HEADMASTER TO RETIRE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21413, 4 March 1935, Page 10

HEADMASTER TO RETIRE

♦ MR A. C. MAXWELL, OF PHILLIPSTOWN TEACHER FOR FIFTY YEARS Mr A. C. Maxwell, headmaster of Phillipstown School, completed 51 years in the teaching profession on March 1, and will retire on May 31. Mr Maxwell is well known in Christchurch, not only for his work in primary education but as a member of several organisations in the city.

Born in Hobart, Tasmania, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, Mr Maxwell came to New Zealand when only a few months old. He was educated at Port Chalmers, at the George Street School, Dunedin, and at the West Christchurch School, and began his career in the teaching profession at the Malvern Main School, now called Waddington. That was on March I, 1884. Mr Maxwell left Malvern in 1889, intending to take up medicine, but after a year of study he went back to teaching, his appointment being teacher in charge of the Barr Hill School in Mid-Canterbury. He left there after a year to be head teacher at the Dromore School, which was then fairly large. The Cheviot settlement had not been opened up and the school had to serve a lai"ly big district. Mr Maxwell was at Dromore for three years, a period which he considers might been lessened a little had he conformed with the system then existing. There was no grading of teachers in those days. A teacher who wanted a cljange or was due for promotion had his name submitted by the Education Board with four or five others to a school committee, and he then had to canvass the members of the committee. Mr Maxwell did approve of the system and for some time refused to canvass the members of the committees to whom his name was submitted. Eventually, however, in 1905, he was appointed head teacher at Tai Tapu, and from there, four years later, he became first assistant master at the East Christchurch School. He left East Christchurch in January, 1915, to be headmaster of the new Beckenham School, and left Beckenham in 1922 to open the Phillipstown School, of which he is still headmaster. Beckenham and Phillipstown are now both top grade schools. Other Services Mr Maxwell's record of service on city organisations is a distinguished one. He was an original member and is still a member of the executive of the Canterbury Patriotic Fund and is on the applications and finance committees. He has been chairman for 13 years of the Rannerdale 'Home Committee and the representative for the last five years of the Headmasters' Association on the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association. He has for many years been the representative of the teachers on the Navy League and is a member of the Boys' Employment Committee. Always a keen sportsman, Mr Maxwell is president of the Beckenham Tennis Club, the Phillipstown Tennis Club, and the Phillipstown Swimming Club.

Mr Maxwell has a son, Captain Douglas Maxwell, who is training at Camberley Staff College, England. He was selected for training by the New Zealand Government. Another son, Mr J. W. Maxwell, was killed at Gallipoli in 1915. He was a member of the Signalling Corps, Fifth Reinforcements. As fit physically as he has ever been in his life—and he has always looked after his health—Mr Maxwell does not want to retire. He says he would like to teach for 10 years yet. But he has reached the retiring age and must give up teaching at the end of May.