THE OTAGO GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3488, 18 January 1921, Page 37

THE OTAGO GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL.

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH. (Specially written for the Otago Daily Times.) Fifty years bulk largely in the life of an individual; in the life of a people it is but yesterday when it is past. Yet probably no half-century in the history of the British people has Drought such changes in national, family, and individual life as have taken place in the years which have intervened between 1871 and 1921. This may seem a rash statement to make, for human nature remains much the same down the ages. Yet a little consideration shows that it is true, and the cause lies in the remarkable developments in physical science which have taken place in these years. These have changed our methods of communication, of movement, of business, of amusement —indeed, of our national, family, and individual life generally, to an extent never before effected in a similar period of time. Education has become more general but shallower, amusement has become to a large extent the serious business of life; methods of travel have become enormously and increasingly rapid. The whole outlook has changed. Things which are commonplaces to-day did not exist then. There was no railway in Otago; communication with the country was by coach or buggy. There were no trams, no motor cars, motor cycles, or bicycles, no motor launches; there were not even asphalt paths to walk on. There were no telephones, no electric appliances ' like heaters or irons, no gasstoves or cookers, no typewriters, gramophones or office appliances for rapid despatch of correspondence. Tinned foods were not in common use as they are today : even on board immigrant ships they were doled out as luxuries.

In recording the history of the Girls’ High School, it is important to consider how these facts affected those who were the first pupils. Apart from those country girls who boarded in town, tho rest of them walked to school from North-East Valley, Pelichet Bay, Maori Ilill, Halfway Bush. Roslyn. Mornington, Caversham. and Anderson’s Bay, or nearer parts of the district, bringing their lunch with them. Though the athletio girl we know now was unknown then, for lawn tennis had not been invented, and tho hockey damsel liad not emerged, the lasses of 1871 could walk, and did it to an extent that would be thought unbearable now. When they got home in the late afternoon there was not much inducement to go out again, unless to some quiet; domestic entertainment. There were no picture theatres to lure them out at nights, and the continual run of evening meetings which mar so much of our social and church life, were almost unknown. Girls stayed more at home; they cultivated the domestic arts, and the average home was therefore much more attractive than it is to day. For one thing, they never went out of nights unaccompanied. Fathers and mothers would not have heard of their daughters running out after dark alone. The freedom which they now enjoy v ould have shocked their grandmothers. In this respect the change is in many ways for the better; but with increased freedom has come a loss of the respect and consideration which girls enjoyed in the earlier days. There is not much chivalry shown to-day by the average boy to the average girl. Again cloth mills, clothing factories, the numerous other trades employing girls and women, had scarcely come into existence in New Zealand ; all these things which draw girls and women out of their homes were either unknown or were in their infancy, and the office girl was non-existent. Consequently in all respectable houses there was much domestic training, and there was little need of Plunket societies to teach young women how to nurse their babies, nor of domestic economy schools. These things are the outcome of the modern conditions which are so destructive of home life. I cannot carry this line of comparison too far, but what has been noted will serve to show some of the differences which conditioned the lives of the girls of 1871. February 6, 1871, was a very important day to the eighty girls who mustered at 9 in the morning at the new Girls’ Provincial School, as it was then called, in Dowling street, to he marshalled into classes. It was probably a hot day with dry and dusty roads—history narrateth not—but outside of their own families and a few enthusiastic friends there was not verv much public invest. shown in the opening of the school. I ho fact is a genera! election was on, and there was also a keen contest for tho •Superintendency of Otago between Mr .Tas Mucandrew and Mr Donald Reid. Two nays before the opening an examination of prospective pupils had been held by Mrs Burn (the lady principal). Miss M'Dougall (principal assistant), and Mr John Hislop (•secretary for Education). The qualifications demanded were. “ Ability to read an ordinary narrative with fluency to write from dictation with tolerabel correctness, and to work with accuraey questions in the four simple rules of arithmetic. No pupil was to he admitted under nine years of age. It does not seem a very severe test, luit it, must be remembered that several of the candidates were from back-block districts, where the means of getting anv education were verv limited. Of tho 88 who presented themselves. 14 failed to pass the test. Let us hope they qualified soon after to enter the portals of the new hall of learning. It is often a very difficult matter to find with whom any idea which has developed ultimately into definite action originated. Frequently the idea is more or less common to many minds, though one supplies the motive power to start, the action.* Tithe case of the Girls’ High School there seems little doubt that the moving spirit was Miss Dalrymple, of Port Chalmers, a lady who was deeply interested in the education of women and rirls, and who, in nil the steps which culminated in the establishnxnt of tho school, was, in the phrase of the Rev. Mr (afterwards Dr) I). M. •Stuart, of Knox Church “a power behind the throne.” She broached the subject to Major (afterwards Sir John) Richardson, and the Rev. IVrn Bannerman, who was a neighbour of that gentleman in tho J India district, stated that “as early as 1863 the formation of such an institution formed a frequent topic of conversation between them, and long before the matter was mooted in the Provincial Council there had been much communication between the Major and Miss Dalrymple on the subject.” In the following year (1864) Miss

Dalrymple got a number of leading citizens of Dunedin interested in her scheme including the Rev. Mr Stuart, Messrs Macandrew (Superintendent of the Province), J. L. Gillies, Jas. Fulton, and W. H. Reynolds. A strong ladies’ committee was also formed, consisting of Mesdames Ashcroft, Beetham, E. B. Cargill, Copland, Every, Glasgow, Holmes, J. R. Jones, Johnstone, R. B. Martin, Pillans, Reynolds, Spooner, Stanford, Williams, and Nugent Wood, with Miss Dalrymple as hon. secretary. It is interesting to know that two of * these ladies, who were very active members of tho committee, Mrs Johnstone, of Port Chalmers, and Mrs W. H. Reynolds, are still with us, and in enjoyment of good health. Miss Dalrymple again put herself into communication with Major Richardson, who was then member for Clutha in the Provincial Council, this time in an official capacity, and enlisted his assistance in the scheme.

Tho writer traced the progress of the movement in the Provincial Council. Eventually it mas decided t-o adopt the recommendation of a commission to repair and extend tho High School building in Dowling another site, accommodation was provided under the same roof for a girls’ as well as street, and by the erection of a rectory on a boys’ high school. The Education Board on June 9, 1870, elected, out of 28 candidates for the office of lay principal, Mrs Margaret Gordon Burn, who for several years had conducted a ladies’ college at Geelong, with great acceptance and success.

As a/ready recorded tile school was opened on February 6, 1871, with the following staff: —Mrs M. G. Burn and Miss M’Dougall, followed later by Mrs Rhind. Miss E. M. Huie and Miss H. Bell were music teachers.

At the very outset Mrs Burn gained the confidence of all those responsible for the educational advancement of the province. She also at once secured the respect of her pupils, and the approbation of the parents, 6o that by tli e close of the first year the number of pupils enrolled had risen from 80 to 149. To understand the character of the school and of its teaching, a sketch—necessarily very imperfect—of the lady principal and some of her pupils, taking during the first years after its establishment. may be here attempted. Mrs Burn was the eldest daughter of Alexander Huie. accountant, of Edinburgh, where she was born in 1825. She was educated principally at home, till she joined the senior classes of the Circus Place School, under Dr Reid, then one of the most famous seminaries in Scotland. After the father’s death the family emigrated to Australia in 1852, settling in Geelong, where she _ opened a private school, which was carried on successfully till her marriage in 1857 to Mr Andrew Burn. He was then a teacher in Soots College, Melbourne, and later became head of the Presbyterian Church School at Geelong. In 1864 the state of Mi* Burn’s health necessitated a voyage to the Old Country, and Mrs Burn began and carried on successfully a girls’ school on the lines of_ her old Edinburgh school. In 1870, hearing of the proposed establishment of a girls’ hUh school in Dunedin, she applied for and obtained the position of principal. Mrs Burn took her duties very seriously, and with a strong sense of responsibility. Very erect and almost severely stiff in carriage, somewhat prim and reserved at first, she was an excellent, but most just disciplinarian. She always scorned an easy chair, and sat upright as so many of the older Edinburgh-trained ladies did. She commanded the respect of all: she also gained the affection of he- pupils, for there was no favouritism in her treatment of them, beyond being naturally most drawn to those who were most keen to study and most ready to fall in with her methods. She was a very clear, luminous teacher—the faculty runs in the family—a warm friend," a wise counsellor. _ She won and held the esteem of a large circle of pupils who had begun by respecting and somewhat dreading her, but who ended by being whole-hearted admirers.

' u interesting fact worth remembering, a relic of old Scotch ways and days, is that school was opened every morning by the principal reading- a portion of the Bible, and repeating the Lord’s Prayer. The good custom has been kept up. The closing ceremony of the first session was held in the hall of the Boys* High School on the evening of December 20, 1871, and was presided over by the Hon. W. H. Reynolds, who was one of those most intimately connected with the foundation of the school The gathering was opened by the offering of prayer by the Rev. W. Will, of East Taieri. The chairman stated that the school opened with 80 pupils, and that 130 names were on *the roll at the close. The prize-giving was interspersed by a somewhat ambitious programme of vocal and instrumental music One may be excused for giving the chief prize-takers for the first year. Miss Flora Muir was dux of the school, being first in modern history, botany and physiology, French, German, arithmetic, geography (equal with Isabela Shand), chronology and writing (equal in both subjects with Margaret Collinson); Agnes Allan, first in elementary _ science; Margaret Sorley, m Scripture history: Janet MTndoe, in mapping ; Isabella Miller, in needlework; and Agnes Mackey, in class work. Second class: Annie M’Neil. first in/ history and geography, and equal with Mary Duff in grammar and composition; Annie Cairns, in geography; and Helen Cairns, in arithmetic. Lower Room, First Division: Anna Logan, first in English, elasswork, geography. grammar, and composition (equal with Elizabeth Sorley), and needlework (equal with Cecilia Gow and Mary Galloway); Constance Carnegie, in history; Miriam Levy, in Scripture; Charlotte Ooote, in writing; Elizabeth Sorley, in French; and Annie Turnbull and Jessie Cameron, in arithmetic. In the second division Edith Little, first in English, arithmetp, Scripture, geography, grammar and composition, and French (equal in both with Sarah Smith); Jessie Oassels, in history : Cora Langwill, in writing; and Jane Findlay, in needlework. Emma Allan and Emmeline Langwill were first in music. It is interesting to follow the careers of a few of the first-year pupils: The first name on the school roll was that, of Emma Allan, eldest daughter of James Allan, of Hopehill. East Taieri. She afterwards married Mr Geo. Al. Thomson. Tier second sou is Dr J. Allan Thomson, Director of the Dominion Museum, who was.the first Rhodes Scholar from Now Zealand. Her youngest son, John, died in France in 1918, after four years and a-half of strenuous service with tho New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Mrs Thomson died in 1894. Mary Ilislop, daughter of Mr Jno. TTislop, Secretary to the Education Board, re

mained for two years in the school. Later on she married Dr Hugh Macdonald, of Lyttelton, where she resided for several years. Since her husband’s death, in 1885, she has resided chiefly in Dunedin, and is still with us. Isabella J Ilislop, her younger sister, was joint dux of the school (with Annie Burn) in 1875. She married Mr Hare, of Christchurch, and died in 1891. Annie M. Burn, only daughter of the lady principal, was joint dux of the school (with Miss Ilislop) in 1875. Sbe joined the staff of the school in 1877, and remained on it till 1882, when she married Mr R, S. Allan. Sh© was, like all her family, an able teacher. Her two sons served right through the war, the younger. Lieutenant Gordon Allan, being several times severely wounded. Her elder daughter, Pearl (Sirs A. Allan) is a missionary in Bogota (Colombia), and her second, Miss Doris Allan, is head mistress in the Technical College, Christchurch. Mrs R. S. Allan is still with us, and has been an active worker in the present jubilee celebration. Isabella Shand was dux of the school in 1872. She resided in Moray place, taking an interest in the school and the Old Girls’ Club till her death a few years ago. Eleanor Reynolds, eldest daughter of the Hon. W 11. Reynolds, was a pupil for four years. Later on she married Mr G. L. Denniston, and died in 1912 She took a great deal of interest in educational matters .especially in connection with the Technical School. Three of her sons served throughout the great war, one of them—Tom—making the supreme sacrifice. Edith Little, daughter of Mr Abraham Little, was a distinguished pupil for many years. In 1881 she joined the staff of the school, retiring from the position a few years ago, carrying with her the esteem and affection of her colleagues and pupils. She is still with us. but has resided in Wellington -since her retirement from professional work. Georgina Tewsley, second daughter of Mr Henry Tewsley, of Sargood, Son, and Ewen, was dux of the school in 1873. Apart from her scholastic ability, she was one of the most able pianists the school has ever produced. She married Herr Benno Scherek, the well-known impresario, and has resided in Melbourne since. Members of hor family arc well known as musicians in Dunedin. Anna Logan, eldest daughter of Mr John Logan, Provincial Treasurer, was a pupil from 1871 to 1874. After her marriage with Mr (afterwards Sir Robert) Stout, at one time Prime Minister of New Zealand, and since Chief Justice of the dominion, she has chiefly resided in Wellington. Her earnest advocacy of the cause of the women of the dominion has made Lady Stout’s name a household word. She has certainly earned the esteem avi-d gratitude of all women, and it is matter for general rejoicing that she is in the enjoyment of excellent health and vigour. Three of her sons served through the war. Flora Muir was the first dux of the Otago Girls’ High School; her excellent recoi*d has already been given. In 1879 she married Mr H. Fitzherbert, and has resided since in the North Island. Louisa Will, only daughter of the Rev. Wm. Will, of East Taieri. later graduated M. at Canterbury College, and had a distinguished career as a teacher. She died some years ago. During 1872 48 new pupils were enrolled in the school, while 47 appear to have left at the end of the preceding year, but it has been very difficult to ascertain the exact numbers, as no one seems to have thought it worth while to keep any of the early documents. Among those who entered during this year may be specially mentioned Elizabeth Forrest Grant, who became a member of the staff in 1883, till her retirement in 1889, when she married Mr Malcolm Ross, the well-known correspondent. Mrs Ross is herself well known as an authoress, and as a most competent presswoman. Her only son Noel, after giving promise of a brilliant career, died in London from the effects of his war service.