JUNE 12th. 1890.
PUPILS & TEACHERS
The following was written by my Grandmother, Elizabeth
SANDERSON,
ne้ GIBB,
(b. Karaka Hill
Thames,1869. d. Auckland 1936) who was the
first
Teacher at this School..
On the first day the children enrolled were:-
CAMPBELL. Colin
COLEBROOK. Agnes
COLEBROOK. Frances
DONNELLY. John
DONNELLY. Leah
HARVEY. Alma
HARVEY. Joe
HARVEY. John
HARVEY. Mary
HOLLIS. George
HOLLIS. Mabel
and a little later....
CLARK. Alice
CLARK. Eva
CLARK. Ernie
CLARK. Harley
CLARK. Norman
CARTER. Willie
DANCE. Alice
DANCE. Ethel
DONNELLY. George
HATTON. Jimmy
HARVEY. Harriet
McDERMOTT. Jimmy
McDERMOTT. Willie
NICCOL. George
NICCOL. Willie
SANDERSON. Roy
The School Room was unlined and roughly put together,
the cold
winds whistling through the crack in the walls. They had to cross a
long plank bridge from the main street to get to it, and often crawled
across it when the wind was strong. There were no proper roads and
they got very wet along the tea-tree tracks.
The Teacher and children sometimes took long walks and had picnics
in Hollis' Bush, up Martha and Black Hills and in Round
Bush, where
they gathered wild strawberries.
In 1882 Miss K. TRUSCOTT was appointed Head Teacher, with Mr.
R.J.CORBETT as assistant. There were then 60 children. Tenders were
called for a new School, which was opened in 1896, with Mr. BENGE as
Headmaster
until 1914 and Miss Laura ROBERTS as Infant Mistress,
a position she held with great honour for 26 years.
By 1900 the Roll had risen to 538, and in 1901 the Waihi School became
a District High School, with a Staff of 11, its Secondary Roll in 1902 being
38. With the development of the "boom town" frequent additions were
necessary and by 1907 over 1000 pupils were attending.
WAIHI EAST SCHOOL
In 1907, to relieve overcrowding, the five class-roomed
East School was
opened, the Builders
being Messrs. FISKE and ADAMS.
The first Headmaster was Mr. MACKIE and the first Infant
Mistress was
Miss ROGERSON followed by Mrs. HAWKINS. Other assistants were:-
Mr. BISHOP, Mr. DAY, Miss PIRRITT, Mr. TURBOTT & Miss WALKER.
Pupil Teachers from 1913 to 1916 were Misses N. SCOTT, O. SCOTT,
L. VALLANCE and M. WHITE. During this period Mr. DEAN became
Headmaster and Mrs. MURPHY Infant Mistress.
The School was destroyed by fire in 1939, with a total
loss of records,
but it is known that the following were Headmasters: Messrs. ANDREW,
DOWNAY, EDWARDS, HARDIE, MASEFIELDS and STAINTON.
The Goldren Jubilee, held in 1957, was attended by some original Pupils;
including Ivy DARLINGTON, Anna GRACIE, Addy KINN (BROWN),
Cecile LONGUET (LEOPALD), Inex LONGUET (FINLAYSON), Don
SAMSON, Mabel SAMSON
(MIDDLETON), Ted SPEAK and Harry THOMAS.
A fall in pupil numbers in 1960 reduced the staff to
four Teachers, being
Mr. R. MUNRO (Head Teacher), Mrs. T. GRANT, Miss H. LANDY and
Miss GARDINER.
