Journal of the Nelson and Marlborough Historical Societies, Volume 1, Issue 2, November 1982
Development up to 1856
Development up to 1856
The slow progress achieved by 1850 was not evenly maintained. The day schools at Richmond, Riwaka and Appleby soon reverted to Sunday school status, but when after 1851 the province became more prosperous as the result of the high demand for its produce in the Australian goldfields, the Society found it possible by 1854 to open at Stoke, Waimea West and Hope in Waimea East.
In November 1853 a provincial government was established in the Nelson Province. The elected Provincial Council appointed a commission to enquire into the state of education in the province. The commission reported in September 1855 and the Provincial Council decided to set up a Central Board of Education which would take over the schools run by the N.S.S. with effect from 1 July 1856. In ihe meantime, in response to a petition from the Society, the Provincial Council made grants of £180 in 1854 and £400 in 1855 to the Society in order to assist to maintain and develop its school system. These grants helped the Society to consolidate the position of its day schools and to open or re-open three more. In mid-1856 when the Society was about to hand over its day schools to the Central Board of Education it was in control of a brave little system of elementary schools with attendances as follows:
Locality | Day | Evening | Sunday |
Nelson | 81 | 29 | 95 |
Stoke | 25 | 9 | 25 |
Appleby | 30 | 40 | |
Hope | 22 | 10 | 38 |
River Terrace (Waimea South) | 30 | 30 | |
Wakefield | 22 | 15 | 22 |
Waimea West | 17 | 7 | 25 |
Motupipi | 17 | ||
316 | 94 | 325 |
The Central Board of Education's inspector reported at the end of 1856 that he had taken over 13 day schools when he assumed his duties. Only the eight day schools listed above, however, were shown as being controlled by the Nelson School Society in its twelfth report rendered in April 1856.
Masters (or in the case of Appleby and River Terrace, mistresses) had been appointed to all eight day schools. Although evening classes had been tried earlier in the Society's history it was in 1852 that the Society set out consistently to develop evening classes in order to cater for children whose parents required them to work during the day.
After June 1856 the Nelson School Society confined its activities to the promotion and management of Sunday schools until its affairs were finally wound up in 1897.