Memories of rural schools

The Dairy Flat School on State Highway 17 has a flourishing roll of 180 pupils, but from 1873 to April 1890 it was a “halftime school” sharing its schoolmaster with Lucas Creek (now Albany) and from May 1890–1899 it was half time with Horseshoe Bush (later closed). One of the “half time” teachers was Mr W Hammond.

In 1890 at the age of 21 he set off from Auckland on a small steamer for Silverdale, to see the Chairman of the Dairy Flat School Board. He arrived in the late afternoon to find there was no coach service from Silverdale to Dairy Flat.

There were two stores at Silverdale owned by Bonds (now Bond & Bond) and Lees, who delivered goods to Dairy Flat, but only twice a week. His two options were to hire a horse or walk. He decided to walk and on the way was given a lift in a “springcart” by Mr Body who kept a store and post office at Dairy Flat. When Mr Hammond arrived at Dairy Flat he found that the Chairman of the Board he had come to see lived at Horseshoe Bush some five miles away. By then it was too late to get to Horseshoe Bush but Mr Body’s brother-in-law, Tom Bawden, walked some distance with him to the 500 acre farm owned by Mr and Mrs Wilson where he was able to arrange accommodation.

At the Dairy Flat School the roll was 24, several children coming to school all the way from Horseshoe Bush by foot or on horseback. Getting to school and back from Horseshoe Bush could be quite an adventure as there were several small streams to be crossed. The wooden bridges were only 30–40cm above water and had no hand rails so, after an hour or two of heavy rain, they were under water. The Horseshoe Bush children had to be sent home as soon as it started to rain so that they could cross the bridges safely.

After he had been at Dairy Flat for a few months, Mr Hammond was asked to teach three days at the Dairy Flat School and three days at the new school at Horseshoe Bush, for which his salary was raised to ₤100. The Horseshoe Bush School was a former gum store with two rows of desks. There was no playground and the building was surrounded by the stumps of kauri trees.

The Dairy Flat School was used for church services on Sundays and in winter the school was quite often used for dances. People came by horseback from far and near to dance to the music of violin and accordion.

Mr Hammond left the district for Thames in 1893, but years later he still recalled his happy days at Dairy Flat.

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