Mr. David Cossgrove, Headmaster of Kaiapoi Native School, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1852. He came with his parents to Port Chalmers by the ship “Alpine,” and was educated at Milton. In 1872 he commenced as a teacher under the Otago Board of Education, and held several appointments in the district. He was afterwards on the West Coast, and joined the Kaiapoi school in 1899. Mr. Cossgrove has been connected with volunteering since 1866. He now holds the rank of captain and quartermaster, and went to South Africa with the Sixth Contingent, and again with the Tenth as paymaster. He was also gazetted as captain and quartermaster in the New Zealand Militia on the 25th of April, 1901. In 1875 he was married to a daughter of the late Mr W. Robertson, of Sandfly Bay, Otago, and has four sons and four daughters.