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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Whangarei Heads

Whangarei Heads.

Whangarei Heads, in the county of Marsden, is the name given to the small farming settlement which has been formed on the land at the entrance of Whangarei harbour. It lies seventy-five miles to the north-west of Auckland, with which it is connected by steamer. The climate is very agreeable, and to those who delight in fresh air, sea bathing and retirement, the locality has many attractions. There is a post and telephone office at the Heads, and the settlement also has a public hall and a Presbyterian church.

The Whangarei Heads Public School is situated about four miles from Parua Bay and sixteen miles from the town of Whangarei. The school grounds occupy an acre and are well planted with trees. The building will accommodate about forty scholars. There are now forty-three on the roll, and the average attendance for the March quarter of 1901 was 35.5. The present master, Mr. A.M. Rust, took charge in 1896.

Mr. Alexander Mearns Rust, the Headmaster of the Whangarei Heads Public School, was born in Whangarei in 1859, and is the only son of the late Mr. John Stewart Rust, who for many years held the office of Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages a Whangarei, and who settled in the Colony before Heke's war broke out in 1845 at the Bay of Islands. Mr. A. M. Rust was educated at Whangarei, was engaged in commercial pursuits from the age of fifteen, and began to teach in September, 1881, at Kaurihohore. Four years later he was transferred to Pokeno, where he spent a similar period. He then returned to Whangarei to open the Horahora school, and after conducting it for three years he accepted his present position. His teaching capabilities are far above the average, and during the last four years in succession has secured 100 per cent. of passes in the standard examinations. He was a footballer of some prominence, a ten-second 100 yards sprinter, and a good all-round athlete. Mr. Rust was a lieutenant in the Whangarei County Rifles under the late Captain Storey, and has passed page 554 the examination for a captainey, having had ten years' military training in the volunteer service of New Zealand. Mr. Rust was for a time the conductor of the Whangarei Philharmonic Society and was the founder and conductor of the Kamo Choral Society, now defunct. As a Freemason, he is a Past Master of Lodge Star of the South, 1647, E.C. Mr. Rust's ancestors belonged to Aberdeen and were for generations connected with the China tea trade.