Short History of St Stephen's School and Queen Victoria School Rev George Adam Kissling First Headmaster of St Stephen's School George and Margaret Kissling arrived in New Zealand on 2nd May 1842 on the Louisa Campbell. In 1843 Kissling was posted by Bishop Selwyn to establish and run a Mission Station at Kawakawa-mai-tawhiti (renamed Te Araroa in 1880), East Cape, which he built on two blocks of land purchased from local Maori. In addition to raising five sons, Mrs Kissling established and taught in a school for Maori children. That school was the genesis of both St Stephen's School (1850) and Queen Victoria School (1901). Early in 1846 George Kissling became seriously ill and the family returned to Auckland, accompanied by 20 young Maori, 14 female and 6 male, from the East Coast. The Kisslings established a Maori girls' boarding school Kohimarama (Mission Bay). They hoped to train the girls to become Christian Mothers. By December 1846 there were 16 girls attending the school. By 1850 four of the senior pupils had married Maori teachers. Early in January 1848 the Kohimarama buildings were destroyed by a fire. The school was continued in a large house in Parnell. To qualify for government grants, Maori boarding schools conducted by church organisations had to provide training in agricultural, domestic and industrial arts, as well as a formal education. To carry out these objects, and to provide financial support for the school, Margaret Kissling organised the New Zealand Female Aborigines Washing Establishment, which took in laundry from Auckland settlers. In December 1850 a new building for the boarding school was opened by Bishop Selwyn, and named St Stephen's School for Native Girls. Twenty or thirty girls attended. Adult male Maori attended St Stephen's as candidates for the ministry, and Margaret Kissling was responsible for the formal and domestic education of their wives and children. When George Kissling suffered a stroke in 1860, he and his wife retired to their own home, not far from St Stephen's, and continued to help with the instruction of the pupils. In December 1856 Margaret Kissling's sister, Mary Jane Moxon, had married the widowed Anglican missionary Thomas Chapman, in Auckland. For some years from 1861 Thomas Chapman, with the assistance of Mary Chapman, took over the management of the school in Parnell. After her husband's death on 9 November 1865, Margaret Kissling continued to live in Parnell with members of her family until her death on 20 September 1891. The boarding school which the Kisslings established was the forerunner of St Stephen's School, a boarding school for Maori boys at Bombay, south Auckland. Short History of St Stephen's School A trust incorporating Crown Grants of land was established by Bishop G. A. Selwyn in 1848 'for the education of children of both races of New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific'. St Stephen's School for Native Girls began operation in 1850 on a site at Taurarua (Parnell) in what is now St Stephen's Avenue. Instruction, after the passing of the New Zealand Education Act (1877), followed fairly closely the state primary school system, and most pupils gained the Proficiency Certificate some of them staying on for a year in Standard VII. In 1860 the school became St Stephen's School for Native Boys and by 1879 the school roll had increased to 60. From 1881 to 1904 the school roll averaged 50 students, boys and young men, between the ages of six and 21 years. By about 1910 a few pupils of St Stephen's School were entering for the Public Service Examination, and regularly winning Makerini Scholarships for advanced secondary schooling at Te Aute College. Numerous well-educated Maori thus became old boys of both schools. In the 1920-30 period St Stephen's slowly developed its own secondary department. In the 1920s the Church came under pressure from the Auckland Education Board, the Auckland City Council and local Parnell residents to give up its school site on St Stephen's Ave to make way for a state primary school. In 1928 the Church bought about 300 acres of freehold farm land at Bombay, and built a new school in 1929 and 1930. In March 1931 the new St Stephen's School opened at Bombay. The present Parnell Primary School was established on the site formerly occupied by St Stephen's School. After the school moved to the Bombay site, the secondary roll grew steadily to 112 pupils in 1938. Pupils stayed on for University Entrance Examination and further study in Form VI. The move to the country also allowed the development of an agriculture course. During the 1939-45 war the school was requisitioned as a hospital, and its senior pupils went to Te Aute and Wesley Colleges. The school re-opened in February 1947, with 26 boys. It was a purely academic type post-primary school, and without the adjacent farm lands, which were under lease. After recruiting drives by 1952 the roll had risen to 100. The rising cost of living brought suddenly a heavy increase in fees in 1953, from £75 to £135, and the roll dropped quickly in 1953 and 1954. With the appointment of the Mr L. E. Lewis as Headmaster at the beginning of 1954, it became the policy of the school to try to carry out the original aim of Bishop Selwyn for the education of the Maori, Pacific Islander and Pakeha side by side. It was also decided to terminate the farm lease and start anew an agriculture course, to adopt state school levels of staffing and salaries, and to build up the work of the senior school to VIA standard. >> Page 2