WAIANAKARUA SCHOOL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21924, 8 April 1933, Page 5

WAIANAKARUA SCHOOL

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS PIONEERS' EARLY TASK The jubilee of the Waianakarua School, which falls this year, will be celebrated during the Easter holidays, when there will be a large influx of old pupils to the township amid an atmosphere fragrant with memories of the early school days, and not without its appreciation of the struggles and hardships of the pioneers who blazed the trail for later generations in North Otago. It was during the late sixties and early seventies of last century that six families came to settle on a narrow strip of land on either side of the main road, extending from the Kaka ridges to the beach road, and almost entirely surrounded by the estate owned by the New Zealand and Australian Land Company. North of the Waianakarua River a few houses had already been established, but the advent of these early settlers marked the real beginning of Waianakarua. After erecting their homes, putting boundary fences around their small holdings, and sowing seed on the virgin soil, it is but natural that their first consideration should have been the education of their children, and as the children grew old enough to undertake the walk

they had to travel to the Hampden or Herbert schools, from which they were anything up to four miles distant. There are still residents in the district who have vivid recollections of the time when for five days of the week in midwinter they saw but little daylight at their homes. However, it was not until the early eighties that the old pioneers saw a possible chance of their being able to persuade the education authorities to give them a school in their midst. Even then their chance of success must have seemed very remote, for at that time there could not have been more than a dozen families within a radius of two miles from the site on which they decided the building should be erected and which was situated about halfway between the two schools already mentioned. But these settlers seemed to have lived before .the birth of the inferiority complex. They knew it was their duty to undertake the task, and undertaken it was, and carried through to fruition; but it' was not without u hard fight, some delay, and not a few disappointments that they won through. These pioneers have all passed away without leaving any written record of their activities, so that much of what was done cannot be recorded; but it is

First Chairman of School Committee, who held that office continually for 29 years.

known that those prominently identified with the movement for the erection of a school were James Findlay, James Robertson, Gilbert Green, Angus Ross and James Hutton, Of this little band of workers James Findlay became the leader, and it was he and James Hutton who went to Dunedin to make representations on behalf of the district to the Education Board. The fruit of their labours, and justification for their request, came on June 4, 1883, when the school was opened and the names of 88 children were placed on the school roll. Mr A. W. Tyndall was appointed the first teacher. He was one of several

teachers who received their early, training in Victoria, and then came to New Zealand. He was born at Daisy Hill, Victoria, in 1859, and after a course at the Melbourne Training College hold several positions in Victoria, coining to New Zealand in 1883 in the same vessel as the late Mr G. W. C. Macdonald. After his Waianakarua appointment he occupied the position of head teacher at Even’s Flat, Blue Spur and Middle-

The teacher (Mr William A. Macnab) and pupils.

march, retiring in 1921. Mr Tyndall at present resides in Dunedin, and intends to be present at the jubilee celebrations. A committee was elected at the opening of the school, but, unfortunately, owing to the fact that the minute book has disappeared, it is impossible at present to obtain any authentic evidence as to who were the members. It is known, however, that James Findlay was the first chairman, and that for an unbroken period of 29 years, at the end of which time old age and infirmity necessitated the relinquishment of his public activities, he was never replaced. He cannot be sad to have had any educational advantages, but what learning he had acquired was greatly enhanced by his natural ability. A genial disposition, an optimistic outlook, and a remarkable indifference to criticism were, perhaps, the main characteristics that so eminently fitted him for public life. Before the opening of the Waianakarua School he had served as a member of the Hampden Road Board and School Committee. For nine years he represented the Moeraki riding on the Waitaki County Council, and was for many years associated with the management of the Hampden Presbyterian Church. But it is with his activities in connection with the Waianakarua School that cx-pupils are at present concerned. The old settlers spared neither time nor effort in their desire to set the school and its surroundings in order, and Mr Findlay’s services were outstanding. The schoolroom is the only building in Waianakarua where public meetings may be held, and it was, perhaps, for this reason that he assumed the leadership of every

meeting, no matter for what purpose it was being held. He simply took the chair without invitation or complaint, and no one looked for or wanted anything else, and his kindly manner and jocular remarks never failed the goodwill and respect of his audience. As the school attendance increased Mr Findlay was impressed with the need for another room, and again, with the aid of his fellow members, he applied himself with the same eagerness that characterised his former endeavour. In 1895 the new room was opened, but the school had reached its zenith, for before the end of the century the second room went out of use, and again he felt himself called upon to ask the Education Board to reverse its decision to remove the room. Gn this occasion he and the late Mr David Gibson, went to Dunedin and succeeded in persuading the board to leave the school intact. However, the removal of the room was only delayed, and it was a matter for gratification that the work was not carried out until three years after hie death in 1917. The original buildings were built in 1883 by J. E. Jago, of Mosgiel, at a cost of £475, and the second room was built in 1895 by J. Menzies, of Maheno, at a cost of £125 17s. The teacher’s residence was destroyed by fire in 1905, and a new residence was erected on the same site in 1906 by James Rosy, of Oamaru. In 1917 the old room of the school was removed to Five Forks. The school and teacher’s residence were built on a reserve of ten acres.

Old residents state from memory that the first committee included in the seven members James Findlay (chairman), Angus Ross (secretary), William Gagne, Arthur Peach, James Robertson, and Gilbert Green. The teachers at the school, excluding relieving teachers, were as follows:—1883-1884, Arthur W. Tyndall; 1885-1890, John Dufty Burnard; 1891-1903, Robert Blair; 1895, Robert Blair and Miss Jessie R. Nelson; 18961897, Robert Blair and Miss Jessie I. Given; 1904-1908, Miss Lilian Emma Spraggon; 1909-1914, Mrs Eliza Marshall; 1915-1917, Miss Annie Roberta Cameron; 1918-1919, Miss Elizabeth H. Firth; 1920-1925, Miss Florence A. Heneghan; 1926-1933, William A. M'Nab. On the opening day 38 names were entered on the school roll, and by the end of the year the number had risen to 53. The increase continued until 1895, when the average attendance was 55, and an assistant teacher was appointed. In 1897 the names on the roll numbered 07, but two years later the average attendance had fallen to 39, the school again being placed in the charge of one teacher. Since then there have been lesser increases and decreases, but the trend lias been downwards, and now only 23 children answer the roll call.

An inspection of the roll and of the inspectors’ reports, past and present, discloses interesting figures. The disparity between the average age of the children of any standard in the early days compared with the average age in the same standard to-day, is perhaps greater than it would be under 01 dinary circumstances, due to the fact that children were kept from school much longer than they would havd been if the school had been within reach of the little ones. The child of to-day is going through the standards two years younger than the child of 40 years ago. In a few cases the difference is even greater. Of the 38 children who attended school on the first day, 21 were in the infant classes. The disproportionately low number in the higher standards seems to indicate that the older children remained to finish off in tlie school they had been attending. A history of the school would not bo complete if it omitted to mention the splendid response of the old pupils to the call to arms in 1914. It would be difficult to arrive at figures that would give accurately the proportion of those eligible who offered their all. But a count Ims been made of all who had not attained the age of 45 at the outbreak of the war, and all who had attained the age of 20 at the conclusion, which may be accepted as the highest possible number of fit soldiers, and without making allowance for family or other ties, or for physical disability, the names on the Eoll of Honour hanging in the schoolroom represent 42 per cent. Three old pupils enlisted for the South African War, and eight of those who went to the Great War made the supreme sacrifice. ' The gathering at Waianakarua during the Easter holidays will be looked forward to with the greatest of interest by ex-pupils and ox-teachers, for it will afford all attending an exceptional opportunity of renewing old acquaintanceships that were born under the happy skies of early school days.