Elizabeth Street School a similar number. AN ENVIABLE RECORD. Clyde Quay School cannot be thought of. apart from its. original headmaster, Mr. W. T. Grundy, M.A., who took charge from the school's inception. He remained headmaster for twenty-nine .years until he retired from the teaching service. His personality endeared him to all the pupils who passed through his hands, and Mr. Grundy may be-said:literally to have made the Clyde Quay School. Subsequent headmasters were Messrs. W H L. Foster, T. Irvine/-M. J. O'Connor,and J. J. Rogers, the last-named being the present head.. . . .

In all branches of .sport the Clyde .Quay School has more than held its own against rivals-and has produced many champion teams and athletes.' When the call came in the years 1914----19J8 its ex-pupils were not found wanting, and the Roll .of Honour shows what heavy toll was taken of them. A whole column might be filled with the names of ex-scholars who have made their mark in, the world or who hold at the present day prominent places-in the city's life. A live association .of ex-pupils will see to it that although after this year the old Clyde Quay School will cease to exist, its memory; will be kept green. ■