“THE SCHOOL BY THE POND”

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 19 October 1942, Page 1

“THE SCHOOL BY THE POND”

NELSON’S EDUCATIONAL PIONEERS The report in “The Mail” of 30th September of the Nelson children’s historical play, “The School by the Pond.” was read with special interest by Mrs Laura H. Sheat, now a resident of Auckland, who was born lat Richmond in 1865. Mrs Sheat is i a daughter of T. J. Thompson, one of ! the trustees of the Nelson School So- | ciety throughout its existence. Mr Thompson’s portrait is to be seen in I the Suter Art Gallery. Many of the j first pupils of the Nelson School of 1842 were, of course, well known to Mrs Sheat in their later years. Matthew Hargreaves, one of the pupils impersonated on the stage, was Mrs Sheat’s uncle—he was seven years old in 1842. In a letter to “The Mail” Mrs j Sheat says: “I enjoyed reading about the re-enacting of the opening of the first school in Nelson. There seems to be a need for an outline of the history of “The School by the Pond ” Actually that school was only one of the many schools opened by the Nelson School Society, others being | in the outlying districts of the Nelson Settlement, such as Richmond. Stoke, Appleby, Hope and Spring Grove. Probably some of the readers of “The Mail” would think that “The School by the Pond” was a Government school, whereas Government schools did not come into existence until 1856, when New Zealand received self-government and a Parliament.

Parliament. “My father, T. J. Thompson, was the last surviving trustee of the Nelson School Society in 1896 when the site of “The School by the Pond” was passed over to the City Council, and the Suter Art Gallery foundedThe building my father designed, with its low studs, is still standing. I fear that much of the history of the Nelson School Society and its useful work during the early years of the Nelson Settlement has been lost in the misty years. “My father used to tell us that the history of education in Nelson'began on 7th April, 1842, when Captain Arthur Wakefield said to Mr Thompson and others: ‘Roll up, you boys to-night- (Mr Thompson was then 28). We are going to have a school. There are 200 children running about in the fern. They must be taught to read.’ “From this it will be seen that the first Nelson settlers wasted no time in taking the first steps towards providing a school for their children. The children of 1942 have reenacted the scenes of the opening of the first Nelson school. Perhaps this will serve to direct further attention to the men who founded the Nelson School Society some time before 1 he School by the Pond” was opened, and also to the schools in outlying districts which the Society also lounded.” An outline of the history of carlv education in Nelson, such as our corresponderu suggests, appeared in The Mail” of Friday, September 11th.