Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

The Costley Institute

The Costley Institute, Richmond Road, Ponsonby. Under the will of the late Mr. Costley, one-seventh part of his estate was bequeathed to the Kohimarama Training School, and the amount, £12,150, was handed over to three trustees nominated by the executors. No special conditions were, however, imposed, and as the Kohimarama Training School had ceased to exist, the trustees recommended that an institution should be established to take charge of boys and girls from the Industrial Schools of the district, when they reached the age at which they were sent out into the world to earn their own living. This recommendation met with the approbation of Sir Robert Stout, then Premier of the Colony, and he caused a Bill to be prepared for the purpose. The Bill was passed by the Legislature without opposition, and was styled “The Costley Training Institution Act, 1885.” It empowered the trustees “to apply a sum of money in the purchase of a site in or near the city of Auckland, and in the erection and furnishing of buildings thereon; to select a certain number of boys and girls of ages fit to be apprenticed, being inmates of the schools established under the Industrial Schools Act, 1882, in or near the city of Auckland, and to apprentice such boys to suitable trades; in maintaining such boys at the institution until they were capable of being left to their own control; and in providing the girls with domestic service or other suitable employment.” With this authority the trustees commenced operations and selected the present site, for which they paid £1025. They erected the buildings at a cost of £2830, and expended a further sum of £703 in furnishing the house and improving the grounds. Under the will of the late Mrs Rebecca Hodge, a further endowment of £672 has been made for girls in charge of the institution. As each lad is apprenticed out a portion of his wages, not exceeding 9s per week, is used for his maintenance, while the balance is placed in the Savings Bank to his credit. The income derived from the investment of capital is about £500 a year, and when all the boys are placed out at work, and are all earning something, the income at the disposal of the institution will admit of a larger number being taken in charge; the trustees, therefore, look forward to an extension of the buildings at no distant date. The boys not at work attend the nearest Government school, and there is also an evening school. On Sunday they attend Divine service and Sunday
Costley Institute.

Costley Institute.

page 194 school. Auckland has every reason to feel proud of the solid and excellent work which is being done at the Costley Institute, in rearing up, as useful citizens, lads who otherwise might have proved a source of danger and expense to the community. Concerning the capable management of the institution by Mr. and Mrs Hendre, a high Church dignitary, on visiting the place recently, paid a well-deserved compliment by saying, “Well, it is like a man-of-war.”