MAKERS OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20332, 13 August 1929, Page 6

MAKERS OF AUCKLAND.

HIGHER EDUCATION.

CHURCHES EARLY AT WORK.

THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

. AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. BY F.W.W. No. XXIX. Secondary education in Auckland m.iy be said to have dated from Hi'! very beginnings of settlement - from tho foundation of St. John's Cnilege by Bishop Schvyn in. 1842, ii'i' whilo it was primarily meant to bo a theological seminary, it provided also for general education. As early as 1846 there \wro 33 pakeha boys on its roll, in addili"n to its Maori scholars. On its early .'/litft were tho Rev. C. J. Abraham, afterwards bishop of Wellington, and tho He v. J. F. Lloyd, who-succeeded tho Rov. ■l. F. Churton, first vicar of St. Paul's, ou liis 'death. Tho distanco of the college from the city, howevor, and the absence of easy means of communication, proventod it being largely used. The Anglican Church also established tho next secondary institution, in 1855, when the bishop Drought from England tho Rov. Dr. Kinder, to tako chargo of tho grammar school which ho had projected, and which was opened in Karangahape Road before it found its final home at Parnell. This Parnell Grammar School became tho alma mater of many of tho Auckland business and professional men of the generation now passing away. After filling tho position of head of tho grammar school until 1872, Dr. Kinder was appointed to tho chargo of St. John's College, on its reopening after having been closed for three years. Tho kindly doctor was chaplain to tho Imperial troops when wo had soldiers quartered in the Albert Barracks, and ho was for five years assistant minister of St. Barnabas' Church when it was at Parnell, under Archdeacon Kissling, for three years minister of St. Mark's, Remuera, and for seven years minister of St. Andrew's, Epsom. Wesleyan Activities. Another religious body, tho Wesleyan, was early in the secondary school field. It had an able and energetic worker in the Rev. Walter Lawry, tho general ) superintendent of its missions, who, besides tho theological college at Three Kings, which dated from 1848, set about { tho foundation of a secondary school in the city. His scheme in this respect developed into the Wesley College in Upper Queen Streot, which the Rev. J. H. Fletcher came from England to conduct. Under Mr. Fletcher, and afterwards his brothers, Messrs. William and John | Fletcher, the institution was carried on from 1855 to 1867, when the Wesleyan effort ceased. Then the college building was leased by the Rev. Dr. Kidd, who conducted in it a collegiate school for about two years. Later again, it became the first Auckland Girls' High School under Mr. Neil neath, and still later the Prince Albert College, and again Queen's College. Meanwhile, from 1863, Mr. Farquhar ■ Macrae had been conducting an establishment on high school lines, next to St. Andrew's, Symonds Street, originally as / a Presbyterian institution, known as the Auckland High School. It was from tho schools of Dr. Kidd and Mr. Macrae that j the Auckland Grammar School was . ovolved. The history of thi3 institution has been told in the Hebald in connection with last week's diamond jubileo celebration. Higher Education of Girls. // Meanwhile the Auckland Girls' Grammar School had developed from the girls' college of Mr. Heath already men- . tioned, which became united to tho Auckland Grammar School, in Symonds . Street, and there remained until a separate institution was provided in Howe Street in 1909. Its heads have been Miss ; Whitelaw, Miss Butler, Miss Picken, and Mis 3 Johnson, and from it has branched the Epsom Grammar School. Other leading girls' schools of the secondary type wero one conducted in the very early day 3 ; by Mrs. Lewis in Shortland Street, about (ho present sito of the National Bank, and those of Mrs. Shayle-George, Mrs. ,Moore-Joncs and Mrs. Young and also the " Melmerly" Collegiate School established on Anglican lines in 1877 by Mrs. Clayton. King's College, Auckland's other great secondary foundation, came into being in ISilfi, in the first place as a private , m liool with Mr. Graham Bruce as it 3 principal, and carried on at The Tower, fnrniPrly tho homo of the late Mr. J. Mrf7„h Clark. In later years it passed mirier the management of an institution / for med among the parents of the pupils, I>v whom tho fine suito of buildings in v hich it is now housed at -Middlemore was built. Tho University College. University education wa3 late in coming to Auckland —indeed, to tho North Island at all, for Wellington attained it still later—largely owing to the fact that in the early days of its existenco the seti tiers of Auckland were too much occupied >n defending their homes against tho inland Maoris to bo able to devoto much consideration to questions of culture. Otago, settled and developed under peaceful conditions, had its university college—at first, an independent provincial college—from 1871, and Canterbury followed Hiit in 1875 It was not until 1882 that Parliament, following upon tho recommendation* of a Royal Commission of . 1878. ov&r which Sir Maurice O'Rorke presided, passed the Act which estabtl.p Auckland college, and endowed ft with a statutory .grant of £4OOO a year. Up to this stage tocal aspirants to tho professional }ifo had been .obliged to study 'privately, or olorf betako themselves to one of the Southern or the Australian homes of learning. In these circumstances it has always been a matter of pride* to.''' Aucklanders that one of thuir number*, Miss Kate daughter- of the B«v. R. S. Edger—now Mrs. W. A. Evans. of Wellington, and herself a distinguished educator of girls—as tho result of "private tuition became the first woman in the British Empire to receive a university degree, the New Zealand University, when constituted, having given a lead _to the rest of tho British world in putting the fair sex on an equality with men in respect to academic qualifications. Miss hdger was at one timo principal of tho Nelson Girls' College. How Early Students Worked. Auckland students carriod on their work for many years under drawbacks, chiefly in tho matter of housing. When the college was opened in May, 1883, its first home was in the old Parliament 3uildings at the corner of Eden Street and Parliament Street, behind the Supreme Court, which wero demolished in 1918, when Anzac Avenue was being formed Next the college was accommodated as regards its arts, law, and commerce departments, in the old Grammar JSchool building in Symonds Street, and in the science divisions in an enlargenent ol the old Choral Hall in the same thoroughfare, where they still are. Ihe council of the University College in its first year, 1884, consisted of Sir Maurice O'Rorke, chairman, tho Rev. David Bruce. Dr. John Logan Campbell, Bishop Cowie Mr Justice Gillies, Colonel T. M Haultain Mr. R. Hobbs, as chair-" man o, the Education Board, tho Rev. X W C pyv i m dg6 G " Seth -Smith, Mr. W. R. Wad del. as Mayor of Auckland and Mr. Edwin Hesketh. The -original staff of the college comprised Professors i. G. Tucker (classics W Steadman Aldis (mathematics,, t D Brown (chemistry and ex. peri mental physics), and A P w Thomas (natural science), with Mr H G* Smith, tben nistrict Judge, as lecturer oh law. In 886 Dr. II M. Posnett took Ar 6 tefK r rofessor Tucker, and Mr. J Q. Treyi thick was appointed instructor! in drawing to the school of applied science. ) do be continued daily,) '