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Napier Technical College, New Zealand

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Napier Technical College was a technical education college in Napier, New Zealand.[5] Established in 1909, it provided general secondary education during the day and trade skills in the evening. After the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake caused severe damage to the technical college's buildings and killed nine students, the school was disestablished and amalgamated into Napier Boys' High School and Napier Girls' High School.

Napier Technical College, New Zealand
Students and staff in front of the college, c. 1925
Location
Map
Napier

New Zealand
Coordinates39°29′35″S 176°54′50″E / 39.49306°S 176.91389°E / -39.49306; 176.91389
Information
School typeTechnical
MottoLatin: Laborare est Orare
(To work is to pray)
Established1909
Closed1931
PrincipalWalter Fossey[1]
PrincipalI. E. Newton (1917)[2]
PrincipalRobert McLaren (1923/1924–1931)[3][4]
GenderCoeducational

Before the earthquake, the technical college suffered overcrowding due to increasing enrolments and a lack of space to erect new buildings. Consequently, development of a new site in Napier began in 1930, but due to the earthquake, the move there was never completed. Napier Intermediate School now occupies the site.

History

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Napier Technical College was established in 1909, replacing the Technical Institute. It taught both boys and girls, which provided general secondary education during the day, and taught trade skills during night school.[3][6] In 1908 the technical college had an enrolment of 80 students.[7] An example of a class held in the technical college was one that taught machine sheep-shearing, wool sorting and classing.[8][9]

The engineering department building of the technical college was completed in 1911.[10][11] Four years later in 1915, after a £250 grant[12] and a £660 tender,[13] The Honourable Josiah Hanan opened the technical college's gymnasium which also served as a social hall.[14] The electric work and lighting was done by the students.[15]

By 1923 the technical college had an enrolment of 250 students and taught classes including agriculture, engineering, home science and commercial.[16] That year, due to regulations, a third of the board was randomly selected to step down.[17]

With an increasing enrolment from 80 in 1908 to 256 in 1919, the technical college started to become overcrowded. Because of this, it had to start teaching classes of students in practical classrooms rather than using them for physical training. There was no room to erect more buildings as the technical college was on a quarter acre section.[7][18]

In 1919 architect Louis Hay was appointed to design a new college building.[19] The Napier Borough Council later decided that it would donate land, adjoin properties and close a road, making the site for the technical college approximately five acres.[20][21] After what was described as a "standstill" in 1925,[21] in August 1929 the Minister of Education approved a grant for building the first part of the new college.[22][23] After a delay,[24] the foundation stone was laid on 18 August 1930 by Minister of Education the Honourable Harry Atmore.[25][26] In January 1931 the first part of the new building was described as almost complete.[27] The technical college was never moved to this building due to the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.[3] It was two storeys high and had red bricks.[28]

On 1 March 1931 the technical college had an enrolment of 1008, of which, 605 were boys and 403 were girls.[6]

Earthquake

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The collapsed college after the earthquake
 
The collapsed college after the earthquake
 
Inside the damaged college. The second man from the left was a student.

On 3 February 1931, the magnitude 7.8 Hawke's Bay earthquake occurred, which destroyed the technical college, and killed nine students.[3][Note 1] The first earthquake caused parts of the outer brick walls to fall out onto the street, and the second earthquake caused the first floor to collapse on the ground floor classrooms.[3] The earthquake occurred after recess on the first day of the school year.[29][30][3] It took two hours to get the students out,[3] with some senior boys going back into the classrooms to rescue trapped classmates.[31][3]

After the earthquakes, several teachers were moved to other schools in the country,[32] and students were temporarily taught by the principal under a marquee in Nelson Park.[33][3] The technical college was never rebuilt.[34] Despite opposition and lobbying from the board of directors, the minister of education disestablished Napier Technical College and amalgamated it with Napier Boys' High School and Napier Girls' High School, which were the technical college's rivals.[35][3]

In 1935 a proposal was made to place a memorial on the technical college's former land to remember the students who died there.[36]

Legacy

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In 1921 the cricket club Napier Technical College Old Boys was started, which still runs to this day, now named Napier Technical Old Boys.[34][3] The technical college's band also still exists, now named the Napier Technical Memorial Band.[3] Napier Technical College was the first day-school to have a band.[4]

In 1960 New Zealand artist Rita Angus created a mural in the Napier Girls' High School to remember the earthquake and merger between the two schools. It has Napier Technical College's crest, uniform, and motto, which was Laborare est Orare, meaning "to work is to pray".[37][38][39]

In May 2014 Historic Places Aotearoa placed an information panel on Napier Technical College's first site, on the corner of Munroe and Station Street. The land is mostly now used as a Woolworths supermarket.[3][40]

The main block of Napier Intermediate School was built on the foundations of what was the new building of Napier Technical College.[28][3] MTG Hawke's Bay has a set of the school's uniform: a shirt, cap and pair of shorts. These were taken from student Harry Pond as he was being rescued from the collapsed building after the earthquake.[41][42]

Notable staff

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Notable alumni

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Notes

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  1. ^ The students who died were Frederick James Grant, Clifford Colvin Heath, Geoffrey Cole Knott, Rose Eileen Leverett, Irvine McMillan, Bertram Ogilvie, Lloyd Rhodes, Raymond Claude Robertson, and Irvine Thomas Stead. "H B Heritage News" (PDF). historicplacesaotearoa.govt.nz. 1 May 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2024.

References

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  1. ^ "H.B. County Council". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 12 March 1912. Retrieved 30 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  2. ^ "Obituary". 2 October 1950. Retrieved 30 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "H B Heritage News" (PDF). historicplacesaotearoa.govt.nz. 1 May 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Schoolmaster Resigns". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 7 October 1936 – via PapersPast.
  5. ^ "A new school". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 18 August 1930. Retrieved 25 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  6. ^ a b "Technical Education". Evening Post. 11 May 1931. Retrieved 26 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  7. ^ a b "Educational matters". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 12 February 1919. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  8. ^ "Local and general". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 13 September 1911. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  9. ^ "Local and general". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 14 September 1911. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  10. ^ "Untitled". Poverty Bay Herald. 9 May 1911. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  11. ^ "Untitled". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 30 May 1911. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  12. ^ "Local and general". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 22 May 1915. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  13. ^ "Local and general". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 29 May 1915. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  14. ^ "Ministerial visit". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 11 December 1915. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  15. ^ "Local and general". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 7 October 1915. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  16. ^ "Local and General". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 8 March 1932. Retrieved 24 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  17. ^ "Local and general". Hawke's Bay Herald. 8 August 1923. Retrieved 24 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  18. ^ "Technical school". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 15 April 1919. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  19. ^ "Local and General". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 21 November 1919. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  20. ^ "Napier Technical School Site". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 11 February 1920. Retrieved 23 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  21. ^ a b "Sir James Parr". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 15 December 1925. Retrieved 24 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  22. ^ "Local & General". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 29 August 1929. Retrieved 25 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  23. ^ "Untitled". Poverty Bay Herald. 2 September 1929. Retrieved 25 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  24. ^ "Ministerial Visit". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 28 February 1930. Retrieved 25 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  25. ^ "Local & General". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 15 August 1930. Retrieved 25 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  26. ^ "A new school". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 18 August 1930. Retrieved 25 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  27. ^ "Untitled". Poverty Bay Herald. 3 January 1931. Retrieved 26 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  28. ^ a b "Newspaper Article 2006 – The school's walls began to sway…". knowledgebank.org.nz. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  29. ^ Hendery, Simon (28 January 2017). "Flashback: Hawke's Bay's 1931 earthquake claimed 256 lives". Stuff. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  30. ^ "Staff and pupils of the Napier Technical College". MTG Hawkes Bay. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  31. ^ Clement, Christine; Abeling, Shannon; Deely, Joanne; Teng, Andrea; Thomson, George; Johnston, David; Wilson, Nick (20 March 2019). "Descriptive Epidemiology of New Zealand's Highest Mortality Earthquake: Hawke's Bay in 1931". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 4914. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.4914C. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-41432-6. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6426931. PMID 30894655.
  32. ^ "Five thousand dwellings". Evening Star. 25 February 1931. Retrieved 26 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  33. ^ "Schools at Napier". Evening Post. 11 March 1931. Retrieved 26 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  34. ^ a b Singh, Anendra (3 March 2018). "Cricket: Napier Technical Old Boys stalwarts reflect on recent past to put feat in perspective". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  35. ^ "Untitled". Hawke's Bay Tribune. 18 July 1931. Retrieved 22 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  36. ^ "Untitled". Poverty Bay Herald. 4 December 1935. Retrieved 26 March 2024 – via paperspast.natlib.govt.nz.
  37. ^ "Public Art Heritage". publicart.nz. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  38. ^ "Untitled [Napier Girls' High School]". publicart.nz. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  39. ^ "Clyde Road, no. 4: Napier Girls' High School Main Block" (PDF). napier.govt.nz. 12 February 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  40. ^ "Napier Technical College, New Zealand" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  41. ^ Vodanovich, Laura (21 March 2024). "From the MTG: Objects evoke feelings about our history". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  42. ^ McCauley, Tania (19 September 2023). "Museum: Telling stories, creating a sense of place". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  43. ^ "Personal Paragraphs". Manawatu Times. 19 October 1922. Retrieved 26 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  44. ^ "Self portrait by Rembrandt". collections.tepapa.govt.nz. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  45. ^ "Stats | allblacks.com". stats.allblacks.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  46. ^ "Stats | allblacks.com". stats.allblacks.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  47. ^ "All Blacks Selected". Evening Star. 6 October 1927. Retrieved 24 March 2024 – via PapersPast.
  48. ^ "Stats | allblacks.com". stats.allblacks.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.

Further reading

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