A RECOLLECTION.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 760, 22 December 1908, Page 2

A RECOLLECTION.

MR JOHN STEVENS' MEMORY. Speaking at a prize distribution ceremony at the Bulls District High School, Mr John Stevens recalled some incidents of the early days in Rangitikei, "when the pupils were not always children, but adults." All people who knew this district knew there .were some trees on this side of Keillor's gate. That was the situation of the first school in Rangitikei. It was a room in the house of the late Mr Campion, and the teacUier's name was Miss Perrin, who had high (jualificatione. She went out of teaching when she married Mr Cummerfield, and lived in Foxton for some years. A proper school building was then erected about half a mile from where the first schoolhouse was in the early 50's, and the school teacher was Charles Barker, a very •elxoellent mian. but not in good health. He not only assisted with school building, but he made bricks, wihh his (Mr Stevens') assi&tanee, to build the chimney. Then after Mr Job Freeth, a most highly educated gentleman, came and taught school for a time and the was succeeded by aMr McLenaghan, and so began school teaching in Bulls. He mentioned Mr A. D. Thomson, S.M., of Palmerston North, educated at Bulls and educated as a solicitor at Wancanui, as an example to be followed by the pupils.