Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/163

Rh The school fees for the Dunedin school, which amounted to £189 16s, are not included in the table, the teachers having been paid fixed salaries. Miss Dodds received £24 as rent allowance. The exact amount of fees collected in Port Chalmers schools is not given, but the sum mentioned is believed to be about the amount.

At the date of the report, the localities of Portobello, Wakari (Half-Way-Bush), Anderson's Bay, West Taieri, Waihola, and Clutha, had been constituted school districts, but no schools had then been opened in them. In the course of the following year (1858), five additional teachers were sent out by the Home Agents, and were appointed as follows:—Mr Alex. G. Allan to N. E. Valley; Mr Adam D. Johnston to Wakari; Mr Andrew Russell to Anderson's Bay; Mr Alex. Gardner to West Taieri; and Mr Alex. Grigor to Inch Clutha. A side school in connection with the Port Chalmers school committee was opened in the same year at Portobello by Mrs Edwards, wife of a settler there. Mr Grigor, of Inch Clutha, is the only one of the original teachers now in the service of the Education Board.

The Education Ordinance, 1856, continued in operation until its repeal in June 1861 by another ordinance. At that date the number of schools had increased to 18, and the number of teachers to 20. The average attendance was about 560, inclusive of an attendance of 125 at the Dunedin school. The amount expended on the public schools by the Provincial Government for the 5½ years ending September 30th, 1861, was as follows:—Buildings, fencing, &c., £7240 5s 5d; teachers' salaries, £5313 11s 9d; total £12,553 17s 2d. The schools in operation in 1861, in addition to those already mentioned, were N. E. Harbour, North Taieri, Waihola, Otakia, South Clutha, Warepa, and Waikouaiti.

On the passing of the Education Ordinance, 1861, Mr (now Dr) John Hislop, of the East Taieri school, was appointed to the joint offices of Secretary to the Education Board and Inspector of Schools; and he held these offices until January 1878, when he removed to Wellington to assume the duties of Secretary to the Colonial Education Department. But the ordinance of 1861 was