A History of the German Bay / Takamatua School
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A History of the German Bay /// Takamatua School Banks Peninsula --- Canterbury 1876 ––– 1936 Grant. A. Dykes Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Germans 3 The beginning of the school 3 Pupils 4 The early days 5 The side school 6 The school and community 8 The teachers 11 School families 13 Subjects and examinations 14 German Bay name change 16 The new main school 19 Closing of Takamatua School 21 Epilogue 23 Photos 24 Appendixes 35 References 46 1 Introduction This article was written in 1989 and forgotten about for more than 20 years when it was found and a decision was made to publish it. The information was located by searching through the original source material page by page. The primary sources include the Akaroa Mail newspaper (Akaroa Museum), the Canterbury Education Board Letters and Inspectors’ reports (Canterbury Museum), the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR), the Dawber Diary (Canterbury Museum) and the School Registers (Akaroa Museum, 1876 - 1936). The sources have been quoted verbatim at times to provide a period flavour. The article is written as a simple historical account of the school without commentary and serves to offer a small slice of history to those interested; to be used for whatever purposes they see fit. While the usual copyright laws apply to this article, most of the actual content has been lifted directly from primary sources. Any material quoted should be referenced appropriately. It is important to note the license agreement for the use of some of the old photos stipulates non-commercial use. Grant Dykes (DEd) taught at Chisnallwood Intermediate in the 1980s and ran numerous school camps at the Takamatua School which is when he became interested in the history of the old school. Cover map: Christchurch City Libraries 2008 http://library.christchurch.org.nz/Heritage/LocalHistory/Bibliography/LocalHistoryResources. pdf 2 The Germans Various historical documents record that sixty three emigrants, six of whom were German, left Rochfort, Bordeaux March 19th 1840 for New Zealand on the Comte de Paris and arrived at Akaroa on August 13th, 1840 (Jacobson, 1893). The emigrants disembarked at Paka-Ariki Bay (French Bay, Akaroa). The six Germans were allotted land over the hill from the main town of Akaroa which they named German Town and German Bay, later renamed Takamatua. While it is often reported that there were ‘six Germans’, the manifest for the Comte de Paris lists eight, with one dying about three days before they landed. The Germans listed on the ship manifest comprised the Breitmeyer family, Johann 35, a shoemaker and farmer, his wife Eva Maria, 35 and there four children Johann (8), Catharina (5), Elisabeth (4) and Johann (2); Niklaus Gourtner a Sawyer, Josef Hahn, Kaspar Hettich, Jotereau, who died on board and was buried at Pigeon Bay, Christian Waeckerle (24) a Miller, Peter Walther (45) a farmer, and Philipp Woll (Wooll), a carpenter. The beginning of the school Cyclopedia of New Zealand (1903) notes that the school is built on a section of two acres of land, and was opened in 1878 under the charge of Miss C. V. Anderson. In fact, the school at German Bay opened early in 1876. While the Akaroa Mail does not cover this period and the Lyttleton Times makes no reference to the opening, there is an attendance register (Akaroa Museum) dated January 10th 1876. 3 The initial roll was 19 boys and 19 girls. The school was built at a cost of £250 and a grant of two acres was made and £80 (4). The school building was some 540 square feet (5). The first teacher was Mr. Harris (A4) and a Mrs. Anderson is not reported as teaching at the school until 1901. From as early as 1877 there were references to an aided side school, (6). This school employed the same teacher as the main school and no measure as to its size is given which would indicate that the pupils were probably housed either within the main school building or in a building or room attached to the main school. In 1877 there was a salary for the German Bay Side school teacher of £52 (A5) and records from 1878 list Mr. A. Angus as the teacher. By 1879 a small annex must have been built as the side school is recorded as being 132 square feet but ‘still without its own teacher’ (7). In the early days, the school received a maintenance grant of 51 pounds 2d and an incidentals’ grant of 35 pounds 12s 2d and would have been reasonably well off considering that by 1922 they received just 13 pounds for all incidental expenses (8). PupilsPupilsPupils The first school register, 1876, closed with 48 names recorded in it. The ages of these pupils ranged from three 4 year olds to one 16 year old with an average age of 8 and a half years. The younger children all had brothers and / or sisters attending the school and had possibly been sent along so as to leave their parents free to work. 4 The names of the earliest pupils reflect their German / French backgrounds with every second boy being called Joseph, Alfred or Thos with surnames of Breitmeyer, Hammond, Harrington or Le Lievre. Twenty-four pupils from the roll of 48 were from just five families with a total of fifteen separate families. The early days By August of 1876, the school ‘had a good average attendance of some 36.85 pupils’. The school committee of Dawber, Penn, Breitmeyer and Odell were ‘very pleased with this attendance considering the recent bad weather they had experienced, the poor nature of the roads and the fact that the chimney had smoked terribly, which at times, drove the pupils from the school building’ (9). In early August of 1876, the committee proposed to the board that an alteration to the closets (toilets) was in order, as had been suggested earlier by the clerk of works (10). In September, the idea of a ‘small lavatory erection’ was postponed to a later meeting and by December had still not been resolved when the committee informed the board that the residents would be willing to provide the necessary labour if the board would supply the necessary fittings (11). Presumably, the closet alterations were made some time during 1877, although a letter from the board to the school in 1882 authorized the purchasing of closet pans for the main school in preference to sinking pits as had been formerly suggested (12). The pans were procured at a cost of 1 pound 17s 6d (13). The early school was built to a standard size of 540 square feet which was the 5 same size as the schools at Little River, Pigeon Bay, Devauchelles’ Bay and many others. Somewhere nearby was a teacher’s house of which little is known except that the committee in 1876 approved paying half the cost of a water tank outside the house (14). An Inspector’s report on the school dated March 21st, 1910 (A2) noted that the building was old and was infested with dry rot and had very poor ventilation. The report noted that a good deal of inconvenience was being caused by the chimney which constantly smoked. The teacher’s dwelling was reported to be in a similar condition to that of the school building (15). The early school grounds were probably fenced as the school committee expressed some criticism of the spending of 8 pounds for school gates (16). During the 1880’s a corner of the school grounds was fenced off to allow a place for the Master (Mr. Roulston) to keep his horse during school hours (17). This could perhaps indicate that the teacher’s house was some distance from the school. TTTheThe side school As noted, the side school had always existed in name, if not in form (A5). In 1877 the German Bay School had 1 Master, 1 Mistress and 61 pupils on its roll with an average attendance of 28 students. The Appendices to the Journal of the House of Representatives (AJHR) 1877 also lists a German Bay Side School with a Master (paid £52) and 8 pupils 6 On February 16th, 1881, the opening of a new side school in Long Bay Road was celebrated. This school appears to have been sited high up on the side of the hill above the snowline where today (1989) stands a large A-frame house (photo 1) The school building was a large one of some 724 square feet, making it one of the largest on the peninsula. The total cost, including fencing, but exclusive of the value of the site, was 360 pounds. The opening event was recorded in The Mail (Akaroa Mail) as follows: From 11.00 in the forenoon, groups of juvenile accompanied in many instances by the elders of the family, might have been seen wending their way to the mountain recesses where the school is situated. As there is barely sufficient level land about the school to afford scope for the aerobatic evolutions of a fly, the entertainment was held at Mr. Chappell’s where some table land exists eminently suitable for the purposes and which was kindly placed at the disposal of the visitors, young and old, by its proprietor. About 12 o’clock, the youngsters were regaled with a first-class collation, after which sports of various kinds were indulged in and a variety of attractive prizes were provided for those who proved themselves good of running, jumping and other athletic exercises. The utmost liberty prevailed and while some of the boys were practising cricket, a number of the girls and such of the boys whose 7 native modesty could be sufficiently overcome, went in for kiss-in-the-ring.