Iona College Centenary – Jo McGlashan

[No introduction – begins mid sentence]

Jo McGlashan: [Microphone interference at start] … “A country that doesn’t know it’s past doesn’t have a future”; encouraging people, I think, to know their story, to know their past. And as an historian I would agree with this immensely. We need to know where we come from; we need to know what’s gone on before. And so this little book is called ‘Celebrating 100 Years’, but it’s also ‘Milestones, Moments and Memories’. It contains factual information; it contains very important dates and major events; and it contains those sideways little stories that people writing home or saying things, or writing things down – you know, those are the fun parts, and really good – milestones, moments and memories.

I would personally be mortified to read anywhere that Iona College was built on disputed land, and so part of the early search was to follow the story of the land. The school is built on eight acres of land donated by Mr Hugh Campbell, further land donated by Mr Mason Chambers, and later John McFarlane.

It was important to me to address the question of how this site passed from the tangata whenua to the Pakeha. Our Council deputy chairman, Stuart Webster, completed a very comprehensive and valuable study of this very question, and very briefly, because I think we all need to know, the European story of this land begins in September 1858 with the acquisition of a four thousand acre area of land known as Karanema’s Reserve. This was purchased by the Hawke’s Bay Provincial Government from the local tribe, Ngati Kahungunu, for the sum of £800. It was named for the son of Te Hapuku and Te Heipora, so seemingly it was all above board … there’s nothing shonky going on here, the land was bought and paid for. But I didn’t know until last year that what is going on now is that the descendants of Te Heipora have lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal under Wai 574, stating that Karanema’s Reserve was made during the purchase of the Te Mata block, for use in perpetuity by Te Heipora’s descendants. The claimants state that the Crown should not have allowed its sale and have asked for compensation to be paid by the Crown for its loss. I didn’t know that was going on; it is. Stuart Webster, deputy chair, would say to us, “That is a matter for the Crown; it is not for Iona to look or turn back. If the claim to that land has merit, then there is a well-established mechanism adopted by the Crown for compensating land dispossessed.” Now if you want to look into that further, Stuart Webster’s paper, which was far too big for my book, is on the website.

Chapter 1 here – it’s called ‘The Kirk, the Laird and the Lady Principal’. Now this statement is taken from Presbyterians in Aotearoa New Zealand. Many in the Presbyterian Church were convinced that education without a religious context and foundation was of little value in the formation of character. [Shows slides] We meet on your left the Reverend Alexander Whyte MA, BD, B[S]c, FLS, [Master of Arts, Bachelor of Divinity, Bachelor of Science, Fellow of the Linnean Society], 1864-1919. He was a graduate of the University of Glasgow; he was a member of the Linnean Society; he had a keen interest in education. In 1900 as minister of St Columba’s Church in Havelock North, he proposed that a ladies’ college be established in Wellington or some other central city, but that proposal was turned down. When thoughts of a Presbyterian ladies’ college began to take shape Whyte wrote regular articles in the Outlook, the weekly newspaper of the Presbyterian Church, advocating a boarding school for the daughters of Presbyterians throughout New Zealand. From Havelock North he moved down to Dunedin – Port Chalmers – and he was involved in the founding of both Columba and John McGlashan Colleges. So he represents the church here; a real passionate interest, and if you read some of the things he’s written in the Outlook – ‘We believe in the Presbyterian Church! There is nothing better!’ All right? You can just imagine him writing, he had a real passion for this.

In the middle we have the laird, Mr Hugh Campbell, 1853–1920. He of course, was the person who donated the land. He was born in Kirkcudbright [Gaelic pronunciation] – I’m told that’s how it’s said in Scotland. He migrated [emigrated] to New Zealand in 1873 and worked as a farm labourer near Timaru. With his wife, Amy, and child he shifted to Hawke’s Bay in the early 1880s where he worked for Mr Thomas Tanner. Amy died in June 1890, and Hugh married her sister, Hannah Alice, in 1891. From about 1900 Hugh bought properties in Hawke’s Bay including Kahuranaki Station, and in 1902 he and Hannah built a home, Breadalbane if you like, in Havelock North; and he became known as Hugh Campbell of Breadalbane, if that’s how you want to say it, to distinguish him from two other local Hugh Campbells who were very active in the day – Hugh Campbell the MP [Member of Parliament] and Hugh Campbell the builder. So there were Hugh Campbells all over the place, but this is ours, all right? The Laird. [Chuckles]

You’re going to meet the lady Principal, Miss Mary Isabel Fraser, 1863-1942. Now she was a true trailblazer in the education of young women. She was born in Dunedin; in 1888 she graduated BA from the University of Otago – really right up with it there – and a year later graduated MA with Honours in Physics, in heating and light. In 1890 she was appointed as an English mistress at Otago Girls’ High School, and in 1893 she was appointed Principal of Wanganui Girls’ College, which by the end of the century had become the largest boarding school for girls in New Zealand.

So when you ask the question, “How come the school ever got underway?”, there were three forces working towards it, right – there was the Church; there’s the man donating the land, saying, “Yeah”; and there’s this highly professional and qualified woman who says to the Church, “Listen, if you establish a Presbyterian girls’ school, I will work as Principal for five years without pay.” So you have to stop and ask yourself, why would a person donate eight acres of land to the church? Why would a person say, “I’ll come and work for you for five years without any pay?” That’s what’s going on at that time, and it interests me that two of these people were born overseas, the kirk and the laird; the lady Principal born in New Zealand.

So we return to the Church, and we’re going back to 1911 where the General Assembly was held in Dunedin. And thinking about the offer of land, and thinking about, ‘Do we need a girls’ school?’ And listening to Alexander Whyte, they thought, ‘Okay, we’d better do something about this.’ And so they established a committee – that’s what Presbyterians do, you know that – established a committee, and it fascinated me that this committee came from all over the country, it’s not just a local thing. On this committee were people from Invercargill, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Wellington, Dannevirke, Auckland. Also, two of these members had been ministers in Australia, in Victoria, and they would’ve had the experience of, you know, Melbourne Presbyterian Ladies’ College. They would’ve known what it was to set up a girls’ school.

So that all happened in 1911, November, and they were all sent home – think about how you got around the country in 1911 – they were all sent home to sort of tell people about this possibility, think about raising funds, and that was what they had to do. And the next year, 1912, they came back to Wellington, St John’s, and three very important decisions were made. The first was that the land that had been offered be accepted; the second was that Miss Fraser’s offer of five years without pay be accepted, and she was appointed as Principal; and the third was that the name of this Presbyterian Ladies’ College be, in fact, ‘Iona’, after the island of Iona; that the motto be ‘Love, Joy and Peace’, those fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22; and that the crest or the logo be the Celtic Cross, the cross in a circle. Now that was all decided in November 1912, way before any mail went anywhere.

So we speed along to 14th May 1913, so it was one year 1911, 1912 and then not long after, May 1913, the foundation stone of the school was laid. As recorded in our Outlook magazine, 14th May 1913 was a red-letter day in the history of the Presbyterian Church. One thousand people gathered at the site of the proposed college for the ceremony of laying the foundation stone, doubling the population of Havelock North. The event was fully recorded in the Hawke’s Bay Herald of the day, 15th May, which tells us that the day was ideal for the occasion and the weather was beautifully fine. The plaque on the foundation stone reads, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’ … down the bottom there, you may just see that … Proverbs Chapter 1, Verse 7. In its fullness this proverb reads, ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction’. Now I guess, you know, this is probably in a King James version; those are the words, and we’d probably want to re-phrase some of that. Basically all that really matters is devotion to something greater than ourselves. This maxim stands as an invitation to an understanding of life, and life beyond this life. It reminds us that life is bigger than we are, and that life in all its fullness has a spiritual dimension. The Celtic Cross, the cross on the circle that Iona students wear, attests to that; May 1913.

Now we’re going to rush forward a bit because there’s a whole lot about Rush & James, who you know, were the architects; there’s a whole lot about Smith and Smith who were the builders, and you know, how the school started to take place. We’ve got photos of scaffolding and things building, but I’m going to jump right along now to Opening Day, February 24th 1914. You have there Mr Massey, the Prime Minister; before a crowd of about seven hundred people – a bit lower this time – Mr Massey formally declared Iona College open in this way – now listen to this – “Iona is a credit to all concerned, and I hope it will become one of the most important educational establishments in the Dominion. The name chosen for the College is most appropriate; I hope it will be as powerful an influence for good in the Britain of the South as the Iona of Britain of the North has been. I formally declare Iona College open, and I hope and believe it will experience many years of prosperity.” That language, you know, ‘the Britain of the South’. [Chuckles] It’s all changed hasn’t it, really? But that’s what he was saying at the time … “we hope it’s going to be this important.”

And here’s just another flash of Opening Day just to show you … well, have a look at the cars for instance, and have a look at the dress – this is opening day. And this really has become sort of the iconic photo; it’s been everywhere. It’s been in the Hawke’s Bay Today, and it’s a really good record of that day. Just to remember that Iona opened, according to the records that we have in the admission and progress records, the first admissions – there were sixty-four of them – we’re not told whether they were boarders or day girls, but there were only forty-eight beds so there must’ve been a few day girls as well, [chuckles] unless they were sleeping on the floor. So it interests me that five of these people came from the South Island. It interested me that seven came from Gisborne. I’m just going to read you a little bit that Agnes McIldowie, who came from Gisborne, wrote – Agnes McIldowie: ‘I have come from Gisborne, and we used to travel to Napier by ship, the SS ‘Arahura’.’ She later wrote: ‘The ‘Arahura’ did not berth at Gisborne, and we had to row out to the roadstead in a tender called ‘Tutia’. It was nearly always rough. The ‘Arahura’ reeked with the smell of cabbage and we were nearly always sick. Miss Fraser remarked more than once, “It would be nice if the Gisborne girls arrived looking as if they really did belong to someone.” [Laughter] So, that’s Opening Day.

And so we come to the Fraser years. This is Miss Fraser, you’ll see her sitting just there, and staff that’ve come; we had five staff. She went across and visited and bought five staff out from England and the rest are from New Zealand. The Fraser years, remember all the while World War 1 is sort of going on. This is the first head girl, Forbes Cameron. Forbes Cameron was one who came from Invercargill; now why on earth would people in 1914 send their daughter to Havelock North to go to school? It’s that same thing, isn’t it? Presbyterians … good Presbyterians. [Chuckles] And I just put the wee flags there [showing slides] to remind them of what Mr Massey said, you know … “Britain of the South”.

The war years, and here’s a photo I found in some little kid’s … Box brownie thing … photograph album in the archives, and here we are making shirts for the Tommies, [Privates in British Army] for heavens sake! And this person here is Miss Seward; now you might’ve heard of Miss Seward already because she came as art mistress from England and she spent a long time at Iona. And if you’ve been across to the museum lately and you’ve seen that chair that someone made, it would’ve been under Miss Seward. She was a really talented art and craft teacher. So that’s her there. I really love that photo.

Prefects. We did have prefects in 1914 and 1915; I’ll just tell you where they come from. We have Helen Hunter, she’s from Ashburton; Jessie Young, she’s from Hawera; Chris Stole she’s from Featherston; Bessie Grenside, now she’s from Hastings; Forbes Cameron, Invercargill; and Agnes Bartholomew from Fielding. They came a long way, didn’t they?

Now – it wasn’t just cooking class, it was cooking, because one class a day or a week or whatever, they were responsible for preparing meals. And so Mrs [?] who was the manager’s wife, she’d sort of help with the recipe[s], and Miss Fraser checked all the recipes, and they cooked … they cooked the tea. And there was a lovely little thing and it’ll be in the book somewhere, about this kid saying, “We had to love it when we had to do the pudding, because if you didn’t get out with a handful of raisins in your bloomers” … [Laughter] It’s true … it’s all true. And just a couple of smaller photos, very early on in 1916 Iona had the baths made. Miss Fraser herself was intent that every girl should learn to swim, and I think it had something to do with the fact that when she was at Wanganui someone nearly drowned at Foxton Beach or something; that’s what I gather. But she was intent that every girl should swim, and she would stand down there with this basketball hoop thing on a stick and drag them along the bottom. [Laughter] She would. So we were very lucky to have the baths as early as 1916, and the baths are still there.

And again, just the art work, the outdoor sketching, and the absolute peace of the place. It’s really wonderful.

Oh, and you can imagine the Nimon’s bus here [chuckles] – they’re going off somewhere for the day. The colour photo is an enlargement of the original award; that’s standing up in the school dining room now, but the award system said that every girl that did a satisfactory year at school got this pewter or silver badge, the Celtic Cross, and then stones were added you know, for special fields. If you had good conduct you’d get a moonstone; if you did good classwork you’d get a coral; and if you were good at music you’d get an amethyst; if you were good at art you’d get a purple topaz; and if you were good at domestic arts – that’s making the dinner – you’d get a greenstone; and if you were good at sport you’d get a turquoise. And so by this system excellence was recognised and rewarded. So I think that’s done Miss Fraser … yes, seven years and that’s when everything was established. Sadly, during that time we only had one copy of the school magazine. The school magazine was printed in 1916 and it wasn’t printed again until 1925 so I guess because of the war I’m really not sure why but we don’t have that annual record to look into for those years. So, Miss Fraser decided she’d had enough, and she resigned and left with due aplomb.

And then over the next fourteen years there was a bit of tradition and a bit of challenge. Miss Barr came from a state school; came to our college. She had good ideas, she introduced the House system, Gartan and Columba. She said to the Council, “You need to get a science lab, ‘cause if you’re going to do anything for education you need science … [a] science lab; and that the school should be registered as a school if you’re going to go ahead you should be registered.” So that was all appreciated. She went off down to Timaru Girls’; she wrote a book, and in 1939 she was given the OBE for her services to education. You know, she was onto it, but she didn’t stay that long.

Miss Drennan; now Miss Drennan … they called her ‘daughter of the manse’, right? She came out from Scotland and she was a daughter of the manse. And it was a bit of a clash of aims going on here because in the end she was given the opportunity to resign. [Chuckles] I don’t know how to explain it. She wanted to be perhaps too academic for these country bumpkins, who were good at making the tea and that sort of thing – I’m not sure, but something didn’t work. But sadly, you know, the parents started to vote with their feet and sort of took their girls away, and so the roll which was a hundred and thirty-six in 1921 was halved four years later. So people didn’t like what was happening so she was given the opportunity to resign. She was from here, and it was interesting finding this out, too. She came to us from Southland Girls’ and then when she left here she went to Sonning, as part of Waikato Dio, [Diocese] and then went across to Australia to PLC in Sydney. So she didn’t give up teaching entirely; she must have found a wee spot. But this wasn’t her spot. [Chuckle]

Someone mentioned Miss Stollery – she came. She’d been bought out as a teacher of drama, she was called ‘Caesar’ [chuckles] … oh, imagine that! She became acting Principal, you know, while all this was going on, and then she became Principal. She was a real hub for the community, because it had become somewhat disparate as you can imagine over the last year or two. So she was really good.

During this time of course, we had the Hawke’s Bay earthquake, and the school building was so damaged that the school actually closed for a year. And in the book there’s a fascinating interview with a dear old soul – she and her sister were coming across from Mokau, and they’d gone down the river to get to New Plymouth to get on the train, and they felt the earthquake, way over the other side of the Island. And then there was a couple of phone calls, they said, “Don’t come! Don’t come, go home again.” And so the school was closed. There were lots of arguments about whether people needed to work hard and raise money, and get the school back up again; and people went and visited the government and the Presbyterian Church. And in the end it was decided, “Yes, we need to do this; we’re not going to stop now.” And the school was rebuilt and it opened again in 1932 with twenty-seven boarders and nine day girls, so it was very low … very low in numbers.

After the earthquake, Miss McNeil – that name you all know – became assistant Principal. She was away in 1931; she had a year at Grenoble [Alpes] University doing some French, and she came back and took up her role as assistant.

And then in 1935 Miss Stollery resigned and married Mr Campbell, the chairman of the Board. [Laughter] And I was just saying before, that I hadn’t heard any gossip about that, so obviously it was all quite fine; it was really lovely. In fact Miss McNeil was her bridesmaid. [Laughter] One thing she did do, she sort of was very keen on getting you know, wireless and gramophone for singing and music lessons … IT – hundred years old IT, yes. Yeah, that was one of her passions apparently. And so Miss McNeil became Principal in 1936; and again because of the war I’ve put those two flags back. Miss McNeil was twenty-seven years as Principal; she was thirty-six years altogether at Iona.

In 1938 Iona celebrated twenty-five years of existence which was good to do, but the war years were very spartan. It was a very strict regime but it built incredible bonds. I went to Dannevirke to interview these three or four old girls that you see on the right there; some had come over from Feilding, one had come down from Waipukurau. And all these treasures just poured out, and I couldn’t interview them – they all wanted to talk at once. [Laughter] It was just bubbling, bubbling … and it was a reflection on their community, you know, during the war. And so again, I’m fascinated that from these difficult years like the 1930s with the Depression, and the war years, have come three humongous bequests for the school, so obviously they felt okay about being there in the war; the incredible bond.

Changes in our outlook after of the war. [Showing slides] Dear Miss McNeil; they were concerned to have a chapel for the school. In 1946 a chapel fund was established; everybody worked hard for it, old girls, students, parents of friends, and by 1958 the chapel was standing and it was debt free. So we don’t go and borrow lots of money … well they didn’t then, they raised it and built the chapel. And I’ve got a little special booklet on the chapel if anyone is interested in seeing that, the history of the chapel. With a little bit of expansion here another founders’ wing was built in 1954 – that was when the school was fifty – and a bit more expansion in 1962 with the purchase of Crosby and Crosby House.

Now this is what Iona looked like in 1959, and it’s been added to quite a bit, hasn’t it, really? There’s a couple more wings over here; there’s a big building going along here. We used to walk – I was here from ‘60 to ‘62 – we used to walk all the way down the back road to that playing field up in the top right corner. That was what we did after school every day … do our games down there and then walk all the way back again. That doesn’t happen now of course, because that part has been sold and with acquisition of Crosby the playing fields are now at Lucknow Road as you go past.

The next Principal was Miss Atkinson from 1964 to ‘84. Miss Atkinson came to us from England although she had been at Nga Tawa [also known as Wellington Diocesan School for Girls]. She had been teaching somewhere down there and then went back home, and someone said, “Why don’t you apply for Iona College?” And so she did, and she was appointed and a lot of thoughtful expansion went on during her time. We had the 50th Jubilee; a new gymnasium; two new Houses were started, Fraser and McNeil, because the roll had grown, and she didn’t want the size of the houses to get much bigger. There were building changes … the hall to the Holt library; Mid Wing and Far Wing, those two new wings; and in 1979, quite a long time ago, the Parents & Friends was established to support the school along with the Old Girls and the Council. In 1983 there were Lockwood classrooms put in, so a lot of thoughtful expansion with the help of the Council and the advice from there. Miss Atkinson is still alive, she lives in Taupo; sadly she couldn’t come down to the Centennial, but she knows all about it and she’s got a copy of the book, so she should be happy.

Many of you may know Mrs Joan Murray. [Coughing] Mrs Joan Murray became Principal after a bit of … what can we call it? We had a short period where Mrs Saunders was Principal, but again there was sort of a clash of aims – I think this is the only reason we can explain it. And so Joan Murray who was deputy Principal, reluctantly I think, became Principal. And I’ve called her there ‘The Caretaker’ – she was a very … very warm and personable person, you know, a mother person. But during this time we had the Picot Report and Tomorrow’s Schools, and schools like Iona challenged the independent school system to greater efficiency, higher academic performance and increased competitiveness. And so while all that was going on the school was just managing; we had empty beds. We took a couple of steps like introducing day girls again – in 1988 had seven days girls – and in 1990 we had Form 1 and 2s [Forms 1 & 2] added to the school. That was Iona’s response to the sort of hard times and the pressure from the government, so we got through there.

You may remember Mrs Melville – Mrs Melville was with us from ‘96 to 2008, and her claim to fame is that during her time Iona became a state integrated school, as did Woodford [House], and as did Lindisfarne College. Integration is a legal bond with the government – the government agree to pay some building upkeep, and staff wages and things like that, and Iona agree to look after the boarding house and the chapel and the grounds and things like that. It is a legal bond, you know, it’s all signed legally, but it does require that Iona has it’s Special Character, and there is a whole document, you know – it’s all written out; [a] document on special character which is vital that we maintain because if we don’t maintain it … [there’ll] be no money.

So fortunately there are a few things going on, not only in our Council – we have a Board of Trustees as well, because of the integration part; you might’ve noticed the main gates were widened; new sports centre; the chapel transepts are wide; St Oran’s, music, office makeover, fountain courtyard, Mossman Art and Technology Block; you know, so things continued up at school there.

The last principal was Mrs Pauline Duthie, she has the distinction of being Iona’s first appointed Principal as an integrated school. She came to us from St Hilda’s, and just at the end of last year was appointed as Principal to Christchurch Girls’. Now that’s not going to be an easy job, going to Christchurch Girls’, with the earthquake and everything else that’s going on. So she is down there. During her time was very, very keen on technology, the IT. All our intermediate kids now have laptops, you know; we’re really into it.

The new buildings, the intermediate centre and the performing arts is all what you see when you drive up Lucknow Road now. There’s the performing arts – huge building – and the Information Technology block.

So it was actually hard writing the history, because it’s more like writing current affairs – it’s much easier to write the early chapters of the book. Because some of it you’re standing in, and you have to be very careful about what you’re writing; so I had to stop and say to myself, “What do people want to know about in thirty, forty years’ time?” Because you need a bit of perspective on this.

If you walk up to Iona, or be at Iona, you walk around … you can’t help but be impressed by it’s story, you know, the things that are there … the chapel windows, the prefects, the plaques on various things that are there, Miss Seward’s sundial, the crosses, the magazine cover, the baths … you know, it’s all there. And of course, with the Centennial comes this fabulous [Paul] Dibble sculpture [‘Iona Girl’ in the school grounds] that you’ll see if you go up to Iona. That was part of the Centennial opening as well.

I’m going to pause now ‘cause I’m sure that I’ve spoken far too much, but I’m sure there may be one or two questions.

Jim Watt: Jo, these are lovely montages, and if I could share the cover of your book … as Jo pointed out to me, there’s the teddy bear and there’s also a lap top down there. [Chuckles]

Jo: Well actually, Sue Wilson did that – she’s very good.

And we did have a fabulous weekend in March, and on the first evening, sort of getting ready for everything and making sure that the marquee worked, we had a dinner for the school; so all the girls and all the staff right down to the gardener. And that was catered for, and every person there on that occasion received a wee ‘Iona Girl’ of that pattern. And it was just so special you know, it was a real one-off. Well we had a great weekend, it was superb.

Comment: They didn’t tell them that Miss Fraser bought the kiwi fruit with her to New Zealand.

Jo: No I didn’t, you’re quite right. I will tell you, it’s here. [Reads]

‘The kiwi fruit connection. Isabel Fraser is credited with introducing Chinese gooseberries, kiwi fruit, to New Zealand. In 1903 Isabel visited her sister, Katie, a missionary in Ichang, China. She returned to New Zealand with some Ichang gooseberry seeds which were successfully propagated by a Mr Allison, the parent of a Wanganui Girls’ College pupil’.  And this is from the Zespri website. ‘The seeds she carried back with her from her trip to China were likely a curiosity. Little could she have known what those seeds would sow; until recently, commercial kiwifruit cultivars selected over the years in New Zealand could be traced back to those original seeds’. So there you go!

Jim: Well, if there are no further questions I’ll ask Peggy to propose a vote of thanks.

Peggy van Asch: Jo, thank you very much indeed for a fascinating talk on Iona, and it was absolutely super because often we just hear the history, but to actually hear the stories from the pupils that were there – it makes a big difference. Can I ask you was it Alf [?] who was involved with Iona?

Jo: Alf was very much involved with Iona, yes.

Peggy: Well when the Havelock North Borough Council building was being demolished I was working there with Age Concern, and I wanted some windows out of the building and Alf wanted some windows out of the building. So we came to a compromise in the end, and he said, “But I need them for Iona.” And so I think that the sort of half-moon windows that were at the front of the old Borough Council building, Alf got those which is what I really wanted; [chuckles] but we compromised, and I got the windows out of the actual council chamber that were large windows that tilted in the middle. And so the top was lead light, the bottom was a frosted glass. So we compromised on it. But thank you very much indeed, it was very, very interesting. Thank you. [Applause]

Jo: If you don’t know your past you don’t have a future. That’s my point.