TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 983, 28 May 1930, Page 11

TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD

EDENDALE SCHOOL COMES OF AGE CELEBRATIONS ON SATURDAY The celebration of the 21st anniversary of the founding of the Edendale District School on Saturday afternoon will also mark the retirement of the headmaster, Mr. Caspar Alexander Seniadeni, who has been in charge ever since the foundation of the school in 1909. During this period more than 7,000 pupils have passed through his hands.

The chairman of the school committee, Mr. J. Carrie, will be in charge of the celebrations on Saturday, supported by Mr. G. C. Munns, M.P. for Roskill, Mr. L. H. Rhodes, Mayor of Mount Albert, and Mr. Spenceley Walker, of the Teachers’ Institute. A presentation to Mr. Semadeni will be made by old pupils and friends during the afternoon, when it is hoped to secure as many signatures of former pupils as possible to be bound in book form and presented to Mr. Semadeni as an enduring memento of his long term of service. A presentation by pupils and teachei-s is to be made on Friday.

Two former pupils have prepared a history of the school which is to be published as a booklet and will be sold at the ceremony on Saturday. The proceeds will be devoted to improvements to the grounds. Although agitation for a school in the district, then divided into small farmlets chiefly covered with small scrub and with tea-tree, began as far back as 1893 and met with support from the Mount Eden School Committee, it was not until May 29, 1909, that the first building was opened officially. A school at the corner of Mount Roskill and Edendale Roads to give relief to the overcrowding at Mount Eden was recommended in 1906, and in the follow-ing year a grant of £2,300 was made by the Education Department for a building to accommodate 250 children. This was opened officially by the chairman of the Education Board, Mr. (now Sir) C. J. Parr. It was the first school in the Auckland district to be built of brick. The headmaster and three temporary assistants had charge of 146 scholars on the opening day, but when the school reopened after the summer holidays, the number had increased to 232, and a month later to 260. The attendance continued to increase almost daily, and within two years, with an average attendance of more than 300 pupils, new rooms became necessary. A church hall was hired and provided accommodation for the overflow until additions were made to the main building in 1913. but two years later it again became necessary to hire the hall as an infant department. On April 29, 1918, a new infant school was used for the first time but this proved only a temporary relief, as in the following year, with a total roll of nearly 800, admission had to be refused to many pupils. The erection of the Kowhai Junior High School and of the schools at Brixton Road and Richardson Road have eased the pressure on the parent school. The remarkable growth of the district can be gauged from the fact that the staff now numbers 16 assistants and four probationers, as against three assistants and two juniors in the years of its foundation.