Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1982

Faltering Progress of the Nelson School Society (N.S.S.) to 1850

Faltering Progress of the Nelson School Society (N.S.S.) to 1850

By the beginning of 1845 the total attendance of children at day schools throughout the settlement was reported to be only 183 distributed as follows:

Anglican: Bishop's free School, Nelson 60
Waimea South, Wakefield 15
Nelson School Society (N.S.S.) Nelson School 60
Riwaka School 30
Wesleyan Nelson Day School 18
183

This represented a decline of some 140 pupils as compared with late 1843. Larger numbers attended the Sunday schools associated with each institution. For instance 160 attended the N.S.S. Sunday School in Nelson. The appearance of a Wesleyan school (conducted by William Moore) suggests that there was resistance to the N.S.S. undenominational policy. Wesleyan schools were also opened in Riwaka and Richmond in 1845. The presence of the Anglican school at Wakefield was probably a factor that led to the closure of the N.S.S. day school there. The N.S.S. day school started at Riwaka soon lapsed to Sunday school status. In May 1845 when the old British and Foreign School Society building was transported to Spring Grove, it was reported that 100 children there were "totally without the means of education". Nevertheless the Spring Grove school, starting as a Sunday school, did not achieve day status until October 1847. Two other schools opened in 1845 at Stoke and Waimea West did not become day schools till much later.

In early 1848, with characteristic resourcefulness, the Society took over (he structure that had been used by the New Zealand Company as its immigration barracks at Nelson and transported it to Waimea East where one part of the structure was re-erected in Richmond township and another at Appleby where it provided accommodation for a Sunday School. At Richmond the re-erected building was shared between a day school and the Richmond Mechanics' Institute. The Richmond day school opened with an enrolment of 35 day scholars and with James P. Horn, a carpenter, as school master under the general superintendence of a local sub-committee of the Society.

By April 1850 day schools had been added to the Sunday schools at Riwaka, Appleby and Spring Grove. The attendance at the Society's various schools in 1850 was recorded as follows:

Place Sunday Scholars Day Scholars
Nelson (including infant school) 120 87
Wakapuaka 25
Stoke 22
Richmond 50 40
Appleby 35 20
Waimea West 35
Spring Grove 40 30
Wakefield 20
Riwaka 32 32
379 209

In 1850 the European population of the province was just over 4,000.