The Church of England Grammar School: Conflicting Visions, Practical Realities

Image: Kinder House 1978. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1213P-034-08. Photographer: Susanna Burton.

Image: Kinder House 1978. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 1213P-034-11. Photographer: Susanna Burton.

Nestled behind a screen of trees, on the corner of Ayr and Parnell streets, lies Kinder House. From the outside, it is imposing. Walls of basalt rise two storeys. Thin slits in this curtain open with elegant white window frames. The building is crowned by a steeply pitching shingle roof. As the name suggests, from its 1857, completion Kinder House was first occupied by the Reverend John Kinder. In 1855, Kinder had been appointed as the Headmaster of the Church of England Grammar School (also known as the Parnell Grammar School). This school was one of the earliest on the Auckland isthmus. It first occupied a site on Karangahape Road, before moving to Parnell, on the opposite corner from Kinder House. The house was occupied by successive Headmasters of the school until its eventual closure in 1893.

What makes Kinder House’s story intriguing to me are the numerous lenses that may be used to understand the history of this place. First, there are the people associated with the House and the School. Kinder and his family are the ones most associated, but there were others. Second, the building is an impressive piece of architecture in its own right. Third, the school occupied a prominent role in the educational landscape of nineteenth-century Auckland. In the following four articles, I will look to explore these themes and examine the role education played in colonial Auckland. Part I will examine the foundation and demise of the Church of England Grammar School, and what this tells us about the place of educational institutions in colonial society. Part II considers the background of two of the school’s headmasters, and what motivated them in taking on such a demanding position. Part III will be focused on the experiences of the students: what and how they learnt at the school. Part IV will pick up from the 1893 closure of the school, looking at how this story continues to exercise an influence in the lives of Aucklanders today. 

Selwyn’s Vision for Education 

In 1840, around 3,500 acres of land at Waitematā were transferred from Ngā ti Whā tua Ō rā kei to the Crown for British settlement. Auckland’s strategic position made it appealing to develop, and it rapidly became “the leading commercial port of the colony.” European settlement was associated with the development of roads, hospitals, and schools for colonists. However, unlike other New Zealand settlements – like Christchurch – Auckland was slower to set up a system of schools. In 1850, Governor George Grey did establish a public endowment of land to maintain a Grammar School in the Auckland region. Nonetheless, Grey’s full vision was only realised much later in 1869 with the foundation of the Auckland Grammar School. Before then, a significant gap existed in the provision of education within Auckland. 

As such, Auckland settler families of the 1840s and 50s looked to other providers for educating their children. The churches, including the Church of England, attempted to meet this demand. In 1844, the Bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn, moved his Saint John’s College from Waimate North to its present site in Tāmaki. First, St John’s was intended to educate candidates for ordination into the Anglican priesthood. That said, Selwyn wanted his college to be “a comprehensive establishment.” Selwyn’s foundation included separate preparatory schools for Māori and English pupils, and a Teaching School for training Māori. At one point, an infant school was also part of the college. 

Image: St John's College Building, circa 1890s. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 255A-R42-22. 

Selwyn had high aspirations for St John’s College, intending it to be “the key and pivot” of Anglican education in New Zealand. But, its location far away from the city of Auckland made it impractical to serve the educational needs of the city. A more central school, whether operated by the church or another body, was clearly needed. The Church of England made some efforts to meet this need. In 1843, Samuel Kempthorne had signed a deed of conveyance, transferring a parcel of land in Parnell to Bishop Selwyn. Scribbled on the back, Selwyn declared the land was held on trust, stating:

 “I and my successors do and shall stand seized and possessed of this land … towards the support and maintenance of a Grammar School connected with and subordinate to the College of Saint John the Evangelist.” 

This early trust deed speaks especially to Selwyn’s aspirations for education in Auckland. Central to this vision, naturally, was St John’s College. Selwyn’s aspirations for the grammar school in Parnell were that it would be in support of this broader educational scheme, preparing candidates for entry to his theological college at Tāmaki. Reflecting on his appointment, Kinder later wrote: "the [Parnell] school was [intended] to become … the cathedral school of the diocese, and to serve as feeder to S. John’s College.”

Image: Reverend John Kinder. King's College Archives, 2021-138.

Image: Bishop Selwyn, circa 1870. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 661-026. 

The Church of England Grammar School’s Foundations 

Despite these early actions, it took several years for the church to establish a grammar school in Auckland city. In the end, the impetus came from prosperous Anglican families. By 1854, a committee had been formed, anxious to establish a school in the city for their sons. Such was the interest that Vicesimus Lush, the vicar of Howick, made the long trip into the city. At the meeting, it was agreed to “raise £400 a year to pay for a duly qualified clergyman from England” to conduct a school. On a trip to England, Bishop Selwyn interviewed and hired Rev John Kinder as Headmaster. He had been a scholar at Cambridge University, and having served as head of a school in England, was seen as imminently suitable. 

First, the school was located on Karangahape Road in temporary accommodation. By 1857, the headmaster occupied a two-storeyed stone house in Parnell, with the wooden schoolhouse across the road. Within a decade, Kinder thought that these buildings were inadequate. In 1865, he wrote to the trustees requesting a new schoolroom capable of accommodating 100 boys. Kinder also appeared very concerned about the age at which students left his school to move to further study at St John’s. The trustees agreed with Kinder that fifteen was an appropriate age for this. As such, Kinder was very disappointed when he discovered that pupils had moved from Parnell to St John’s well below this age.

All too quickly, competition for pupils increased with state intervention. In particular, the advent of the Auckland Grammar School in 1869 proved extremely challenging for the Parnell school. In 1870, Kinder urged the trustees to secure the field next to his house as a playing field, noting the new grammar school at Albert Barracks had “an excellent play ground.” Numbers at the Church of England Grammar School were low, and by the 1870s, they dwindled further. Kinder reported to Bishop Cowie that the school roll had decreased in 1870 from 50 to 42. By 1871, only 31 boys were on the school roll. Kinder was becoming increasingly exasperated by this decline, personally attributing it to his strongest pupils going to St John’s College on scholarships. He also expressed a general concern that the school was exposed to competition from the new Auckland Grammar School. He resigned his post and moved to St John’s the following year. 

A Wider Discourse about Faith Schools 

These challenges certainly did not stop the school’s leaders from continuing to have high aspirations. In the 1884 prize-day speech, the then Headmaster Mr Pycroft pushed back on the increased popularity of referring to the school as the Parnell Grammar School. He preferred the original name – the Church of England Grammar School. To him, the Parnell name was “depriving us of our rightful position as the educational centre of a numerous and influential Church.” To refer to the school by this shorthand was, according to him, to “look upon us as belonging to a particular suburb of the city.” To him, the school was a provincial institution, serving the needs of a growing city and diocese. Nonetheless, Pycroft also pushed back on the idea that the school exclusively served Anglicans. He claimed that a tenth of the students were of other faiths. While these students did have to attend compulsory Divinity lessons, they could be excused from daily prayers if their parents wished. 

The use of public funds to support private sectarian schools was one of the most vexed issues of nineteenth century New Zealand politics. By 1862, the Grammar School endowment established by Governor George Grey was valued at £2,000. With Auckland Grammar School still many years away, a spirited correspondence developed in the New Zealander as to whether some of this money ought to have been used to fund an additional assistant master at the Parnell school. William Lysnar wrote against the proposal, arguing “it is a manifest wrong to rob the poor to supply the necessities of the rich.” To him, the Parnell school served a narrow Anglican elite that did not need state support. A supporter of the proposal, under the pseudonym Alfredus, responded that four scholarships at the school were open to candidates of all faiths, and only two scholarships to the school imposed an additional religious test. In the end, no support from the Grammar School endowment was forthcoming to fund additional teachers at the Church of England school. 

As the nineteenth century progressed, the debate over state aid for faith schools continued to divide opinion in New Zealand. Critics of state aid pointed to the Church of England Grammar School as evidence for not providing any government support to elite faith-based schools. A column in the Auckland Star described the system of denominational schools that existed before the 1870s as “a decided failure.” The Church of England Grammar School was singled out for particular criticism. To the Star, the school’s closure in 1893 provided “an illustration of the apathy of the Anglican laity with regard to Scripture teaching in schools.” According to the columnist, the school “received only indifferent support” from laity and clergy alike. In this way, Anglican families had enthusiastically embraced the advent of state education. This naturally led to the school’s struggles from the 1870s and closure. 

The Church of England Grammar School filled a practical need in the early years of colonial Auckland to provide schooling for the sons of wealthy Auckland families. For the Church, the school had value for the religious instruction it provided. More importantly to Selwyn and Kinder, the school functioned as a preparatory school to educate future ordinands for St John’s College. Yet, with the increasing provision of state education from 1869, the rationale for the school became less clear and appeared to attract less support. The end result of the struggles of the school was that Auckland schools generally were perceived as less favourable compared to schools in other regions. Indeed, the school’s newspaper lamented that “with such a poor state of affairs, it is no wonder that Auckland boys are sent to Nelson, Christchurch and other places to finish their education.” In this way, the ultimate result of the comparatively uncoordinated approach and disparate visions for Auckland schools was that families who could afford the expense sent their sons to schools further afield. Despite these worries, the Church of England Grammar School still managed to attract headmasters with strong academic credentials and a vision for the school.

Author: Matthew Kirman-Martin,  Auckland History Initiative Summer Research Scholar

Matthew is completing a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in History, at the University of Otago. His project focused on Kinder House and the Church of England Grammar School. Kinder House was constructed in 1857 by Bishop Selwyn for the Reverend John Kinder. Kinder had come out from England to become Headmaster of one of Auckland’s earliest schools, the Church of England Grammar School. This school ran from 1855 until its closure in 1893. Matthew’s first three articles look at the overall vision for the school, before delving into the background of two of the school’s headmasters as well as the curriculum and pedagogy at the school. The final article examines the role Kinder House continues to play in Auckland as a Museum and Art Gallery. 

Matthew would like to thank his supervisors, Dr Jess Parr and Professor Linda Bryder for their support and encouragement. He would also like to thank the Auckland Libraries Heritage Trust for funding this project. Matthew drew on archives at the Kinder Library, Auckland Public Library, Auckland War Memorial Museum, and King’s College Archives. Special thanks are owed to all the archivists and librarians at these institutions. Finally, Matthew would like to thank the volunteers at Kinder House, particularly Ian Thwaites, for their guidance and enthusiasm about the topic. 

Read the rest of Matthew's research on the Auckland History Initiative website.