Avondale Historical Journal No. 38

November—December 2007

Volume 7 Issue 38

The Avondale Historical Journal Official Publication of the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Incorporated

Walking to School in the 1940s by Tony Goodwin The latest issue of “Spiders Web” has an article about children walking to school. I walked to school in 1944, starting in standard three at Avondale Primary School. Mr. Johnston was our teacher, and I was privileged to be the “bell monitor” as the bell rope was in our room, now long gone [the room that is, as well as the bell]. Our family lived with my Grandmother at 43 Alford Street Waterview. There was a school bus that left from the top of Alford Street every morning. My brother and sister would catch the bus, but I preferred to walk most days. The bus used to stop on the Great North Road, but unfortunately a boy by the name of Jamieson from Oakley Avenue was killed running across the road, that’s why it now stopped at the end of Alford Street. Another time we all watched as a cow in the Whau [Mental Hospital] paddock gave birth to a calf. That was very interesting. Walking from Alford Street to the primary school was always a different experience for me. Just around the corner from Alford Street on the Great North Road was Battersby’s Taxi and funeral directors. Peggy Battersby lived there. Then on the corner above Fir Street, was the Waterview Methodist Church and the Church Hall. I was christened in that church, and for sometime had the cradle roll Next meeting of the certificate to prove it, but long gone now [along with the hall]. At Fairlands Avenue, Avondale-Waterview I would generally cross over the Great North Road and before reaching Blockhouse Historical Society: Bay Road, would pass O F Swatton’s Hire Centre. While in standard four I found a pound note in the hedge. I had no idea what it was worth and had never seen one Saturday, 1 December before, the most money I had ever handled was “two bob” [two shillings]. I felt very 2007, 2.30 pm important and Lion’s Hall, corner Block- took it to the Above: Photo from Tony Goodwin —1946 Avondale Prefects Starting from top left:[1] ?, Hugh Brading, ?, Harry Haddon, ?, Avondale house Bay Road and Margaret Police Station [2] Mary Watson?, ?, ?, Headmaster?, Brian Trenwith?, Great North Road Rowe, ? [A year later at Any more names would be appreciated Please contact the Society Avondale

Volume 7 Issue 38

The Avondale Historical Journal

Page 2

Avondale Primary School Standard 4 1945 (again, photo and names from Tony Goodwin) Starting from top left: [1] Mr. Jackson, ?, Tony Goodwin, Michael O'Brien, ?, Ray Thompson, Arthur Beaumont, Trevor Middleton. [2] Leonie Gillette, ?, Nita Bowater, Betty Parry [ sigh!!] Margaret Rowe, Raye Cryer, ?. [3] ?, ?, Betty Wood, Violet Bentley, ?, ?, Maureen Heron. [4] Hugh Brading, Ray Knight, ?, John Huckenhull, John Leyland?.

Intermediate, Mr. Gair, the Headmaster called me out at assembly. I expected corporal punishment; I got a pound note instead!] Then it was up Blockhouse Bay Road. On the right about half way up lived the Banks in a large old villa with huge Macrocapa trees in front. Don Banks lived here. Further up on the right was Charlie Hieatt’s grocery shop now a flower shop. I used to see the sign C.Hieatt and always pronounced it as “cheat”. In fact Charlie was a lovely honest man. At the corner of Rosebank and Blockhouse Bay Roads was another old villa, still there but swamped by some old flats that were moved onto the site. Violet Bentley lived here. I was fond of Violet because she once lived in Fiji and would give me Fijian stamps, so I called here frequently. Then a bit further back and on the opposite side of the road was Price’s coal and wood merchants. Shirley Price lived here. Their house is still there, those lovely old bricks, but the yard is gone. So if you go straight ahead you come to the Railway Bridge, originally an old wooden bridge that was there for years. The trams rattled across it and my wake up call in Waterview was the sound of the six o’clock tram rattling across this bridge. I loved the trains; Avondale was quite a busy shunting yard in those days. As an aside, I was in the 7th Auckland Life Boy team [This was during the war]. On the way home we would line up along the bridge [city side] and endeavour to urinate on the train as it went past, but that’s another story!

But to get to school, you walked down Rosebank Road. On the right hand side is an old block of shops still there, and in the recent past was a cane and handcraft shop. All I remember is that one was a home cookery, and I think another was a stationer, and on the corner of Roberton Road was a dairy. The building is quite distinctive and is still there. I never walked along Layard Street for some reason, but always down to the tram terminus at Great North and Rosebank Road intersection. I think there were two reasons for not taking the short cut along Layard Street [1] The Infant block was on this street, and [2] “The murder house” [School Dental Nurse]

I don’t think I ever varied this walk to school, possibly because of Violet Bentley, [and the stamps]. But going home was a different story. The vacant property which was once “Three Guys” [and “Avondale Motors” before that] was where Jill Schultz lived. The house looked far better than the mess that the site has now become, some bad planning issues there! Where Ray White’s is now situated [Ex National Bank] was an old, really old, fish and chip shop, and for a “trey bit” [threepence] you could buy a dollop of chips wrapped in newspaper. That was necessary as it would be close to six o’clock by the time I eventually wandered home from school Then past Fearon’s Butchers [I see “Fearon’s Building” still visible on the façade]. Then “Crawford’s Garage”, now closed down. “Watson’s Chemists” was across the road. Mr. Watson was a staunch supporter of Avondale School, possibly because his daughter Mary went there. The Bradings lived at number 8 Walsall Street, and their house is still there and now surrounded by flats. It was a large overgrown property with a stream [now piped]. Us boys enjoyed playing here, making rope ladders to climb trees, tree huts, war games, hide and seek, we made our own adventures. Then I had to hurry as Browns Four Square shut at 5-30 and I had to collect the bread. There wasn’t time to call into the dairy at the top of Victor Street, where they used to make home made milk ice blocks long before Tip Top did the same! Hurry past Clarke Penman’s the electrician to Browns Four Square. Where we had half a loaf of bread ordered each day, and occasionally, twopence worth of [plain] broken biscuits.

The Avondale Historical Journal

Now the half loaf was critical in two respects [1] If it was concave at the split, you went hungry, [2] if convex, one could pick at it until it was concave. The bread always arrived home in a concave state regardless. After Browns I crossed over before the Church of Christ [now the Lions Hall]. They would sometimes have after school programs here and always good fun. I would pick a bunch of violets [that name again] from alongside the bus shelter that was opposite the Blockhouse Bay road intersection with Great North Road [imagine now having a bus stop right on the bend!] Well nearly home, except if I walked down Alverston Street I passed Bowater’s: Nita, Harry and Barbara lived here and that involved further delay. Then at last home in time for dinner, and as long as the bread was delivered there were no questions asked, or answers offered.

Today’s Yesterdays, by Rich Afford When my friend told me there was to be a Wurlitzer rendition at the Hollywood Theatre to accompany an old silent film I simply could not resist his invitation to attend. We were lucky there were two seats available for it seemed it was a full house. If I remember correctly the first picture was to be a Laurel and Hardy film, their first with sound dating from 1931, “Out West.” Well as the story unfolded, memory transported me back to a boy aged 10, laughing until my sides ached 75 years on. This was followed by a silent film of Buster Keaton with organ accompaniment. Well, yet again my first theatre experience was to a silent film in the same theatre but with piano accompaniment, at what must have been an earlier date. Ah, what memories they were of Mrs Hayward trying to keep order with unruly and screaming ragamuffins who turned up at Saturday matinees regularly and with some who shall be nameless trying to sneak their dogs into the performance. And Mrs Whale’s confectionery shop provided plenty of ammunition in the way of sweets to hurl at opponents in the theatre. The film stopped until Mrs Hayward could restore an order, a forlorn battle. Naturally I was a good boy and plead innocence. It is with regret that I advise readers of the Journal of the death in August this year of Leslie Reeder. He wrote only one article for the Journal, the story of his memories of Mob-6, the American Naval Hospital at Avondale during World War II. I for one will miss his informative, enthusiastic emails, all the way from Queensland. — Editor

Volume 7 Issue 38 Page 3

The first Whau schools by Lisa J Truttman For years, there has been uncertainty as to exactly when the first school in the Whau district (now Avondale and surrounding districts, including Henderson) opened and operated. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Presbyterian records for our area don’t go back further than the 1880s, same with Avondale school committee records, and the school had no uninterrupted finance from the provincial government, later the Crown, until 1864, there is still some speculation as to what happened, why and when. At the moment, I’m compiling a study of the early Whau schools, from what records are at hand and available, to be called Knowledge in the Wilderness. This is some of what I’ve found. The Whau Presbyterian Church, completed in time for Easter services in April 1860, was always intended to serve both as a church and as a school. Under education regulations at the time, the community were entitled to apply for Provincial Council funding to run a day school, if a certain number of teaching hours were given to secular education, by a certified teacher. This, apparently, the local community succeeded in achieving, as they are noted as applying for Government aid that year. According to later reports, the school had only 10 children — and that may have been the reason it ceased being funded by the Council for a period, until 1864, and indeed shut completely until sometime after June 1861. In those days, the subsidy paid only part of the teacher’s salary. The rest had to come from school fees, often a shilling a day per pupil. If children didn’t attend, or families couldn't afford the shilling, the school had no money. Enter John Bollard, newly-married in May 1861 and settling in Avondale with his wife by July that year on land he leased from William Innes Taylor. He must have chatted with his neighbour Dr. Thomas Aickin about the fact that the school had shut down. Together, they made efforts to resurrect the school, and probably formed their own informal school committee — of two — by July 1861. (Bollard was later awarded in 1911 for serving 50 straight years on the school committee, hence how we know when the committee began.) By 1863, they may have been joined by merchant John Buchanan. They were definitely joined by Rev. Andrew Anderson by early 1864, who went on to be the first Presbyterian minister based at Avondale from 1865. The school committee sent in applications for funding to the Provincial Council in 1864, and by the following year had a fully funded school once again, based at the Presbyterian Church. By now, the

The Avondale Historical Journal

Volume 7 Issue 38 Page 4

district was developing rapidly, with settlement and farms increasing further west, talk of a proposed canal, the Pollen brickyard on Rosebank from around 1863 and the Gittos tannery from 1864.

his mortgage as well. Education Board architect Henry Allright designed the first purpose-built schoolhouse for the district erected there, which opened in May 1882.

In 1867, the community formed another committee, this one engaged in fundraising and arranging for the construction of a public hall. The hall was built just across the road from the Presbyterian Church and opened on 14 November 1867, with a trust deed which expressly stated that the hall was intended for literary, scientific and educational purposes. The Whau School moved to the hall in early 1868. The School Committee were not charged any rent for use of the hall, and the school was the major user, but whenever important community meetings or elections cropped up, the school during the period from 1868-1882 would have to shut down for days — and find, on returning, equipment and furniture damaged in some instances. The hall, the school committee complained to the Education Board, was cold and draughty, with both children and teachers often falling ill. Yet, the Hall Committee claimed they hadn’t enough funds to repair the hall, and said that grants offered by the Education Board weren’t enough.

Along the way, there have been some interesting characters associated with those early days of the first Whau schools. Archibald H Spicer (1830-1883) was born in Vizagapatama, India, his father a captain of the 12th Regiment, Madras Native Infantry, of the East India Company. He arrived in New Zealand in 1851, and finally settled for a time in the Whau district in the early-to-mid 1860s. His estate here, close to the corner of New North and Blockhouse Bay Roads, was apparently the home of wandering peacocks. Spicer is listed as a teacher of the Whau School in Provincial Council records, after a man named Knox who had a dispute with Rev. Anderson over pay, but Spicer may well have helped Bollard and Aickin earlier than that date.

When the Common Schools Act came into force in 1868, the new Whau Educational District from 1869 became one of the first in the Auckland Province, and first on the Isthmus, to strike a separate special rate for educational purposes. By now, Rev. Anderson had left the district and returned to Britain, but the school committee may have utilised his house built at the corner of Layard and Cracroft (Crayford) Streets as a residence for the school’s head teacher from 1869. The education board purchased Anderson’s land afterhis mortgage was in default in 1875, and so obtained much of what is now the present site of Avondale Primary School. The remainder was purchased in January 1882 when another settler, Henry Hasall, defaulted on

Another, much more notorious character, was Samuel Frederick Mayhew. For some reason, the Education Board insisted that the then-teacher in 1881, Joseph Glenny, be replaced by Mayhew. The Whau Committee were outraged, but were told that what the Education Board said, went. So, it was Mayhew who was the first teacher of the new school in May 1882. Later that year, however, he left Auckland in the wake of some scandal and bad debts owed to Queen Street merchants. He popped up again in 1886, in Blenheim, charged with embezzling funds from the Spring Creek Rifles (he got off the charge, on appeal and on a technicality). His wife Alice sued for divorce in 1897, on the grounds that she hadn’t heard from her husband since 1882, that he’d committed adultery with women unknown to her, and had been living with another woman as his wife in Sydney. The Whau School Committee’s misgivings, after all, proved correct.

The Avondale Historical Journal Published by: the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society Inc. Editor: Lisa J. Truttman Society contact: 19 Methuen Road, Avondale, Auckland Phone: (09) 828-8494, 027 4040 804 Fax: (09) 828-8497, email: [email protected] Society information: Subscriptions: $10 individual $15 couple/family $30 corporate Website: http://www.geocities.com/avondalehistory/index

Copies of Avondale Historical Journal and AWHS Newsletter produced for us by Words Incorporated, 557 Blockhouse Bay Road, Blockhouse Bay. The Society and AHJ editorial staff thank

Avondale Business Association for their continued support and sponsorship of this publication.