EARLY DAY EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 13 February 1937, Page 13 (Supplement)

EARLY DAY EDUCATION.

THE FIRST STATE SCHOOL AND ITS PREDECESSORS. YEARS OF RAPID GROWTH AND PROGRESS. SOME HISTORICAL DETAILS. Although the diamond jubilee about to be celebrated is that of Masterton’s first State school, established in 1877, the beginnings of formal education in Masterton dated to a dozen years earlier. A site for the Masterton West School (entirely distinct from the establishment now bearing that name) was purchased in 1865. This was an acre section on the Upper Main, opposite to the site of the present Fernridge School. According to available records, two schools were in working operation in Masterton in 1566. These were Masterton East and Masterton West. The schools were administered by trustees and subsidised by the State. Each pupil paid one shilling a week for the privilege of attending. In 1866, Masterton East had a roll of 14 pupils (13 boys and one girl) and Masterton West a roll of 20 (.11 boys and 9 girls). The Masterton East school district at that

time had 33 houses and 25 children from the ages of six to 14 years. The corresponding particulars for Masterton West were 25 houses and 31 children of school age. The Masterton West School, on the Upper Plain, was a oneroomed wooden building, with a floor space of 280 square feet. The first Masterton East School stood on part of the site now occupied by the Municipal Buildings, but an inspector's report in 1574 stated that the building then used for the school was the Town Hall (i.e., the old Town Hall on the site now occupied by the Opera House). Another record of the same year stated that a large new school was nearly finished and that a master’s residence was about to be erected. The school building here mentioned, situated on part of the site of the present Technical School, is the one that was taken over in 1877 as the first State school.

In 1866 the Masterton East School was in charge of Mr. Briscoe and Mrs. Roche was teacher at Masterton West. How- long these teachers held their positions is not known, but in 1872 Mr. E. Jupp applied for a transfer, which was granted to the Masterton West School from Masterton East. At the beginning of 1873, Mr. A. J. Skipper was appointed head teacher at Masterton East. In the following year, the school had an average attendance of 34 pupils. On September 30, 1874, Mr. Skipper was succeeded by Mr. Lillington. Under the last-mentioned teacher, the school appears to have prospered particularly well. In 1875, there were 102 pupils on the roll. The staff on March 31, 1876, consisted of Messrs. Lillington and A’Court. A year later, Messrs. Robins and Yates had been added to the staff.

The building taken over in 1877 as Masterton’s first State school had been built, as stated, in 1874, on part of the present Technical School site. A teacher’s residence stood on the present Courthouse'site. The school was a -weatherboard building, roofed with shingles, lined internally and fitted with brick chimneys and open fireplaces. There were two classrooms. The playground space consisted of only half .an acre, an entirely inadequate provision for a school which in 1877 already had a full range of primer and standard classes. In 1879, the school had 284 pupils, of whom 70 were higher than .Standard 2. In 18S0 the roll total was 334 and in 1881 it rose to 389. Football and other games, which were encouraged, were played on the Park. The present Oval was then a rough paddock, but the Park had been planted with trees not long before, the work being done on contract by Mr. W. McCardle. The first head teacher of the State school was Mr. Lillington. He was followed by Mr. J. J. Pillcington and the latter was succeeded, on July 39, 3SBO, by Mr. W. T. Grundy.

Although pleasant memories of the old StatA school are retained by some of its former teachers and pupils still with us, the building that housed it was referred to in unflattering terms by Mr. Grundy at a gathering of old pupils and others held in his honour in the Central School in November, 103-1. On that occasion, Mr. Grundy related that a few days after he arrived in Masterton in ISBO, Mr. Alfred Renall who came to welcome him, asked him: “Mr. Grundy, what do you think of our very fine school?” Mr. Grundy replied that he thought the best thing that could be done with the “very fine school” was to put a firestick under it. He told Mr. Renall that in the Queensland backblocks, from which he had just come, there#were really fine and well-appointed schools in centres much less important than Mpsterton. Mr. Renall said very little, but within two years the Central School was built. Mr Renall was a man who got things done, a man of force. That, said Mr. Grundy, was practically his first introduction to the spirit of Masterton and its inhabitants.

It may be supposed that Mr. Grundy was criticising rather the unsuitable character of the building, and the absence of adequate playing areas, than the condition of the structure. As has been shown, the school building had only been erected half a dozen years before Mr. Grundy arrived. The first State school ended its career in 1881, and on February G, ISS2, the Masterton Central School was opened, with Mr. Grundy as headmaster. MASTERTON CENTRAL. From its establishment in ISS2 until the Lansdowne School was opened in 1909, the Masterton Central School was the only State school in the borough. Its first headmaster, Mr. W. T. Grundy, was succeeded in ISS9 by Mr. W. H. Jackson, and the school remained under Mr. Jackson’s control for the next thirty-four years. During that period, various additions were made to the original building, amongst them the assembly hall. On January 2S, ISS4, the school was given the status of a district high school, but, retained it for only fifteen months, there being at that period a dearth of secondary pupils. The secondary department was -re-es-tablished on March 3, 1902, and the seliol became and remained for the next twenty-one years the Masterton District High School. In January, 1923, it reverted to its primary status on the opening of the Wairarapa High School and became again the Masterton Central School. Mr. Jackson worked untiringly for the betterment of the school and its appointments. In 1889 he was instrumental .in securing a lease of 3 h acres of Trust land, at that time a wilderness of gorse and broom, adjoining the school grounds on the south side. The land was cleared, some GOO tons of stones being removed by working bees of children and the grounds were grassed, fenced and planted. It was hero that the first cricket pitch in Masterton was established. On tne strength of having induced the Trust Lands Trust to present to the school a museum building, valued in its renovated state at £ISOO, Mr. Jackson induced the Government to make a grant for the erection of the • assembly hall. Under successive headmasters —Mr. R. C. Drummond, from 1923 to the end of 1932, and Mr. E. G. Coddington from 1933*t0 the present date, the school has continued to prosper.

MASTERTON WEST, The Masterton West School, a modern structure, was opened with accommodation for 15C pupils (in three rooms) and with a roll number of IS2 on February 19, 1920, under a staff of headmaster and two assistants. The official opening, ceremony took place on February 26. The school grounds, comprising 64 acres, were unimproved. On May 11, 1920, the Victoria Street School was placed under the control of the headmaster, as a side school. Two class rooms, two cloak rooms, a teachers ’ room and a headmaster’s room were added in 1921. During 1923 a complete development scheme of the grounds was undertaken by the committee with money raised by a school carnival, in the vicinity of £IO9O. As a result, lawns, asphalt playing grounds and tennis courts and football grounds and a fine swimming bath were completed. In 1933 additional dressing shed accommodation was provided at the baths and the surroundings of the baths were concreted, £135 'being spent on this work. In 1926 the side school grounds were properly laid out. The present roll number is 374, though in 1925-26 the roll went beyond 420. The staff now includes a headmaster, eight assistants and one probationer.

LANSDOWNE. The Lansdowne School was opened on February 9,1909, with a roll number of 81 pupils, under the charge of a head teacher and two assistants. The first permanent headmaster, Mr. 'lt. C. Drummond, took charge on May 3,1909. The original building consisted of an assembly hall and two class rooms. Later the assembly hall was divided by means of folding doors into two class rooms. An open-air class room was added subsequently and an infant school was erected about 16 years ago. The grounds of the school have been extended and greatly improved by the laying down of tennis courts and croquet lawns and in other ways. The roll number at the close of the school year in 1936 was 239. ST. PATRICK’S SCHOOL. Some sixty years ago, the first Catholic school in Masterton was established in a room in a cottage on the site now occupied by the Catholic Presbytery. The first teacher, Miss Dunn, was succeeded by Mrs. Redmond, who retired in June, 1885. In 1876 a parish was constituted with Father Halbwacks in charge. Father Tracey, who succeeded in ISS4, had a building erected (containing one room 40 feet by 20 feet), the tender for which was £ll4. Three years later, the late Monsignor McKenna, then Father McKenna, took charge of the parish. At that time and until 1891, the scliol was in charge of Mrs. Carrick. Mr. O’Brien was appointed teacher in that year, but died suddenly in October of the following year. In 1893,' Mr. B. Jj Dolan became teacher and remained in that position until 1597. In that year arrangements were made to establish a convent, and the old school was removed across the street to its present situation and enlarged.' The foundation stone of the convent was laid on May 24, 1897. The Sisters of St. Bride arrived in December of that , year and next year (1898) commenced teaching. The school was later enlarged and in 1927 three class rooms, a vestibule, teachers* room and a large corridor were erected in brick.

The roll number of St. Patrick's School at the time of the late Monsignor McKenna's appointment was not more .than 70 and when the Sisters of St, Brigid took charge, it was about SO. At the end of the school year in 1930, St. Patrick's School had IS7 pupils and St. Bride’s Convent had GO.