PAPATOETOE NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 610, 22 February 1921, Page 5

PAPATOETOE NOTES.

THE ORPHAN HOME. HOW IT BEGAN. The time was near the beginning of the year 1860. The place, a little cottage in Auckland, standing upon the ridge above Symond’s Street, between Wakefield and Mount Streets. In that little cottage a poor woman lay dying. She was a widow, and her three children would soon be orphans and destitute. All the spiritual comfort that John Frederick Lloyd, Vicar of St. Paul’s Church, could give was hers. All that the medical skill of Thomas Brutton Kenderine could accomplish had been done. She knew she was dying, and the thought of her children pressed heavily upon her. “Oh ! my poor children ! What will become of my children ! ” was her unceasing and pitiful cry. The words haunted the clergyman, and as he left the cottage one bright morning in December, he paused in deep thought. Looking up, with a sigh, his eyes fell upon the glorious scene spread out before him, the calm waters of the Waitemata and the open sea beyond, and he sighed to think that on so bright a morning, in so fair a place, a human soul could he in such distress. Just then the doctor appeared and greetings were exchanged. “Much weaker,” reported the clergyman.” and fretting dreadfully about the children. Oh, doctor! What can we do ? I do wish we had some Home for Orphans. We ought to have one.” And the doctor, a man of few words, but unceasing in kindly deeds, replied, “I agree with you, a Home is badly wanted. I will do anything I can to help you.” The poor woman’s trouble took strong hold, of both these men,, but when they met again beside the bed, neither knew how to satisfy her plaintive cry : “What will become of my children ?” Turning to the fast-dying woman, Mr Lloyd said, “Let this saying comfort you : “Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive,” and with that promise sounding in her ears she passed away. Immediate action was necessary. Clergyman and doctor personally guaranteed the rent of a cottage; a woman was found to take charge of the children, and so the Orphan Home was opened in May, 1860. '

ITS EARLY GROWTH.

Thus the Orphan’s Horae, as it now stands,, had its origin in a small cottage in Auckland.- Subsequently, as the number of inmates increased, a site was given by Bishop C. A. Selwyn for the erection of a larger building. This was on the property in Parnell, which belongs to St. Stephen’s Native School Trust. There the Orphan’s Home remained for up wards of 40 years. Then, about 15 m 16 years ago, a fire occurred. The Board set about securing a new site, the farm at Papatoetoe was chosen, and the existing buildings erected. There is nominally accommodation for sixty children ; but so many are the applications that the number in the Home is generally about seventy. The site comprises about 83 acres of land, on which the Board keeps its own cows and sheep. The boys me taught to milk, in preparation for taking' up farm work, for that is their usual avocation. The Home is distinctly a Church of England institution, and therefore the religious training is in accordance with the discipline and doctrines of that Church, but children of all denominations are admitted. Except in peculiar cases, and under the decision of the Board of Management, no child under two or over nine years of age is -admitted.

EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN.

The Board found that the large increase in teachers’ salaries by the Education Department, coupled with the fact that they can provide none of the benefits of superannuation allowances, has made it practically impossible for the Trust Board to assign an adequate teaching staff. Furthermore, they think that it would be to the advantage of the children to be in contact with other children, and they would benefit by the competition that would thus arise. They would also then be given the opportunity of obtaining scholarships, and other facilities offered for education in the State schools. For these reasons it was decided to send the older standards to the Papatoetoe school, and it was- hoped that an arrangement would be arrived at by which the Education Department would take over the school at the Orphanage and use it for educating the younger children at the Orphan Dome and also other children living in the vicinity. JUBILEE ANNIVERSARY. Last year was the jubilee anniversary of the Home, and the Board set about to raise £13,000 to enlarge the buildings, the number of applications for admission having so increased that more room was absolutely necessary. So far a sum of slightly over £3OOO has been raised,

and the organising secretary (Rev. W. E. Gillan) is visiting various parts of the Diocese preaching and lecturing on behalf of the Home, the work of which, for the last 60 years, is such as should appeal to all who care for children, especially the orphan and the destitute. In 1912-13 a bequest of £3OOO was received from the executors in the estate of “The Father of Auckland (the late Sir John Logan Campbell), who did much to further the interests of the institution during his lifetime. Among those at present receiving the benefits of the Home are two families of orphans comprising about twelve children, whose fathers and mothers both died during the influenza epidemic. They are being clothed and fed entirely at the expense ol' the Orphange.