Page 338 - Kimihia School Vol 3 (1998-2023)

Bruce Seaton’s Memories (Principal 1971-1977)
I began my position at Kimihia as a growth. These were both in poor state, and that School
teaching Principal in 1971. My Committee arranged that they be up-dated and re-painted.
family lived in the school house They were sited on the upper area near the school pool.
which was in Tawa Road beside the
Kimihia Open Cast Mine across the In 1975 a four-roomed open plan building was constructed
road from where the school stood facing the school office. Open-plan rooms were a new
earlier. The school was now concept then, and staffing had to be carefully selected.
established in Tamihana Avenue, in It is probably fair to say that much experimentation went on
the northern end of Huntly. in the first year by the three classes that were taught in that
In October this school house was transported into Railway room.
Street (later named McVie Road) which bordered the school
site. Our family had been temporarily housed in a Card Evenings
secondary school house on Tamihana Avenue, opposite the In 1972(?) a new Parent-Teacher Association introduced
school gate. “Five Hundred” evenings at the school for interested
parents, purely as social evenings. These became very
popular, and help for beginners was introduced. Evenings
were concluded with tea, coffee and a biscuit for a social
chat.
Adventure Playground
The Huntly Power Station was built during the early
seventies. I represented Education on the joint committee
which was established in Huntly, covering all interests. The
Committee met regularly with the Power Company and all
were kept totally up to date on where the project was up to
and to warn of future developments affecting the town.

Location of the school house transferred from its Tawa Road site.
The most eventful memories of this move were, firstly the
antics of the crew in guiding the house, mounted on a
narrow vehicle, down through a narrow and very tough
Tawa Road, with literally only 10 millimeters to spare.
But more so, I stood with my heart in my mouth while the
crew pulled the house up and around Railway Street (McVie
Road) corner and continued the arc onto the site. The guide
stood, calling to the driver “Keep going! Keep going!”, and
the house rolled off the top side of the trailer and stood on its
side! As it continued up on to the site it slowly settled back
into place and settled where it is today (at 58 Russell Road). Huntly Power Station..
Imagine my surprise when, one day, a huge truck laden with
And, despite that shift, there was no serious damage.
timber, poles, blocks, etc arrived at the school gate with the
Sport question “”Where do you want it?”.
Teams took part in all sports arranged by the neighboring We were advised that when large projects were carried out
schools, including the usual boys’ rugby, girls’ basketball, in towns some other gift was made to that town and, in this
gymnastics, as well as the combined Field Days when up to case, we were given a huge adventure playground from the
800 pupils would arrive onto the (Huntly) Domain for power authorities.
competitive games and round-robin contests.
There followed many hours of weekend working bees
We inaugurated the cross-country runs each year, starting putting together the sections of a large high structure, which
and finishing at the school. The tracks were down Tamihana challenged our middle and senior classes.
Avenue and on to a farmer’s property (with his permission),
across the country, over a shallow bog area, through a small Poem
stock yard finishing back at the school grounds. Here is my explanation for a poem I wrote and gave to all
This proved to be very popular and was run for pupils of those I was able to make contact with. It involves the names
Standards 3 and up. of every teacher who was on the staff during my 7 years at
Kimihia. . . .
Our choir entered school competitions.
When I was advised by the Education Board that I had won
New Open-Plan 4-Room Block Opened in 1975 the Principalship of an Auckland school (for which I had
applied towards the end of the year) all the school was told
As time went by our numbers grew so that, in 1974, two
prefabricated classroom were brought on site to house that and wind-up began.