HISTORY CORNER
LITERACY IN EARLY 19TH CENTURY AOTEAROA
Prior to the introduction of the Education Act in 1877, literacy rates in New Zealand were spotty. Māori recognised the value of literacy early on and became highly literate in both te reo Māori and English within a short span of time. While Pākehā colonists placed a high value on reading and writing, literacy among new settlers was low and the cost of attending schools kept many out of education.
Education and literacy were key tools used by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in establishing Christianity in New Zealand - a literate population could read and understand the Bible. The Reverend Samuel Marsden opened the first mission school for Māori in 1816, in the Bay of Islands. Several schools operated by the CMS, the Wesleyan Church, and the Catholic Church sprang up before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
Literacy was an exciting new concept that Māori enthusiastically took up. Printing presses brought to the southern hemisphere by missionaries produced some of New Zealand’s first early readers, with Thomas Kendall’s phrase book A Korao no New Zealand, or the New Zealander’s First Book published in 1815. This was the first published attempt to record Māori speech in the Latin alphabet.
In the 1820s missionaries reported that Māori all over the country were teaching each other to read and write in both te reo Māori and English. The Oxford History of New Zealand estimates that by 1845, around half of adult Māori could read a little in te reo Māori.
Pākehā colonists brought English books out from Britain to establish the first libraries, including the Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library in Wellington in 1841. In Britain, before the first ships left for the new New Zealand Company settlement, a committee had been established to ‘make provision for the Literary, Scientific and Philanthropic Institutions of the new Colony.’
These first settlers arrived with donations of books. Although the Port Nicholson Exchange and Public Library had closed by 1842, the donated books went on to form the collection of what is now Wellington City Libraries.
Schools continued to be run privately, and for profit, into the
1850s. Secondary schooling remained out of reach for most families. Around 14% of Pākehā adults couldn’t write but could read a little, and another
25% couldn’t read or write at all. Provincial councils took on responsibility for Pākehā education in 1852.
The Native Schools Act 1867 created a national system of free day schools for Māori children, with a central focus on teaching English. Use of te reo Māori was effectively forbidden in these schools. In 1877, the Education Act made primary school education free and compulsory, standardised the teaching of reading to European children. Formal education was made compulsory for both Māori and European children in 1901.
Nicole Thorburn RLIANZA (@nicole_thorburn) is a library assistant and heritage geek at Thamescoromandel District Libraries. She studied history at the University of Waikato, and worked in both museums and archives before moving into libraries.