FIFTY YEARS PASS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 92, 20 March 1939, Page 9

FIFTY YEARS PASS

FITZHERBERT EAST SCHOOL.

INCIDENTS RECALLED

Out under a star-sprinkled but moonless sky in 1889 might have been heard the distant strains of a merry waltz, the fast- whirling music of the Lancers, the rhythmic tunc of a Berlin polka, or the stately measure of a quadrille at Pratt’s woolshed, near the junction of the Tiritea and Fitzherbert East roads. By buggy or trap children accompanied their parents to tlio barn dances of those days and watched, beneath the light of hurricane lamps, their elders enjoying the social life of the district until all were once more jogging or bumping homewards over narrow cart tracks, humming the latest tune of accordion and fiddle. Those were the days of bustles and crinolines, when a sparsely populated settlement, Eitzhorbert East, marked only by a few clearings in dense bush extending down from the ridge-lines of the Tararuas to the banks of the Manawatu River, was in its infancy. It is now known as the postal district of Aokautere.

Then, except for the dances, the newly-built school was the centre of social life, and once a month pioneers, with their families, also gathered there in humility for combined worship. They were hard-working and God-fearing, 7>ut enjoyed life. Time flees quickly, and to-morrow it will be fifty years since the school, in which over 700 children of the district received their first education was established. True, the school has not changed greatly. It was last added to at least twenty years ago, and to-day has hut two rooms and a. porch, hut if its walls could speak what an interesting kale they could tell ! THE FIRST PUPILS.

There were admitted as pupils on March 21, 1889, Sydney Smith, Charlotte Smith, Hooper Smith, Lex Walker, Harry Gawith, Herbert Gawith, Ethel Gawith, James Gawith, Harold Christensen, Amelia Christensen, Laura Christensen, John Christensen, Isabel Standen, Flora Standen, Mabel Standen, Herbert Standen, Ernest •Stace, Minnie Stnco. Cicly Alderson, Ethel Stace, Phil brick Smith, Sarah Ann Johnstone, John Waldegrave, Norman Waldegrave, Lucy Howes, Joseph Gawith and Ida Standen. Many of them -were children who had watched at the barn dances. To-day more than a, few have passed on, and most of them are scattered far and wide. Indeed, none of the original scholars of that day live in the district. but their addresses are being seemed and thev are being summoned to a reunion at jubilee celebrations to be held in May, this being considered the most suitable time to bring them together in the little settlement. Most of the early pupils have been successful iu their chosen walks of life. One of them is among the leading city dentists of Auckland. Another is a wellknown pastorslist with a big station on the East Coast. Later pupils have followed their example. One is iu Buenos Aires and another is a missionary in New Guinea, while a former teacher is now domiciled in India. From that first small schoolroom they have gone out wide into the world. Tlio little school played its part, too. in the theatre of the World War. A gate at the entrance to the grounds marks its simple memorial to nine former pupils who made the supreme sacrifice. They were ( ptain G. Daniell, M.C., Private D. Bruce, Trooper A. H. Bryant, Driver R. B. Dilks, Private T. W. Gledhill, Gunner J. Krivan, Rifleman G. E. Lancaster. Private R. Stewart and Gunner G. Tate.

Alacrocarpa trees planted by early pupils are still standing, but some of them have been destroyed. To-day there are about 40 pupils in all stages of primary education from primers to Form II and, owing to their distance from the manual centre in Palmerston North, they receive instruction in woodwork basketwork, eanework or

sewing at the school building, where Mr L. Craven has been head teacher for the past six years. Airs D. N. Harrison is his assistant. The school district is a large one, and some of its pupils travel as far as seven miles lo attend. Some come by pony, some by bicycle, some on foot and others board in Aokautere. Though steps are being taken to close the Tiritea School under the consolidation policy and to transfer its pupils to the College Street School, no such action is con temple ted for Fitzherbert East, which draws its pupils from the top of Pahiatua Hill Road, the top of Forest Hill Road, as far eastward as Siberia, near the Ashhurst end of the Manawatu Gorge, and as far westward as the Tiritea Road.

The present school committee consists of Aressrs N. Chowen (chairman), A. K. Groves (secretary), J. Peterson, H. Roberston and A. Ferguson. The personnel of the jubilee committee is Alcssrs A. Ferguson (chairman), T. A. Hopcroft (secretary), and L. Craven (treasurer), with most of the district residents co-opted. Most- of the pupils of the school learned to swim in a creek at the back of the building until a concrete retaining wall holding a dam there was swept aw'av in 1924. Some of the early pupils hardly came under the classification of “Ikjvs.” They were well past that stage, and verging on manhood, but they had to learn.

Daughter of Mr S. R. Lancaster, former well-known settler of the di.s trict on the Riverslea property, ami past-president of the Manawatu am West Coast A. and P. Association Mrs W. Anderson, who resides adja cent to the school, is Iwth the old os .pupil and oldest resident now in th district where, in May next, she wil have lived for fifty years. Mr T, Lancaster, one of her brothers, who i on the lecturing staff of the Aucklam University College, received his earl education at the school. Mrs Anderson remembers the day when her father’s property had ; magnificent forest of matai and to tara. from which was cut the timl>e for the first (now' demolished) Fitzlior hert bridge. Forty-four years ago tin Pahintua Road showed up whitely lik< a sear on the green slopes of the hill: above Aokautere. Some of the ok forest giants still stand erect, black cued and branchless, monuments o their former grandeur. There wen clumps of manuka scrub, and a plen tifill growth of cabbage trees indicated a good soil. From the Riverslea property the journey to town was shortened by .1 route direct across the Manawatu River in a dug-out canoe of totara, the landing being made at the end of Rahiatita Street, from which point the settlers from over the river walked into Palmerston North. Nearly all the year round the Manawatu River was then fordable bv traps or drays, but now it lias confined its course, except in times of flood, to a deeper and narrower channel. The baker, it is recalled. left the bread on the Hokowliitu bank to be collected. Times liave changed since the Riverslea orchard wa.s renowned for auples of such varictv as Irish Peach, Romanitv, the dark-red Hoover, the shvbenring Ribston pippin and the Washington. These are hardly heard- of nowadays. The plentiful pastures which once carried sheen flocks of Leicester and Shropshire Down strain are just as rich and generous, however.

Riverslea butter, pail-set, always excelled that from the separator, and luscious grapes, big green figs, walnuts and hazel-nuts grew' in abundance. Immediately the bush was cleared, potatoes were sow'.n to break up the soil in readiness for pasture sowing. Those are days which are fondly remembered by some of the residents.