Rev Prof William Smeaton - 1881 to 1883
Reverend Professor William H. 0liphant Smeaton
- 1881 to 1883
Reverend Professor William H. 0liphant Smeaton, not long arrived from Scotland and then living in Helensville was appointed and was asked to come as soon as possible. Reverend Professor W. H. 0. Smeaton was offered the appointment as Headmaster at a guaranteed salary of 200 pounds for the first year.
He was educated at Edinburgh University, where he graduated with a Master of Arts. His home life and training clearly cut him out for the church, but he preferred journalism and he did some work for the Edinburgh papers. His student days ended, he came out to New Zealand, where he had some relatives, and this was one of the first posts he occupied, if not the very first.
Within a month of his arrival the school was opened in a small front room of Francis Wood's house in Cameron Street on 16th May 1881.
Rev Smeaton was a very competent teacher and the Board had a very harmonious relationship with him.
Compulsory subjects: Latin, Mathematics including Arithmetic.
Optional subjects: French, Greek, Science or German, Greek or Science.
For almost his entire stay in the North, Rev Smeaton was dogged by ill health and although the Board tried to help him by employing as assistants Misses Bessie Wilson, Bella McDonald and a Miss Diddums, they could not really afford the small gratuity they paid the girls and so were forced to terminate their employment. Rev Smeaton patiently carried on until finally he resigned in June, 1883.
In his letter of resignation he blamed the warm climate as the main cause of his ill health but, surprisingly, he went to Melbourne and later Queensland where he found employment in the journalistic field.
It was after the Australian Bank failures from which he suffered financially, that he returned to Scotland, and settled down in Edinburgh.
He died, in July 1914, as the author of many books and magazine articles.
He lies buried in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, in the same grave with his father.