aware of the current political correctness which permeates our society but in those years the phrase, a “touch of the tar” was often used to describe someone of mixed race. Many of the pioneer families, my own included, would not have been happy if one of their sons or daughters ‘went with’ or married a Maori. The term, racism, was a concept which lay in the future when more enlightened ways of thinking began to surface.
Young Henry, more commonly known as Harry, (but I will continue to refer to him by the former name,) was only seven years of age when his father was murdered in Australia. He was reputed to have been a bright lad at school in Hokitika where he was enrolled when his mother eventually remarried Charles Chesterman in Australia and returned to the West Coast to live. In 1886, when 20 years of age he was offered the job of teacher at Gillespie’s Beach. His decision to take up this post is where the linkage between the Sullivan and Williams families commences.
Until schools were established, household schools filled the gap with the teacher role undertaken by anyone capable of and willing to accept the role. Henry Williams, like others appointed to schools at this time, would have worked to gain his full teaching certificate while on the job. The West Coast Times on 22 January 1886 published the results of an examination of Pupil Teachers in Westland. In Class I, Henry Williams of Kanieri was awarded a Pass with 771 marks. Those with very high marks were given a Credit Pass. This was the minimum entry into teaching at the time. Despite the lack of teacher training as we know it today, this is not to say teachers weren’t superbly equipped to exert a civilising aspect on pupils born in what could be described as wilderness areas. Using the fear of God and the fear of the cane, they achieved remarkable results. Pupils ended up well-educated in the three R’s, and were disciplined to be obedient, hard-working and God-fearing. They also were taught copper-plate writing.
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