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Bicentenary 2016: The First New Zealand School

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Abstract

Maori leaders visiting Australia invited a Pakeha (in this case, English) teacher to come to New Zealand to teach the children to read and write. On 12th August 1816, 200 years ago this year, the first school in New Zealand opened. Twenty-four Maori children came on that day, and each had his or her name written down. The teacher Thomas Kendall noted on the roll that the students were to learn their ‘alphabet’ or ‘monosyllables’. Te Pahi’s son, seventeen-year-old ‘Towha’ [Tōwai], who knew the alphabet, was the teacher’s assistant. To commemorate the school’s opening, our article describes the first school and some of what went on there, and comments on its short 2-year life.

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Notes

  1. The school and the other buildings in the settlement are marked as features of the Rangihoua Heritage Park in the northern Bay of Islands, that was opened in December 2014. See www.rangihouaheritage.co.nz. At the school site were found large numbers of well-used slate pencils, fragments of slate tablets, a small assortment of buttons, glass beads, as well as fragments of plates and other ceramics (Smith et al. 2012).

  2. William Hall to Reverend Josiah Pratt, 22 August 1816, Marsden Online Archive, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0056_022. See also William Hall’s diary for June and July 1816, in McLennan and McLennan (2001).

  3. Rangihoua school rolls: August 1816 (pp. 101–102), September 1816 (pp. 104–110), October 1816 (pp. 123–135) and January 1817 (pp. 196–200). PC-0130, Hocken. Other rolls from the school have not been located.

  4. ‘Towha’ may be Tōwai. On the school roll for January 1817, Towha’s name has a translation beside it: “A Tree so called”. A native tree common in Northland is the Tōwai or Tawhero or Weinmannia silvicola.

  5. Reverend Samuel Marsden to Reverend Josiah Pratt, 15 March 1814, Marsden Online Archive, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0054_029.

  6. Reverend Samuel Marsden to Reverend Josiah Pratt, 20 November 1811, Marsden Online Archive, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0498_241.

  7. Reverend Samuel Marsden, Journal: Continuation of Reverend Samuel Marsden's Second Visit to New Zealand, Marsden Online Archive. http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0176_003.

  8. School list, January 1816, pp. 196–200. PC-0130, Hocken.

  9. Reverend Samuel Marsden, Journal: Reverend Samuel Marsden's First Visit to New Zealand in December 1814, Marsden Online Archive. http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0176_001.

  10. J. King, journal entry, 27 October 1823. PC-0152, Hocken.

  11. John King to Reverend Josiah Pratt, 9 July 1815, Marsden Online Archive, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0055_027.

  12. J. King to Pratt, 25 January 1816, in Elder, Marsden’s lieutenants, p. 122.

  13. G Clarke in The Missionary Register, December 1828, p. 616.

  14. G Clarke in The Missionary Register, December 1828, p. 616.

  15. Reverend Samuel Marsden, Journal: Continuation of Reverend Samuel Marsden's Second Visit to New Zealand, Marsden Online Archive. http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0176_003.

  16. Reverend Samuel Marsden, Journal: Continuation of Reverend Samuel Marsden's Second Visit to New Zealand, Marsden Online Archive, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0176_003.

  17. Kendall to Rev. Joshua Mann, 14 July 1817, in Elder, Marsden’s lieutenants, p. 138.

  18. Kendall to Rev. Basil Woodd, 16 October 1816, p. 110. PC-0130, Hocken.

  19. School list, October 1816, p. 124. PC-0130, Hocken.

  20. Kendall’s roll notes, September 1816, pp. 104–10. PC-0130, Hocken.

  21. Kendall to Pratt, 8 December 1818, p. 839. PC-0133, Hocken.

  22. Kendall to Pratt, 8 December 1818, p. 838. PC-0133, Hocken.

  23. Kendall to Pratt, 14 May 1819, p. 840. PC-0133, Hocken.

  24. Reverend Thomas Kendall to Reverend Samuel Marsden, 27 May 1815, Marsden Online Archive, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0055_012.

  25. Reverend Thomas Kendall to Reverend Josiah Pratt, 01 February 1817, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0056_056.

  26. Reverend Thomas Kendall to Reverend Josiah Pratt, 01 February 1817, http://www.marsdenarchive.otago.ac.nz/MS_0056_056.

  27. Pratt to Kendall, 20 July 1819, pp. 781, 783. PC-0133, Hocken.

  28. Kendall to Pratt, 8 December 1818. PC-0132, Hocken.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Te Puna Wānanga, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Alison Jones

  2. Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, Whakatane, New Zealand

    Kuni Kaa Jenkins

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  1. Alison Jones
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  2. Kuni Kaa Jenkins
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Correspondence to Alison Jones.

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Jones, A., Jenkins, K.K. Bicentenary 2016: The First New Zealand School. NZ J Educ Stud 51, 5–18 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40841-015-0026-8

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