North Coast Schools
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North Coast School Histories:as transcribed by Kathy Pearson and posted to NorCo ListWhere the school still exists I have put a link to their website STATUS QUO MCMLIX This publication presents the schools of the Ballina Inspectorate at this time - Education Week, 1959 - and their origins. Contents:
Charles M. EBERT, Director of Education, North Coast Area. I have just spent a few hours browsing through the manuscripts of Status Quo MCMLIX, and I find that the time has gone very quickly. Many old friends whose paths have, for a while, run along with mine during my 33 years' service with the Education Department, have bobbed up this evening, sometimes in places I little expected, and it has been entrancing to picture them in North Coast schools and communities which I now know so well. Among them are men who have later guided the development of our State system of education on higher administrative levels, and I am permitted to see them, as younger men, making their vigorous contributions in small bush schools. I am delighted to learn that so many of my present fellow teachers in this area have carried the torch in this place and that, and there comes to me a swelling pride as I begin to realise the contribution schools and teachers have made in the determination of the upward trend or our district's history. I firmly believe that the greatest of any district's resources lie in its human values, and I see schools as powerhouses for the generation and development of ideas and qualities on which our future must be built. A system of education is only as good as the men and women who work in the schools, and I take this opportunity to pay my tribute to those fine teachers who, during the past century, have laboured in North Coast schools. They have built well and their work has been immortalized in the monuments of human endeavour and achievement which they have helped to create. But I think also of the army of P. and C. stalwarts who have stood behind their teachers, encouraging and assisting, especially well when most needed. We have a grand history of parent co-operation in this area, and no record of educational achievement is complete without a word of commendation and appreciation of what has been, and is still being done wherever there is a school. I feel very honoured to be associated with this publication, and am grateful to those who prepared it. It is a job in which so much had to be done, and it has been done so well. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * R. L. O'NEILL, Mayor of Ballina. Australia, a short time ago, reached a total in population of 10 millions. Since World War II, there has been a marked step-up in the rate of increase of population due to a vigorous migration programme. This increase in population has been the main reason, in my opinion, for the development which has taken place almost everywhere in Australia. An enlarged population has meant the growth of secondary industries and the attraction of overseas investors and manufacturers to our shores. From a revenue point of view the Government has received a big increase in taxation returns and the burden of taxation has been spread over a much greater number - in short, the country has been, and is, making progress. It has become very clear, in recent years, that world standards, particularly from a scientific and industrial viewpoint, are very high and that any country desirous of taking its place in the world must measure up to those standards. To my mind Australia, through its Governments, has appreciated the need to provide first class educational facilities as the first step in the development and progress of our great country. Increase in Government revenue has made available a much greater amount of money for educational purposes and here in N.S.W. the Department of Education, a few years ago, adopted a policy of decentralization and formed what are now known as "Areas" and are under the control of a Director. In each area there are several districts, each district under the control of a District Inspector. Ballina, I am proud to say, is the centre of such an Inspectorate and Ballina High School, the foremost Secondary School. During the past few years a tremendous development has taken place at the Ballina High School - each year the pupils, staff and school buildings, have grown in numbers. New Home Science and Manual Art blocks have been recent additions and the pupils are able to receive instruction equal to anything anywhere in this State. I congratulate Mr. G. Falkenmire, the District Inspector of Schools, on his foresight in organising the publication of this paper. It is an unusual and excellent idea and a really good way to acquaint people with their district schools. As mayor of the Municipality of Ballina, I take this opportunity of expressing the appreciation of the community to the many teachers on the staffs of the various schools in the district for the work they are doing and for the incalculable contribution they are making to the progress of this district, and, in turn, t our country. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * G. W. FALKENMIRE, B.A., M.Ed. District Inspector of Schools. The publication of this newspaper as a contribution to Education Week, 1959, has been made possible through the outstanding co-operation of the headmasters and teacher-in-charge who delved into records and wrote the stories; the unstinted support of the business world from Byron Bay to Maclean; the generosity of the education-conscious Parents' and Citizens Associations who provided the money for the photographic blocks and the Northern Star Ltd. For technical advice and patient consideration. It has been interesting work. Information has been collected from Department of Education archives (through the good offices of the Research and Guidance Branch), Richmond River Historical Society records and the evidence of old residents. In all cases, the many historians have observed, as much as lay within their power, the four bare essentials of writing history: 1. The collection of surviving objects and of printed, written and oral
materials that may be relevant; But this paper is not concerned merely with history. Attention has been given to the place of the school in modern society and the school's relations with the community. The confidence of the community is demonstrated at the bottom of each page of the paper. All sections of the district are represented - a healthy sign of the active, participant interest of the adults in the welfare of the children. This is a good thing. Today's schools are good schools, but we are concerned that all possible effort is made to make the schools better than they are. The Ballina district is a unit of the North Coast Area of Education which is centred at Lismore. That Area is one of 7 Areas, excluding Sydney Metropolitan, covering the State. It is a big picture on a broad canvas, giving some idea of the tremendous job of education going on, day by day, from Byron Bay to Wagga, from Tibooburra to Bega. It is a picture that adults can understand if they know their own school well. It is an obligation that we do know our own schools. In a task that has taken so much effort and time on the part of so many, may I thank Messrs. Howarth and Garland for their numerous, sustained hours of overtime on Status Quo, MCMLIX. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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These pages
contains transcripts of newspapers, a postal directory and a register that have
been typed up from the original.
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