Whakatane - Beginnings - cont

             Sister Dolorosa O'Connor                  

There were plenty of trees and wood on the five –acre section, and a man, Bill Patterson (commonly know as Banjo Patterson), lived in a whare (house) on the premises. In return for his meals, he used to cut the wood and keep us supplied. There was sufficient to last for five and a half years. During that time we burnt wood only!! Later we were given an electric stove.

Part of the section seemed to be an old river bed. The soil was very sandy, and the junior children entertained themselves making all sorts of objects in the sand.

Every Friday afternoon, the school had to be prepared for Holy Mass on Sunday. The folding doors, which separated the two rooms, were opened and the boys became experts at moving the desks into the junior room and placing church seats, (which were stacked in the corridor), into the senior room. This went on for many years until the church was built.

For the first ten years the roll numbers did not go beyond the eighties, but with the opening of the Board Mills, the numbers increased.
The school had a very humble beginning, which brought many blessings. It was a very happy school and during those years not at any time was corporal punishment administered. It wasn’t necessary.

The school was opened during the depression of the nineteen-thirties, so we were all poor; the only money we had to spend on the school was a small profit from the sale of school stationery.

In 1934 Whakatane and Taneatua became a new parish. Father Denis Leen was the first Parish Priest. He arrived in January and by July was living in a comfortable little presbytery, so anxious were the people to have their own Parish Priest.

In 1933 there were approximately two thousand people in the borough.

As told by Sister Dolorosa O'Connor: 20-5-1903 - 21-5-1989