The BOHEMIAN Settlers were cut off
from their fellow immigrants not only by steep hills and dense forest, but by the language
barrier.
A closed-in community, they spoke
only their own BOHEMIAN dialect and made little progress in English. When compelled to go
into AUCKLAND to trade their produce, they managed as best they could.
A man selling turkeys on the streets
could only cry his wares by making turkey noises as he went; two women who needed to buy
vinegar wasted half and hour in a shop making sour faces and doing all they could to mime
vinegar; another who desired eggs simply cackled like a hen and has no trouble at all in
being served.
Even in later years, when the people
knew English but were not at home with it, shopping in Auckland was a constant difficulty
for people who rarely left their backblock homes. A young man from PUHOI, unaccustomed to
the city, went into a shop to purchase a reel of cotton. He addressed his request to a
life-like dummy modelling stylish cloths. Not unnaturally, she didn't answer him. After
repeating his request, he left the shop in a fury and told his friends outside in most
expressive BOHEMIAN just what he thought of the manners of Auckland shop assistants.
Vincent SCHISCKA's notebook shows
that no frivolous spending sprees took place, however, list after list in his little
notebook mentions only "bonnets", "hats", "sugar",
"tea", "flour", "soap", etc.
Another man had to procure a collar
on which to hang a cow bell. He took advice from his friends better versed in English and
was told to ask for a necktie for a cow. His experience with this provides another story
of the difficulties of city shopping.
These situations faced by our
ancestors, now only amusing fork-lore, were a very serious matter to the first settlers
and also provided a great handicap to them. They soon came to realise that a knowledge of
the language of the country was an absolute necessity.
They had been dependant upon Capt.
and Mrs KRIPPNER at the start for interpreting and now Mrs KRIPPNER came to their
aid again. In 1869 she arrived in PUHOI and started a school for the children.
The historic nikau whares were still
in use but two of the inhabitants of one of them had just departed PUHOI, one in search of
gold and the other in pursuit of trade. The latter a shoemaker, had given up all hope of
making a living among the barefoot BOHEMIANS.
Mrs KRIPPNER set up school in the
abandoned room in the whare on the riverbank and the children had their first lessons in
English.
Later Mrs KRIPPNER transferred into
the slab hut the settlers had erected for the visiting priest and took her classes in the
home of Mrs RUSSEK. Soon after she made this change, an Irishman, Mr WALSH came to PUHOI
and took over the teaching while Mrs KRIPPNER returned to her own home. Mr WALSH moved the
school again, back into the slab shanty which was the Priest's house.
Perhaps the people were tired of
make-do methods with their school for they held a meeting about 1870 and decided to
petition the government for a school. Mr John SCHOLLUM (affectively called the 'Father of
PUHOI' and John WENZLICK took the lead in negotiations and secured a promise of Eighty
Pounds from the government if the people could raise One Hundred and Sixty Pounds.
On the face of it, it was
impossible, even with improving times. Mr SCHOLLUM call upon every home in the settlement,
but very few families were able to offer as much as One Pound. After eighteen months of
visiting and collecting he was still Fifteen Pounds short of the desired amount and it
appeared as if PUHOI just could not raise it. He finally appealed for help to his family
in BOHEMIA and the people of the old country were able to subscribe their share of the
building intended to help educate the children of PUHOI to be useful citizens of the new
country.
The 34 foot by 18 foot kauri
building was opened in 1872 and, a few years later, a teacher's house was constructed
alongside it.
The occupant of the house was
Capt.KRIPPNER who now reappeared in the PUHOI story as head teacher. His assistant was Mrs
KRIPPNER. The teachers residence cannot have been very comfortable, for it is recalled
that Mrs KRIPPNER had to use her elegant frocks to stuff up the cracks and crevices to
keep out the draughts.
Capt. KRIPPNER remained in this
position until his retirement in 1884. The settlement by then, was flourishing, and he was
able to take pleasure from his position as founder and first resident of PUHOI. Following
his retirement the appreciative settlers of PUHOI assisted in constructing, for him and
his wife, a comfortable residence on his son-in-laws acreage at Warkworth. 'Until his
death in 1894 the Captain still keep up a very lively interest in this settlement and also
in the one he had formed on similar lines at OHAUPO'. (from Father D.V.Silk's book 'The
History of PUHOI'.)
One teacher followed another and new
education methods replaced the old. The elderly people who had worked so hard to
accumulate the money to educate their off spring could not believe their ears when they
heard that their offspring were cultivating vegetables and growing flowers at the school
as part of their curriculum.
It is quite obvious that the
children weren't any better than children elsewhere for there are stories of centipedes
taken into school and released down the girls' necks, and about the teacher who took a boy
over his knee to spank and had a pin driven into his leg. He dropped the spanking habit
from that day.....
The next big change in school
affairs came in 1923 with the establishment of a Convent School.
This time the expense of building
the school was One Thousand and Sixty Four Pounds and the cost of the Convent for the
nuns, who were to teach in the school, to live in was One Thousand Three Hundred and
Forty Pounds
The PUHOI people were comparatively
prosperous farmers by this time. They were no longer strangers struggling for a foothold.
They were well-established citizens of NEW ZEALAND.
However their numbers were small and
there was no government assistance this time around. Once again a member of the SCHOLLUM
family, this time Mr W.J.SCHOLLUM, rode around the countryside with the parish priest,
Father D.V.Silk, carrying out the thankless assignment of trying to raise the necessary
figure.
Sisters Kevin, Cletus and Palagia of
the Sisters of St Joseph of the Most Sacred Heart arrived from AUCKLAND on the 30th
January 1923, and the school was blessed and opened on the 6th February of the same year.
