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This year marks a special anniversary for one Northland school, as Maungaturoto and Districts Primary School celebrates its 150th Jubilee.
The school was founded in 1874, almost a decade after the first European migrant settlers started settling in the Maungaturoto area. It was a rough time, with people living in tents or huts as they cleared the land to establish farms and homes, but they quickly realised there was a need to educate their children.
One of the first settlers, William Mousley Flower, started giving lessons to his own and others’ children and, after clearing his own land, he went on to sit on the first school committee and, once a site had been chosen and two-room school built, became its first teacher.
Maungaturoto School was moved from land previously owned by John Hurndall to its present site in Gorge Road around 1917, with bullock teams hauling the building across farmland and through town.
In the 1930s, when the roll was 100, a series of extensions and additions were instigated to accommodate increasing numbers of students of all ages, until a new secondary school was built in Bickerstaffe Road in the late 1950s, leaving the original school site just for primary aged children.
In time, at least eight smaller schools in the district were closed and consolidated with Maungaturoto, a controversial practice at the time, though the facilities at Maungaturoto were far superior to the smaller village schools – it even had its own dental clinic, which opened in 1940.
The Flower family connection with education in Maungaturoto continued long after William retired – his son Harold was chairman of the school committee from 1917-19, grandson Arthur was on the committee from 1942 and chairman from 1944-51, and William’s great grandson, Alan Flower, was on the Otamatea High School Board of Governors from 1969, becoming chairman in 1972.
Maungaturoto Primary School celebrated its centenary in 1974 and its 125th Jubilee in 1999. Now, staff are busy organising another milestone celebration for its sesquicentennial anniversary and they are keen to have as many past pupils and staff as possible join in the festivities.
These include a gala day event, timed to coincide with the school’s annual Pet & Flower Show – the school has been running flower shows since the 1930s – on Saturday, October 19.
This will be followed by a Jubilee Dinner at Maungaturoto Country Club that evening, with drinks from 5pm.
Registrations open on Thursday, February 1.
Info: https://www.maungaturoto.school.nz/150th-jubilee-2024 or Maungaturoto Primary School 150th Jubilee on Facebook
