History of Maori Boys' College Linked With That of Auckland

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 21

History of Maori Boys' College Linked With That of Auckland

Si HREE Xe’v Zealand PUIMiO purirl trees and R ! three oaks of Engj jjiitejj 1 land thrive today | jj Boys. Parnell, and constitute a link * with the days of Bishop George Augustus Selwyn, the far-sighted Anglican leader of earlier years in the history of the Dominion. The sturdy trunks of these trees may be taken as symbolic of the fine traditions of St. I Stephen's, where many of our most distinguished Maori citizens received their education. By the end of the present year, it is expected that the school will be transferred from its present site, wedged in a corner of St. Stephen’s Avenue and Gladstone Road, to an extensive new area at Bombay, 28 miles south of the city. At the ceremonies connected with the change, there is certain to be picturesque reference to these six trees, and, inevitably, to Bishop Selwyn. Lifting ample boughs on the existing property —now diminished from its original spaciousness to a comparatively small area crowded by residential areas—are the three oak trees, planted by Bishop Selwyn himself from acorns brought from his English home. Successive generations of young Maori scholars have had these trees indicated to them as a remembrance of the churchman who had so much to do with the first efforts in education In New Zealand. The purchase by the Anglican Diocesan Trust Board of the new Bombay property of more than 200 acres has been attended by a curious coincidence. Adjoining the property is a space on which three leafy puriris grow. Beneath these trees —they are so well known in the Ramarama and

Stephen’s College. This atmosphere is a real thing. An hour among the mellow, if weather-beaten, buildings will give a visitor a distinct impression that the houses of the school are not of the modern Auckland. The buildings are not pretentious; they have been constructed on leisurely lines with no great regard to order. They are sturdy. They speak of pioneering days now but faintly understood by the new generation of Aucklanders.

t.V INTRICATE MANOEUVRE. Cadets at the Maori College for hoys "pile arms.'’ The Maori lads won the Vew I’.ealand cadet shooting championship for 19(10. Bombay districts that they are called The Sentinels—Bishop Selwyn was accustomed to camp, on first evenings out from Auckland, on his hazardous journeys into the interior of the province, The Sentinels also formed his camping-place on the evenings preceding his arrival at Auckland. Now that St. Stephen’s College, making, in the manner of several schools of Auckland, a flight from the thickening residential areas, has definitely decided upon Bombay as Its new site, the dedication of the puriris to the college is being sought on sentimental grounds, easy to understand. Just as the oaks have figured in school life in the 81 years of the existence of one i of New Zealand's most Interesting educational establishments, so the puriris will carry on the spirit of a great church leader. Tradition in tree? —surely an unusual and pleasing phase in the life of a school. Quiet History The clamour of the busy Auckland j of today can scarcely be reconciled Tvith the quiet atmosphere of history which is still to be sensed at St j

One can admire the wooden shingles of the earliest building of St. Stephen’s. It stands among its fellows as a relic of early Victorian days. Under its roof, interesting pages in the vcung-old history of Auckland have j been turned. Those boards, striving inadequately to catch the atmosphere of 1930, hold memories rarely retained | in the swift development of Australia or New Zealand. Such small attention 1 was given to preserving historical | links by pioneer Australians and New

' j Zealanders that there is a poverty of 1 j the sentimental associations produced > !in other countries over many, years. ■ j The colonists were occupied suffici- ■ I ently with the raw life of a new land. > ! Realisation that contributions were • [ being made to history came, in most • | instances, too late. St. Stephen’s and . j its history are perhaps fated to sub- ’ | mergence in the welter of suburban - construction. - j For that has happened already to a j great degree. Go back to early Auck-

land, the township of Hobson and Fitzroy. Eighty-one years ago .... From the wooded eminence of the Taurarua block —the original St. Stephen’s holding, spreading from the Manukau Road of today to the foreshore of the Waitemata colonists’ sailing vessels, Maori canoe?; not infrequently, blunt men-o’-war and decrepit trading ships were to be seen passing under the brow of North Head in the most colourful time of Auckland’s history. Taurarua block is forgotten now; its name is retained only in an obscure thoroughfare in Paruell. Steps in Education Nine years after the Treaty of Waitangi, the growing need for schools was apparent in Auckland. Up to this

time, the New Zealand Company, under the offices of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, Lord Petre, Lord Durham, Joseph Somes and Charles Buller, had directed increasing migration to New Zealand and Auckland was being favoured as a locality for settlement. It was Sir George Grey who gave the authority to Bishop Selwyn to establish the school which became StStephen’s. The colonists had their school but there was an extraordinary development. There was nothing in the school deed providing for its exclusive use in training Maoris. The deed, actually, is similar to that of another Bishop Selwyn institution, the Collegiate School at Wanganui, which today is one of the important church schools of New Zealand. The condition of the

Interesting Old Building Once Military Barracks . . . Bishop Selwyn s Three Trees. .. St. Stephen's College to be Moved After 81 Years

D. C. S. TAYLOR.)

(Written for THE SUN by J

trust provided for the education of boys of New Zealand and the Pacifie Islands. Whether new conditions were added or not (some school records were destroyed in a fire), an irregularity in the conditions took place at the beginning. For two years from 1849, Maori girls were taught at the school. Later, according to the records retained, the school became a boarding or an evening institution for Maori youths apprenticed to the tradesmen of early Auckland. Still later, St. Stephen’s was employed as a theological training college for Maori ministers over a period until late last century, a time -when intensive religious work was proceeding among the native tribes. This training is recalled, no*, by the names on the school roll of

honour showing the large number of Maori students ordained as ministers. St. Stephen’s has been developed in its present form only since IS7I although that date represents considerable age in the brief secondary school histories of New Zealand. This year marks a tremendous turn- j ing-point in the life of a native school j which has had the same influence on j the Maori race at Te Aute and the

Maori Agricultural Colleges. At Bom- ] bay, in a modern building of two i storeys, it is planned to extend the i activities of the college. At times, j the attendance at St. Stephen’s has j reached SO pupils; today, it is just over j 50. The opening attendance at the j

In spite of its comparatively long I period of existence, St. Stephen's has ; | had only four headmasters. The first i instruction was under the guidance of j the Venerable Archdeacon A. Kissling, j I assisted by Mrs. Kissling. Mr. J. E. ! ! Davis taught from IS7I to 1905, when '

Mr. Albert Wilson was appointed. In February last year, the present headmaster, Mr. William C. Morris, took charge. There have been well-known names listed among the instructors at the college. Maori boys were taught by Sir William Martin, once Chief Justice, the Venerable Archdeacons Maunsell and L. Williams, the Revs. T. Chapman and R. Burrows, and Mr. J. R. Smith, manager of the school from 1879 to 1904. Today a prominent part in the activities of the college is played by the Primate, Archbishop Averill. The peculiar features attaching to the college have been of interest to students of education systems; the school has frequently been visited by men and women interested in the instruction of native races outside New Zealand, which has a reputation as a country providing admirable educational facilities for the young people of its native race. This, undoubtedly, is the reason for the popularity of New Zealand as an educational country among the native races of the Pacific Islands. Many I Fijians, Samoans, Tongans (including the reigning Queen), Rarotongans and Solomon Islanders have been taught in I the secondary schools of the Dominion.

new college will probably be more than . 70 and a new wing will be added as I the attendance increases. Remembering that the Auckland Province contains the major portion of th Maori population, the improvements contemplated are justified. Unobtrusively, St. Stephen's has produced Maori youths who have been outstanding in service not only for their own race but for New Zealand. Sir Maui Pomare, the Parliamentary representative for the Western Maori electorate for many years, and Bishop Bennett, who was created the first Maori Bishop of the diocese of Aotearoa, are both prominent figures in the Dominion. Sir Maui's experience in the House of Representatives and Bishop Bennet’s ability as an orator are well known. Gained Prominence They are St. Stephen’s greatest sons. On the school roll of honour, one reads that Sir Maui received his knighthood in 1921 and was first a member of Cabinet in 1912; that Bishop Bennett

was ordained a minister in 1896. One also reads of other students Hone Heke, a Parliamentary member in 1595; Riopo Puhipo, appointed to the Health Department and John Thomson who received a prominent post in the Lands Office; Stephen Savage, who became secretary to the Cook Islands Executive; and John McGruther, who was appointed to supervise education in Rarotonga. i

St. Stephen's has had a notable quota of these visitors. There is importance lent to this school in the knowledge of famous men who have shown their interest in educating the Maori race. Bishop John Coleridge Patteson, “The Martyr of Melanesia,“ who was murdered at Nukapu (Melanesia) in 1871, Sir George Grey, Bishop Selwyn, Bishop Molyneux of Melanesia, Bishop Kempthorne, in Polynesia. Sir Robert Stout, Baron Plunket, Earl Stanhope—their i names and those of many others are

Millie \>cli:il!'.lllllllllK/Cflllll» shown in an interesting: old visitors* book at the school. Militia Days At odd occasions, veterans of the | Militia and the Armed Constabulary of :an older New Zealand, visit St. I Stephen's for no other purpose than to

recall memories of days when it was temporarily converted into a barracks. A paradox, that a native school should be employed by forces organised to fight the natives! The days when Auckland was threatened by hostile Maori tribesmen meant military law in the settlement. Officers of the Militia had their quarters in the ancient shingle-roofed building at the college. The rooms in which British officers discussed military tactics are now used for little more than school storehouses. The wide colonial fireplaces of white-washed stone in front of which these: Militiamen sat, smoked, and recalled military service in other lands in which the colonisers of Britain were operating, are today retained in their original state.

War Decorations Won by Former Students Several Maori soldier:: a: ho received their education at St. Stephen’s College icon distinctions in the great War. They tcere: — Captain William It. Waaka, Military Medal. . Henare Kanara , Croix dc Guerre. Augustus Rogers, Military M eda X. Matini Taua, Military Medal. Frederick Creoke, serving until the Australian Imperial Forces, the D.C.M. i There are ex-students of St. Stephen's who saw service during the Boer War.

Dundreary whiskers, picturesque uniforms .... ‘Undoubted’.}’ this was the time when Auckland had its most colourful element of population .... Crinolines and lace shawls in the old ! straggling Queen Street .... military buildings dotted here and there among the ridges of Auckland . . . Govern : ment House .... a surface on the high ; way to Otahuhu which aould have | terrified modern motorists .... uncleared clumps of bush; and Maoris, disdainful of the meagre European huddle of buildings on the shore of a half-known land, but. not unwilling to associate with the new race. It is to recapture something of this atmosphere that men who knew the Militia and the Constabulary days come now to St. Stephens. Where formerly Militiamen and members of the Constabulary placed a parade-ground on the college property, Maori youths are now instructed in warfare, and, perhaps more usefully, in physical drill. In Auckland, the gymnastic ability of the Maori student is well known. The St. Stephen’s squad, taught by Mr. Patrick Smyth 1 and Mr. J. Izatt, has appeared in

public many times. Each pupil must I become proficient In physical exercise. In European schools, the vigorous i work undertaken successfully at St. Stephen’s would seem harsh. The Maori youths, besides daily instruction in the gymnasium, have to cultivate most of their food crops, and also to assist in the domestic life of the college, even to the preparations of meals. The curriculum of a native school in New Zealand patently aimed at the | development of a virile type at j student.