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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Otago & Southland Provincial Districts]
The Caversham Industrial School
The Caversham Industrial School is situated at Lookout Point, Caversham, Dunedin, and was proclaimed an Industrial School in the Otago Provincial “Gazette” during the year 1869. The establishment of the institution was due to the far-sightedness of Mr. James Macandrew, then Superintendent of the Province of Otago, and Mr. St. John Branigan, Superintendent of Police for Otago, both of whom recognised the advantages that would arise from the training of neglected and criminal children, though the numbers of these at that time were few. The school was placed under the management of Mr. Brittain, who resigned his office as sergeant of police to take up the work, and for six years he conducted the institution, which under the admirable supervision of Mr. Branigan and Dr. John Hislop, Secretary of Education for Otago, fully realised the hopes of its founders. In 1875 Mr. Brittain died, and was succeeded by Mr. Elijah Titchener, at the time of his appointment a sergeant of police in Otago. During the seventeen years that Mr. Titchener held office (he resigned in September, 1892) a number of additions were made to the buildings, which had been found all too small for their purpose. In 1876, on the abolition of the provinces, the management of the institution passed into the hands of the General Government. In the earlier days of Mr. Titchener's management, up to 1886, the barrack system prevailed, and there were over three hundred children at one time in the school, many of them infants; but in 1886 the boarding-out system was adopted by the Government. This reduced the numbers considerably, and improved matters very much. In 1889 the School Band took a prize at the Exhibition, which was held in that year in Dunedin. On the 13th of October, 1892, the Hon. W. P. Reeves, then Minister of Education, appointed the present Manager of the School, Mr. G. M. Burlinson, at that time headmaster of the Chapel Street School, in Auckland. Since 1892 considerable additions have been made to the building. These include the whole of the girls' part, which is a brick building, thoroughly fitted up with all the later sanitary and other improvements. A new dining hall and kitchen, also in brick, were subsequently added; and, but for the separation of the sexes, the boys' part—which is composed of old wooden buildings that did duty in Dunedin as a post office, etc.—would have been rebuilt in brick.
The system of boarding-out children has been extended. In place of the children returning to the school at the age of twelve they remain in their foster-homes till they are fourteen, and if the foster-parents find them situations, which are approved by the Manager, they are allowed to go to these, and some of them do not return to the school at all. Foster-parents are paid at the rate of 7s a week for the care of children, who are visited every month by a lady residing in the district, and acting as Local Visitor, and three times a year by Visiting Officers from the Department of Education, Wellington, the supreme controlling body. The teachers of the public schools are also asked to report every quarter on all boarded-out children attending schools, and in addition to this the Manager makes personal visits in any cases that require immediate attention. Miss Jessie Sievwright is the Official Correspondent to the Boarding-out Department, and acts in conjunction with the Manager of the School in these matters. She succeeded to this position in 1890, when her predecessor, Miss Janet, resigned.
page 149The day school attached to the institution is carried on exactly on the same lines as a public school, so far as regards the syllabus of instruction. Under the careful tuition of Mr. D. W. M. Burn, the schoolmaster, Miss J. Falconer, schoolmistress, and Miss Harrison, assistant, the children make good progress, and hold their own with the pupils of any other school. In addition to the teachers, the Manager has a staff comprising a clerk, assistant clerk, carpenter, gardener, attendant, matron, cook, laundress, dressmaker, machinist. The medical officer, who has a service experience of over twenty-five years, attends once every week, and at any other time that he may be required.
The object of the institution is the moral, physical, and mental training of children, who have been left in indigent circumstances, or who have committed offences not sufficiently gross to cause them to be sent to a reformatory. The school is governed under the Industrial Schools Act, 1882, and the Amendment Act of 1895, and is under the control of the Minister of Education.
The institution is situated at the top of Caversham Rise, in a picturesque position, with a splendid view of the ocean and part of the town. The buildings comprise girls' part, which is completely cut off from the boys', dining hall, kitchen, etc.; boys' dormitories, day school, carpenter's shop, recreation hall, bathroom, theatre, and two hospitals, one for each sex; these have been added quite recently. Probably about two thousand inmates have passed through the school, and many of them occupy responsible positions in New Zealand and the adjacent colonies. The present (January, 1904) number of inmates is 539; of these 141 reside in the school, 183 are boarded-out, 27 are licensed to friends, and the remainder are at service.
The amount standing to the credit of inmates at service is about £6000, in sums ranging from a few pounds to thirty or forty pounds. This money is handed over to inmates of good character, when the Minister is satisfied as to the purpose for which they require the money.