Celebrations were held in Armidale in June 2011 to mark the 150th anniversary of what is known today as Armidale City Public School. The story of the origins of the school is best told in its proper context, against a background of the development and growth of schools in Armidale and – equally importantly – in early New South Wales, with a consideration of the vital issue of how schools were funded. There were clearly defined stages in the history of schooling in NSW. This week we begin a series to explore those stages.
Unlike the system as we know it today, where schooling is controlled by the State, in the early years of the colony, schooling was private, that is, it was not a function of the government and in many cases it was provided by the various Christian denominations. As such, schooling in the infant colony reflected the European customs but there were significant differences too. Owing to the peculiar nature of the origins of NSW as a convict settlement, many conditions were far from what Europeans would have considered normal.
Civil authority was represented by a series of military or naval Governors who found themselves responsible for everything, including schooling – for which the British Government had made no provision. This is understandable because the Government had little to do with schooling in Britain, and there were very few children in the First Fleet which arrived in Sydney in January 1788. Early in 1792 two privately run schools were established.
Governor King (1800-1806) was the first colonial administrator to take the matter of schools seriously. Coming from Norfolk Island with an established reputation for building schools, he threw himself into similar works, establishing the Orphan School and schools for ordinary children, particularly in the newer districts along the Hawkesbury River. Our focus is on the funding of those and subsequent schools.
King secured financial assistance from missionary societies. He also continued the custom of Government grants for the payment of teachers and in some cases provided a school house. There was no precedent or model for him to use, so he created one, obtaining funds from shipping dues, import duties and other licences. When Governor William Bligh took over in 1807 more than 400 children were being provided with schooling. Bligh was instructed by his superiors to give particular attention to religious education and to pay for it from public funds.
By the time Governor Lachlan Macquarie arrived in 1810 the situation in the colony had changed. The increasing number of free settlers and the rehabilitation of former convicts required Macquarie to provide public schooling for many children. He established a Public Charity School for the poor in Sydney and intended to establish similar schools in the principal districts of the colony.
These schools were not to be fully funded by the Government but were to be supported by public subscription. Each school was to be associated with some parish and, to facilitate their operation, Macquarie asked for more chaplains and schoolmasters to be sent from England. Thus began the custom in NSW of associating schools with the clergy and Churches.
Problems soon arose. The arrival of a group of Nonconformist missionaries in Sydney in 1798 had provided additional chaplains in the colony but also opened the gates for disagreement among the denominations because of the inevitable charges of proselytising. The Reverend Samuel Marsden of ‘the Established Church’ was quick to complain to Macquarie, who replied that he saw the principle at stake, that “at a not distant period” the colony would be “filled with Dissenters of all Denominations – a consequence much to be deprecated”.
Macquarie’s solution was to call for more teachers, all of whom had to be members of the Established Church, and he appointed the Reverend Thomas Reddall to introduce the National System into the schools and to supervise it. Developed by Dr Andrew Bell for the mission schools of Madras, the National System was similar to the Lancastrian System, named after its originator, Joseph Lancaster of London, but the Nonconformists did not accept it.
In 1823 the Report of the Bigge Commission recommended Bell’s National System, and Reddall became Director-General of all public schools. Thus, by 1823, issues which would cause divisions for generations to come were clearly visible.
A new chapter in the story began in 1824 when Reddall was superseded and the whole management of schooling was placed in the hands of a separate body known as the Clergy and Schools Corporation. The Royal Charter under which this scheme operated conferred “one-seventh part in extent and value of all the lands” in each and every county in NSW for the funding of clergy and schools. A portion of the income would be for the support of schools and schoolmasters.
The scheme was unworkable and failed, and the charter was revoked in 1833. A contributing factor in the failure of the scheme was that it was strongly opposed by the Catholics and Dissenters who were excluded from the proposed funding. The Catholics had not received the regular services of a chaplain until May 1820, when Father John Joseph Therry from Cork arrived as the official Catholic chaplain for the colony. By 1833 Therry had established ten schools, but no Government funding was provided. Thus, by 1833, the issue of the funding of schools was the cause of growing conflict and sectarian rivalry in the colony.
From about 1820, white settlers came from the Hunter Valley over the Liverpool Ranges and on to the Liverpool Plains and then headed to the north and north-west. These settlers passed beyond the ‘Limits of Location’ of the Nineteen Counties, and thus, were outside the ‘Limits’ of law and order which had been established and enforced within the ‘Limits’. It would be many years before schooling would be an issue for the settlers in New England, but future schools would reflect the legacy of the background story outlined above. The story continues next week.
