Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/189

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EDUCATION.
169

resident governess; Miss Huie (now Mrs. Borrows), resident music governess; and Miss Bell (now Mrs. McGlashan), and Mr. Lees, visiting music teachers. The services of Mr. D. C. Hutton as Drawing Master were secured, and these have been continued ever since. Mr. Gr. M. Thomson rendered valuable service for some years as conductor of the Class Singing Lessons. It was also arranged with the Rector that the masters of the Boys' School should give lessons in some of the higher subjects to classes in the Girls' School. The prospectus issued by the Board set forth that the object of the institution was to impart to girls a thoroughly useful and liberal education, combined with careful moral and religious instruction; that the ordinary course would embrace a thorough English education, viz.:—Reading, Grammar, Composition, Elocution, History, Natural Science, Geography, Writing and Arithmetic, and also Class-Singing, Drawing, French, and Industrial Work; and that competent teachers would be engaged for Music, Singing (private lessons), Dancing and Calisthenics, German, and other branches that might afterwards be found desirable.

The School was opened on February 6, 1871, with a roll of 78 pupils; by the end of the quarter there were 102 in attendance; and at the close of the year there were 130 names on the roll, including 16 boarders. It was now found necessary to enlarge the school buildings, both for day-school and boarding-house purposes. In 1872 the number enrolled was 125. In the beginning of 1873 it was found advisable to discontinue the arrangements under which some of the masters of the Boys' School gave lessons to the senior classes in the Girls' School, and to transfer the services of Mr. Pope wholly to the latter. The number on the school roll at the end of 1873 was 137, and the average for the year, 126. In 1874, the attendance had increased to 155, and the accommodation again became insufficient. The number of pupil-boarders had increased to 24, and want of room compelled Mrs Burn almost every week to decline receiving more girls. The Board was therefore under the necessity of again making considerable additions to the building.

Mrs. Burn had thrown so much energy and zeal into the performance of her onerous and responsible duties that she somewhat overtaxed her strength, and towards the end of 1874