Contributed by South Auckland Education Board The first attempt to bring schooling to the Hoe-o-Tainui Valley was an application received by the Auckland Education Board and written by Mr W J Birdlake on behalf of the settlers and dated 16 February 1923. It was not until 12 September of this same year that an Advisory Inspector reported that the district to be served was the Hoe-o-Tainui valley which was situated midway between the Tahuna and Te Hoe Schools and near the south western boundary of the Hauraki Plains. The valley contained first class land and although it was only a few years since the land was acquired, dairying was being carried out extensively. The road from Tahuna was in a very bad state of repair during the winter months and quite unfit for the conveyance of children by vehicle. In the area at that time were 52 children, 36 of these of school age. More than half of the children were natives and could not be depended on to attend regularly. However, the inspectors thought it was probable there would be sufficient pupils to maintain a good Grade 2 school. At this time the majority of the children attended the Tahuna School, but owing to the long distance and poor roads, attendance was not very regular. Some of the children travelled from 3 to 5 miles and one family 10 miles to school. It was recommended that Section VIII, Block VIII, which was a “Government Reserve” of 23 acres and was situated in a central position should be looked at and an area of 4 acres acquired. The situation was about 4 ½ miles from Tahuna and 6 miles from Te Hoe. NOTE: (This information was incorrect as in terms of the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act the area stated was held under the Lease by Mr C Fortune who had no wish to sell any part of the land.) The Inspector recommended that: 1. Application be made for the reservation of a school site on 4 acres in Sector 8 of Block 8. 2. That application be made to the Education Department for a grant to erect a school on the site. The investigation of this matter soon brought to light that the land was not a Government Reserve and consequently a section of 3 acres across the road, being Section VI Block VIII and owned by Mr A. E. Harrison, was acquired for the sum of £75 ($150). Application was duly made on 9 October 1923 for a grant to enable the erection of a school building, 23’6” x 14’6”, shelter shed type with floor area of 340 sq ft. The estimated cost was £425 ($850). Initially the Department did not accede to their request because at this same time the Tahuna School was being enlarged and it was feared that with a loss of children to a school at Hoe-o-Tainui, part of the school would be left unoccupied. However, the grant was eventually made on 1 February 1924. Quite some delay was experienced in the commencing of the building because of difficulty in securing delivery of the timber from Huntly to the site. It was July 1924 before this was on the site and the Contractor; Mr Chas C. Porter had commenced building. The title to the land was cleared of 26 August of this year. Final cost of the new building was £365 ($730). A letter from Mr Bidlake on 9 October 1924 informed the Board that the school was completed but to this date no desks or other equipment had been received. It was decided that the school would open on 3 February 1925, which it duly did, and the first recorded roll was at 6 May – 28 pupils. Mr H. M. Clothier agreed to act as local manager of the school until a school committee was elected, and did so until 23 October, when he retired because of his poor health. Mr A. E. Harrison took over. By July of 1925 the roll at the school had risen to 33, and at the same time the Board had put out a tender for a new shelter shed to be erected. The roll by the end of the year was 40 and prompted a request for the enlargement of the room, which was considered very urgent as the school had been built to accommodate 26 children. Six more children were expected when school opened for the 1926 year, which would make a roll of 46. Application was made to have the room enlarged by 130 sq feet, but the roll declined and the Board withdrew the application. However, by February 1927 the roll had risen again and the school committee agitated once more to have more room provided. The roll had reached 43. By 12 April 1927, a grant of £200 ($400) was made to cover the cost of the additions as requested in the previous plan. Meanwhile a grant of £3 ($6) had been made to cover the minor repairs to a shed 35 feet long which was to be loaned as use for a school room whilst the additions were being made. Approval to accept a tender of £289 ($578) by J. L. Thornton of Frankton Junction was given on 18 July of this year. It was planned to turn the school round on the site as well as adding to it. The Contractor commenced the contract at the start of the August school holidays and completed the job in five weeks. Of course this meant the children had an extended break as the shed mentioned previously was not available at this stage. An extra nine feed had been added to the existing classroom and the school reopened on 23 September. By December the roll had reached 54 with an expected increase to about 63 at the start of 1928, and following a request by the school committee the Board made application to the Department for the erection of a new partition, supply of a stove, additional shelter-shed accommodation and provision of extra outhouses.
On 17 April 1928 and inspector, Mr H. H. Richardson, visited the school and made the following report: “Population divided into: a. Permanent White – under 5 years – 16 children Maori – under 5 years – 10 children
Most settlers are young married men, so continuation or increased school population is to be expected. b. ‘Accommodation’ A shelter-shed school is at present much overcrowded, has a low roof and hence considerably reduced airspace, and two teachers in it. A lengthening of the present school would be but perpetuating a poor type of building. Enlargement is necessary and I recommend that a standard size single room be built for the upper classes, the present building still used for the lower classes.” On the basis of this report the Board made application and received a grant of £672 ($1344) to erect a further classroom. The size of this room was to be 22’6” x 21’ with a corridor six foot wide at one end, plus shelter shed 20’ x 9’ and two more toilets. What took place until 1936 is not known as the Board records do not cover this era. In 1936 the then school committee pressed to have a separate school for the Maori pupils who numbered 44, suggesting that the Hoe-o-Tainui school be used as a native school and the other children be consolidated on the Tahuna school. In July of 1936 it was expected that a land settlement scheme which was proposed would bring between 14 and 17 more pupils to the school. If this eventuated, extra accommodation would have to be provided. The school role was given as 97 on 19 September 1936 and again the school pressed for a decision on the consolidation on the Tahuna School. The Department however wrote to the Board on 26 September stating that they had instructed the Local MP, Mr Coulter, to inform the school committee that their request could not be granted, as this would be a distinct departure from the policy adopted for many years of allowing no distinction of race to be observed with the attendance of children at Public or Native schools. On 12 December 1936 the Board made an application to the Department for a special grant of £653 ($1306) to add a room 20’ x 21’ to the classroom built in 1928. Mr R. Guy of Swanson was the successful tenderer at £564 ($1128) and the additions were completed by 21 October 1937. Also during 1937 an application was made for the erection of a teacher’s residence at an estimated cost of £990 ($1980) on a site of ½ an acre offered for the sum of £15 ($30). The question of where to build was delayed however, and a report on 10 June 1938 stated that a plan attached showed the Hoe-o-Tainui school site of 3 acres. Section 8 Block 8 of 23 acres was across the road from this site (School). The residents of the district were pressing the Department of Lands & Survey to provide a public domain and hall site and on investigation of the position it appeared that a portion of section VIII was the most suitable area for this purpose. The whole of this section was of course not required and the commissioner of Crown Lands suggested that a portion shown on the plan (2 acres) might be suitable for a Headteacher's residence. The Department of Education were asked to look into the matter as it seemed likely that the Post and Telegraph Department might wish to acquire a post office site out of the section and an adjoining farm owner was interested in buying a portion. If such arrangements could be made it seemed it might be possible to purchase the full 23 acres from the owner, a Mrs Moss, for £1,000 ($2,000), then subdivide it to meet the requirements of public domain, hall site, teachers residence, post office, etc. On 26 October 1938 the Department of Education wrote to the Lands & Survey Department asking if, in the event of them taking over the area owned by Mrs Moss, a section almost opposite the school with a road frontage of 1 ½ chains and a depth of about 2 ½ chains, could be made available for a school residence to be built. Meanwhile, approval was obtained for the Board to invite tenders for a teacher’s residence to be built. The Lands & Survey Department withdrew their plans to go on with the purchase of this property and therefore requested that the Board look around for a suitable section. The Board did try to negotiate with Mrs Moss to buy the piece of her land they had chosen formerly, but Mrs Moss refused to subdivide. This led to the Board asking Mr E. B. Elliott if he was prepared to sell the ½ acre he had offered previously, but unfortunately he withdrew this offer at this time. Meanwhile Mrs Moss sold her property and the new owner also refused to subdivide, so the Board decided to acquire the piece they required by use of the Public Works Act. Both the owner and the Mortgagee objected but after some delay the piece of land was vested in the Board on 2 September 1940. A tender of £1324 ($2648) was accepted for the erection of the residence on the site of 1 Rood 20 Perches, and it was completed and occupied on 2 August 1941. Things went along quietly enough over the next ten years or so. In 1952 it was suggested that the third classroom at Hoe-o-Tainui be moved to Te Hoe. The roll at Hoe-o-Tainui was 65, whilst the roll at Te Hoe had risen to a point where further classroom accommodation was imperative. However, this did not
eventuate, the position having arisen when it was deemed necessary to
reorganise the Morrinsville – Hoe-o-Tainui – Tahuna conveyance
service. It was suggested
that the children from Waiti Road who formerly
attended the Hoe-o-Tainui schoo Above: Mr M Pairama recieving the Radio Waikato "School Bus Driver of the Year" Award in 1973. Again the usual maintenance, etc. was continued for the next 7-8 years at the Hoe-o-Tainui school until in 1959 a report was made on the bore water supply and the stream for the purpose of ascertaining their suitability for use in a school swimming pool. The report on the stream was very unfavourable; being high in iron content and grossly polluted. The bore water drawn from 70 feet below the surface was satisfactory although the iron content was also high. Because of the high iron content it was imperative that a filtration plant was installed to purify the water before use in the pool. After some discussion between the school committee and the Board the building of the baths was put to tender and one of £1038 ($2076) was accepted and a subsidy of £650 ($1300) was made available. The pool was to be 50’ x 20’ with a 2 unit Wilkie Filtration Plant. The pool was installed and the final payment made to the contractor on 24 November 1960. Because of surface water lying around on the school grounds, particularly the football ground, the school committee requested a grant of £235 towards the cost of improving the site, which work they were willing to do on a contract basis. The scope of the work was listed as: 1. Removal and replacement of goalposts. 2. Removing and stockpiling of the topsoil. 3. Ploughing and disking of topsoil of approximately 2 acres of the grounds. 4. Grading and levelling the sub-soil. 5. Replace the topsoil. 6. Trimming back of large trees on one side of the field. 7. Disposal of accumulated rubbish. 8. Fencing alterations. 9. Digging of an open drain the full length of one side of the field. 1 Working up of soil and re-grass to the Board’s specifications. 1 Manuring and rolling. About the same time approval was given to enable a grant of £965 ($1920) to be made available so that the school building of two classrooms could be enlarged. This work consisted of detaching and moving the staffroom and end wall of classroom towards the east a distance of 8 feet. Build additions to the existing classroom and reattach the staffroom. At the same time a new entrance was made in the south wall and new entrance and steps to each classroom on north wall. The rooms when completed were 22’ 6” x 27’ 6” and 28’ x 21’ with corridor 6’ 6” wide running the length of the south wall. This work was completed in May 1963. In 1963 a filter plant was installed on the school bore water supply for the school services at a cost of £475 ($950). In July 1967 a sum of $3,180 was made available to replace the old toilets. The Morrinsville Intermediate School was opened in May 1970 and Hoe-e-Tainui became a contributing school, i.e. retaining children up to Std IV.
New staff toilets were built in 1972 at a cost of $1347. At the start of 1973 a garage was moved from Mangakino to the school residence site to replace the then existing one which was beyond repair.
(Airial
view of the school, hall and marquee at 50th Jubilee 1975)
Above: Mrs. Iris Reed and Mary Hautonga (nee Tamati)
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l,
but who had taken advantage of the service to Tahuna, would have to resume
at Hoe-o-Tainui, being conveyed there by bus,
which it was at this time proposed to operate on a perimeter system.
