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.