THROUGH THE YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1935, Page 9

THROUGH THE YEARS

PROGRESS OF THE SCHOOL FIRST PERIOD UNEVENTFUL. .GROWTH IN NEW CENTURY. The Hon. T. Kelly, who had sponsored the New Plymouth High . Schools Act in the House of Representatives in 1878, was , strongly in favour of a department for girls 'being set up. After considerable agitation his object was achieved and the first girls were enrolled in - 1885. To the small group, Mr. Pridham was like the father of a family and gentle Miss Ramsay was a lovable personality. When Miss Montgomery, afterwards Mrs. Baker-Gabb; succeeded her there was little change, but the girls were now working • with ■ the boys and working hard. Victoria scholarships, since abolished, .were awarded. in the beginning, of the 1 century to Elsie Bollinger and Olive Haddrell. A major scholastic honour fell to the school ,in 1909 when it entered its /rst , pupil for a Taranaki scholarship. The ( candidate, Mary C. Terry, was successful and the .following ■ year Mary F. Dowling obtained the same award. Mary Terry when she’ left school took her Master of Science degree at Victoria College and Mary Dowling studied medicine. She was a brilliant student and on completing her course was awardea a travelling research scholarship. She returned to New Zealand and died while still a young woman in 1918, fighting the influenza epidemic at Hawera. - During an unsettled existence in the four years after the girls left the. boys school in 1912, the girls, about 70 in number, managed to do a great deal of work and the staff showed a splendid resolution in facing their difficulties. The examination results produced the annual crop ■of four to six passes in matriculation and seyeral education board scholarships. In 1912 there were one' junior and four senior awards. At this time the bld girls’ association

began to show the value it was going to be to the school. In his report for the year Mr. W. H. Moyes referred appreciatively to- the part taken by old pupils and especially to the old girls who had made it possible to publish a school magazine twice a year.

Miss Grant, who served her first year as headmistress in charge of “Devon House,” mentioned at the breaking-up ceremony of the school in 1913 the disadvantages of working without proper school buildings. “We must realise, however,” she said, “that the best ?s being done for us that is possible under the circumstances, and, judging from

3qme comments that I have heard, it is much better than some people appear to think.. The building we 'are in is better adapted to the purpose of a school, than anyone who has not seen it would think possible. It is certainly'not unhealthy for I have never known the girls more free from sickness.” . ,

By the time Miss Grant left in 1914 the Government had promised £4OOO for building a girls’ school. But action was delayed and Miss Hodges, the new principal, was called upon to face on her arrival the most trying year the school has known, before or since; yet her short period of authority' saw the school turn definitely along the high road of progress. It spent only a few weeks in the electric .power station but by that time the noise obviously made any contempla-

tion of work farcical. Her pupils moved to the racecourse, Miss Hodges represented to the board of governors the urgent necessity of building a new school

without delay and by. the end of the next year her fortitude and dogged perseverance : n calling together and enlisting the sympathy of parents was rewarded, though at great personal cost. When at last over 100 girls entered the new school in 1916 they had a new .headmistress, Miss T. R. Barr. Fourteen boarders took up quarters at Strandon. Scholastically the school throve under Miss Barr. She established the postmatriculation course as a permanent section and Leila Hurle justified the move by obtaining a Taranaki scholarship in 1918 and a junior university scholarship in 1919. She also won the Earl of Meath’s, cup for an essay competition open to all secondary schools in the British Empire and only once before awarded to a New Zealander. Leila Hurle had an excellent record at -school where she had enrolled under Miss Hodges at about the same time as another fine scholar/Airini Pope, who, when she left and went' to the university, was awarded a Sarah Ann Rhodes Scholarship. Another notable pupil of the period was Peggy Brown, who before her marriage was head dietician in one of the largest hospitals in New York. It was a prosperous school with a steadily increasing roll that Miss McIntosh took over in 1921. Its quota of examination passes included a fairly regular dozen matriculations, and four to six education board scholarships. Two Taranaki scholars, Winifred Downes and Eileen Ballantyne, left in 1920. With Miss Mclntosh the old girls began the drive for a better boarding accommodation, while the school was occupied in consolidating its successes. Annis Wilson won a University National Scholarship in 1921 and Talanaki scholarships were awarded in 1922 to Mary Downes, Helen Thomson and • ’Evelyn White and in 1923 to May McLeod. In the final term of the latter year a separate school for the preparatory classes was built. In 1924 the percentage of matriculation passes rose suddenly, 18 .being gained. ■■ •< The epidemic of infantile paralysis Which broke out in 1925 delayed school work considerably, but the new principal, Miss D. N. Allan lost no time in settling down when the school finally opened on April 15. Her arrival was the signal for 10 years of continuous change and improvement. The roll number rose from 174 to 324 so that in 1926 one form spent an airy existence at the end of the assembly hall. A new red-brick block of class-rooms in 1927 and Scotlands, the consummation of the old girls’ efforts, in 1928 were the chief adaptations to a growing roll. In 1932 the maintenance of a preparatory department was so obviously uneconomic that it was closed and well-equipped music rooms in the building showed the place which music was taking in the life of the school. Commensurate with progress in bricks and mortar, reorganisation of sport was going on. With the appointment of a qualified games’ mistress in 1929 hockey was abolished and basketball took its place, the school figuring prominently in Taranaki association games. Tennis and cricket benefited from increased facilities and in 1932 when, after a long succession of gala days and concerts, the swimming baths were opened school sports made great strides. On the scholastic side the last 10 years of its life have been brilliant ones for the high school. The percentage of .all examination passes soared and 14 Taranaki scholarships were awarded during the -decade. In 1928 Marion Steven, an exceptional pupil, obtained a Junior University Scholarship and Mollie Allen qualified for a Lissie Rathbone Scholarship, afterwards taking -a senior scholarship in zoology at the university. The peak years were in 1932-33 when Dulce Pepper and Susie Sanders won University Entrance Scholarships and Jean Sandel, with a Junior University award, was first for the girls’ schools of the Dominion. She left to take up medicine at Otago University.