OPENING OF THE WEST CHRISTCHURCH DISTRICT SCHOOL.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 59, 7 August 1874, Page 3

OPENING OF THE WEST CHRISTCHURCH DISTRICT SCHOOL.

[ One of the most successful entertainments yet given in Christchurch, both as regards 1 he number of persons gathered together and the general success of the item? on the programme, took place on Thursday at the new West Christchurch district school, late the High school, at the Lincoln road. The occasion of the gathering was the celebration of the completion of the alterations made at the school by the West Christchurch committee, which has resulted in the possession by this district of one of the finest and most completely arranged schoolrooms in the province. We have already given in detail the alterations carried out by Messrs England Bros., under the supervision of Mr Farr, the architect, and we feel sure all '"ho were present last evening will agree that their labors have been very successful. Shortly after the hour announced for the opening of the doors a large crowd of persons began to assemble, cud the building filled very quickly, so much so that by eight o'clock there could not have been less than

1000 persons present. However, by the able management of Messrs W. Harris, Thornton, McNie, and the other members of the committee, all were comfortably seated. The chair was taken by Mr H. J. Tancred, chairman of the district committee, and on the platform were Mr C. C. Bowen (Chairman of the Board of Education), and the following members of the Board, viz., Messrs Kennaway and Maude, Mr W. Pratt, chairman pro tern of the East Christchurch district committee, was also present. The Chairman then rose and spoke as follows: —

Ladies and Gentlemen—We have met here this evening to celebrate the inauguration of a building, which is meant to serve the purposes of a school for this part of the West : Christchurch district. The committee of the district in inaugurating the system of education for the West Christchuach district, found the work as you may suppose, one of considerable difficulty to undertake. I purpose to give you this evening, on the occasion of opening this building for school purposes of this'district, to give you a sketch of what the committee have done. [At this stage of Mr Tancred's address, some youths in the further end of the room commenced to stamp,] I will continue if those who are interested in the matter will come forward and allow those who are not and who are making that noise to stand back. lam not going to detain you with any lengthened remarks ; all that I intend to give you is a general review of what has been done during the past year by the West Christchurch committee. It will of course be understood by many of you that the inauguration of an entirely new system was a matter of no little difficulty for the committee to undertake. There was, in the first place, no schools, we had no teachers, we had no staff of any kind, no furniture or school apparatus. All these things had to be created; and above all, we had no knowledge on entering office of the number of children in the district requiring school accommodation provided for them. We did not know any of the ages of the children, nor of their proficiency. Of course,, before the committee could do anything they had to obtain information on these points, and accordingly the first business of the committee was to take a census of the whole district. We found, by the result of that census, that there was in the West Christchurch district in all 2000 children under the age of thirteen years. We found

further that of these 2000 there were 1200 who were between the ages of six and and thirteen, the two extremes of what is considered the school age under the Ordinance. Well, we found further that, of these 1200, 850 were at school at that time, There was consequently the balance between 1200 and 850, or 350, not attending any school at all. Of course, as soon as we ascertained these facts, it became our duty to look about us so as to provide education for these 1200 children. Theresources of extra schools—and by this 1 mean the denominational schools existing before the coming into force of the present Ordinance—were not, as was proved, able to do anything to help us. We first thought of making arrangements with these schools to see how far the children could be provided for ; therefore it became our duty to make arrangements for accommodating the children of the district in other buildings, besides which, we had to make all the preliminary arrangements for the inauguration of the new system. You will therefore see from what I have told you that there was a great deal to be done, and the committee endeavored to do it in as short time as possible. I may say that before one month from the time the committee was elected the system was inaugurated in the district, and the committee had made arrangements for the education of the children. This will give you some idea of the progress we have made in the matter of provision for the education of the children of the district. I have here an account of the attendance of scholars at the schools for quarters ending respectively in December, March, and June last, and from these you will see that there has been a steady increase in the numbers attending the schools since the committee took office. Tn the December quarter we had on the books —this is the first quarter, I may remark—777 pupils, and

an average attendance of 4-17. In the the March quarter we had on the books OC>2, with an average attendance of Gl4. In the June quarter, that is the last one of which we have record, we had 105,5 on the books, with an average attendance of 655 From these figures you will see that there hag been a gradual—or rather I may say a very considerable—increase from the first starting of the schools. Now all our arrangements made up to this time have only been provisional, but wc hope now to be iu a position to place them on a permanent footing. We hope that the opening of this school is the first step towards those permanent arrangements of the schools which I hope to see accomplished at no very long time from now. In deciding upon the work before them, the committee had to make up their minds between two alternatives, that is they had to choose between two courses. The first of these was, to have one large school for the district in a central portion of it. The othci was, the establishment of several small schools scattered about the district. The arguments adduced in favour of the establishment of a large number of small schools scattered over the district in preference to one large central school was, that children of tender age could not attend the schools unless they could be brought near their dwellings, and would not come to a school, even if in a central part of the district, which might be some distance from their residences. With regard to the arguments in favour of the small schools I may mention the fact that the Ordinance does not contemplate the attendance at our district schools of very small children. The ages of those attending the schools is fixed by the Ordinance between fi and 13 years. It appears to me, looking at the situation of this building, that children between the ages of (i and 13 years can attend very well. I don't think that a child of (3 years of age is too young or one of 13 too old to go some half-mile away from their home to school. On the other hand, the arguments in favor of one large central school appears to me to bevery much stronger than those in favor of several small schools. In the first place, in a large school the children mix with various mindj? ; it is a place where they come in contact with different shades of character, which is in itself a means of education. There is nothing in my opinion that tends more to the education of the faculties of the mind than the meeting of mind with mind. This of itself, as I have said, would be a very great element of education. Therefore, the establishment of a large central school is in my opinion, not only a measure of economy, but a more efficient plan of education, and for this reason. In every school, whether large or small, there can be no doubt there will be a diversity of attainments. If therefore, we take it that there will be six classes even in small schools, and I do not think that there would be any more in a large school, this will entail the employment of six teachers in each. In the large schools of course there would only be six, but if we had established smaller schools we should have required six teachers in each of them. Besides in a large school there is by far a greater opportunity for classification of the scholars. Ithinkitwill be admitted that if you have classes composed of scholars of unequal attainments they will not prosper, or make such substantial progress as if the same classes were composed of scholars of equal attainments or nearly so. The committee discussed this question in all its bearings, and on ths grounds I have stated wo decided to have one large central school, and not several small ones ; and I think when you look round this building in which we are assembled this evening, you will agree with us that it is only in large schools that the work of education can be efficiently carried out in a district like West Christchurch. I may say here that I have just been reminded that this is not the whole of the school, but only one of the rooms : and from this you can judge of the scale upon which education can be carried on here. [Applause.] Having thus decided upon the question I have referred to, the committee acquired the site and building we are now in, or at least that portion of it which was here before our alterations, and went to work with the assistance of Mr Farr to lay out the ground plan of the building, and the result is before you. I think you will agree with me that it is most satisfactory, alike to the committee and to the ratepayers, to possess so good and complete a school building as this. There seems to me to be three great requisites in establishing a school of this character : first, that the site chosen should be a healthy one ; secondly, that there should be around it a sufficient extent of land so as to ensure that the grounds will not be cramped ; and lastly, that it shall be as accessible as possible to those for whose education it has been established. This school — the Lincoln Koad School—is meant to serve the pnrposes of the southern portion of the district, taking in Addington up to Montreal street and the Windmill road. There will be another large school in the northern

part of the district on the site where the Normal School is now being erected, so that we shall have two large schools —this one, the Lincoln road School, for this part of the district, and the Normal School for the other. [Applause.] It appeared to us that this site possessed all the essentials which we thought were necessary for the establishment of a large district school. The site is known to be a healthy one. We have a large extent of land round it, and I think it is fairly accessible, as least as far as is possible, to all parts of the district. When we had decided upon the site the next business that came before us was, as I have said, to work out a plan of the building to be erected on it. That matter was one of very anxious consideration to the committee, and they then drew the ground plan of the building in which we are 'now assembled, and gave it over to the architect, Mr Farr, to carry out. I may say that it is the wish of the committee to make this school more than an ordinary district school, where the ordinary elementary education may be given :

we hope to see taught here, classics, mathematics, physical science, modern languages, and drawing [Applause] together with, of course, the usual elementary branches. I think, ladies and gentlemen, I have now said all that I intended to say. I feel somewhat in the position of one who has to do the heavy tragedy, and after having listened so attentively to what I have had to say, I will relegate you to the lighter and more amusing part of the present, enter-

tainment. Before however I sit down, f may just mention that it is now just twelve

months to-night since the committee of the West Ohristchurch district was elected, and we think that during that period we have not clone badly: I would have been v ry glad to have sat down some time ago, but I

thought it was only right that I should put before you what has been done by us during the past year. I wish, however, to say a few words to you in conclusion, in order that you may not suppose that the West Christchurch committee wish to take

the whole credit of what has beeu done to themselves. I wish to say in a

few words (hat wo could not, have done what we have done without the Board of Education had co-operated with us most cordially—

(applause)—and it is only right that I should say here on this occasion that the Board of Education have assisted us in every possible manner. They have on all occasions most willingly acceded to our requests, and given us the power to carry out what wc deemed necessary for the welfare of the district, Ladies aid gentlemen, I fear I have been

somewhat wearisome, but I will not longer

detain you. I will call upon our musical friends to proceed with the programme. (Applause.) The programme of the musical portion of the entertainment was opened by a trio, " Life's a bumper," nicely sung by Messrs Bell, Price, and Feldwick. Miss Gapes then sang, " The blind girl to her harp," and the rest of the items were as follows :—Song,

"Italy," Mr A. G. Bell; duet, " Non piu mesta," the Misses Laird; reading, " A Scotch tea meeting," Kev J. Gumming ; song, " Jessie's dream," Miss Nellie Kent; song, "The chairmender" (Hatton), Mr H. Feldwick ; quartette, " The happiest laud," Messrs Bell, Price, Hobbs, and Feldwick.

Mr C. C. Bowen, chairman of the Board of Education, then rose aud spoke as follows : —Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I shall not, I hope, be expected on this occasion to address you at any great length, especially as I find that the committee has provided in this room such ample space that it is difficult for

hose at the further end of the room to hear

what is said. Your chairman has already given you a very full account of what has

been done by the committee since its organization, and I shall therefore have nothing to say upon that subject, but I wish to address a few words to you respecting the subject of unity in the carrying out of the system of education. 1 think it is very fortunate for the successful working of the educational system and its inauguration in this district, that the chairman of your committee is the

gentleman who was the chairman of the Education Commission of 18G3. Ever since the date of the report of that committee, the education system of the province has been gradually but steadily enlarged on the general principles then laid down. In speaking of the necessity of unity in carrying out this educational scheme, I do not in any way wish to interfere with the work of local committees, because I believe that they are productive of immense good. One great benefit resulting from the work of local organisations, we have here before us

to-night. In carrying out the organisation there have been some little differences, or rather

I may say, difficulties, with the local committees and the central body, but I would desire to point out that large sums are annually voted by the Provincial Council to carry out the works of education, for the expenditure of which they hold the Central Board responsible. I have no doubt that the committees think that the Board is very hard with them, but I know that in many cases, this feeling has entirely disappeared, after a conference between them. We are all learning, both Board and committees, learning what I believe when we settle down to work will be found to be of great value. The great object of the Board has been to establish improved teaching in the schools of the provinces. Already

the status and salaries of teachers have been greatly improved ; inefficient masters and mistresses have been gradually weeded out, and more efficient persons put forward as much as possible. We have also sent to England to obtain teachers, both masters and mistresses, to supply the want felt. A Board of Examiners, which I may say possesses fully the confidence of the public, has been appointed, and a large training school established, which is now in course of erection. I know that there are numbers of young men and women who would enter the profession of teaching if they possessed the technical experience. I hope the Normal school, provided as it will be with a large staff of trained teachers, will afford, so far as possible, this technical experience to young people. We hope, also, to have here a staff of teachers to take vacancies or to supply the place, temporarily, of masters or mistresses who may be benefitted by a course of Normal school training. It is our wish to make it thus a benefit to the whole province—but to do this we must have the co-operation of the local committees. I know in many cases that local committees, through neighbourly feeling, or feelings of kindness, urge upon the Board the retention of a teacher who is inefficient, but in many cases I may say that the committees have expressed themselves pleased that the Board has stood lirm, and that the central body has been more hard hearted than themselves. As regards inspection, committees should not look upon unfavorable reports as hostile to them. They are as necessary, and even more so, for the efficient working of the committee as for the Board, because in many cases reports of this character induce inquiry and show the blot in the management of the school. The Board has obtained

the services of an additional inspector, and it is probable that they will find it necessary to still further increase the staff in the inspector's deparment. The inspector

might easily make his work light, by sending in favorable reports of every school ; but that gentleman is a conscientious and zealous officer, and discharges the duties—sometimes very unpleasant—of his office, in an efficient manner, and there can be no doubt his efforts in this direction aid the local committees greatly in their work. I was astonished at the work, which, single-handed, Mr Rcstell carried out; and I am prepared, as was the committee of ISG3, to bear ray testimony to the excellent manner in which the workis done. TTis reports are always corroborated on enquiry, by any test to which they may be put. I think that we must look to the central body to keep up the standard of education, and to the local committees to carry out the details. There may be a little clashing and difference of opinion, but still time will soon set these right. There is however

no difference between the Board and the committee of this district. They have always worked cordially together ; they have boon most assiduous, and you have one special advantage, viz., a splendid site for your school, acquired on very reasonable terms. It has the advantage of a splendid area, and one I think, above all, its proximity to a public paik without eucioachiug on it. [Loud cheerg.]

There is also about this spot & flavour of classical education, as ever since the Government have parted with it it has been devoted to educational purposes ; and I don't think that any committee ever obtained so suitable a site for the purpose of a school on such reasonable terms. Ladies and gentlemen, I will not longer detain you, but simply express my congratulations both to the committee and ratepayers of chis district on the opening of this, the first district school in Christchurch. The following items were then rendered by the ladies and gentlemen assisting ; Song—" I love my love" (Giro Pinsuti)— Mr E. D. Price.

Song—" Won't you tell me why Robin"— Miss Bent; encored and responded to with " TaDping at the garden gate." Solo—Piute—Airs from" La Sonnambula" —Mr J. Rowley. Recitation—" Tam o'Shanter"—Mr Taylor. Glee—" Eivening—" Messrs Bell, Price, Hobbs, Feldwick.

Duet—" Sainted mother" (Maritana") — The Misses Gapes. Hong—" The Vagabond" (Molloy)—Mr F. Hobbs.

Quartette —" Lutzow's wild chase"—Messrs Bell, Price, Hobbs, Feldwick.

Song—" The cruise of the Nancy brig"— Mr Rowley ; encored. Mr Thomson proposed a vote of thanks to the ladies and gentlemen contributing to the amusement of those present, and the National Anthem having been sung, the proceedings terminated.