Some of the Mangapiko School pupils of 1937
A piece from The News columnists Meghan Hawkes prompted Ngaire Phillips (nee Johnson) to recount receiving a coronation medal almost 90 years ago at Mangapiko School.
See: Coronation on film
Ngaire Phillips remembers receiving the coronation medal in 1937 at Mangapiko School. Photo: Jesse Wood
It was May 12, 1937 – two days after her 8th birthday and the medal was a celebration of the crowning of George VI and his wife Elizabeth – the first of three coronations during Ngaire’s lifespan.
Ngaire, 96, remembers her grandfather and Waipā county councillor J.T. (John) Johnson handing them out to all the students.
“My grandfather was standing there with all these medals and nobody moved,” Ngaire said. “The teacher Miss Gertrude Cameron said, ‘go on Ngaire, he’s your grandfather, you go first’ because I didn’t move either.
“There might have been 40 pupils. We had two classrooms and the one teacher.”
There was no television and her parents didn’t have a radio and Ngaire doesn’t remember much else about the coronation. But she still has her medal.
Ngaire’s 1937 George VI and Elizabeth coronation medal. Photo: Jesse Wood
The Johnsons have been in the district since 1908, when J.T. brought his family north from Masterton, hence Johnson Rd in Mangapiko.
Mangapiko School closed on May 6, 1939, with just a roll of nine. It was one of many schools in the Te Awamutu area whose fate was determined by a policy of consolidating country schools.
“I can still remember the relieving teacher dividing the spoils among the pupils. My sister Ailsa and I carried a blackboard between us loaded up with things such as books and chalk and bits and pieces,” Ngaire said.
“I was almost 10, Ailsa was 7, and we carried that loaded board home on the two and a half miles of the rough metal main Pirongia Rd. We used that blackboard for years.
“The school had a garden where the children sowed seeds and grew vegetables. We also grew native trees from seed.
“When the school closed, we were each given a seedling. Our little kōwhai tree was transplanted onto my father’s house section and grew into quite a big tree.
“When it was 17, my father wanted to build a car shed. It was in the way. By then I was married living on another farm close by.
“My husband Ron wrenched the tree and months later dug it up, put sacks and a chain around the root ball and trunk, and with a front-end loader put it on a lorry.
“Kept well-watered, it transplanted successfully. It flowered out of season for three years but survived.”
Two original dunnies at the site of the Mangapiko School that closed in 1939. Photo: Jesse Wood
Two “dunnies” and a boulder commemorate the spot where the school once stood on the corner of Mangapiko School and Burns Roads.
The site has views of mountains Pirongia, Kakepuku and Maungatautari. The school buildings have been preserved as accommodation – The Old School House is on Bruce Rd, between Te Awamutu and Kihikihi.
“The last school picnic was held in Hey’s paddock near the road. It firmly remains in memory, mostly because in February 1938 my parents, Ray and Edna Johnson, bought a General Electric refrigerator, a rare home appliance in those days,” Ngaire said.
“They made a quantity of ice cream and served it to the children as a treat. They kept it cold in thermos flasks.”
Te Awamutu-based Jessie Young (nee Houghton), 98, and Pāpāmoa-based June Ferguson (nee Young) are two friends that Ngaire stays connected with from her Mangapiko School days.
This boulder sits where the Mangapiko School once stood, on the corner of Mangapiko School and Burns Roads. Photo: Jesse Wood
Following the school’s closure, Ngaire attended Te Awamutu Primary and Te Awamutu Intermediate.
She was a Te Awamutu District High School student throughout WWII, finishing in 1946 – the year before it became Te Awamutu College.
Other than two years in Auckland at teacher’s training college, Ngaire has lived in the area her whole life.
She now resides in Te Awamutu after moving off the farm 11 years ago.
A former Pirongia School and Te Awamutu Primary School teacher, Ngaire has compiled books detailing both her family and Mangapiko history.
There isn’t much of the Mangapiko area left as 8-year-old Ngaire would remember, but the hall will turn 100 in July.
Ngaire featured in the Te Awamutu News in October 2020 when Viv Posselt reported on in an exhibition at Te Awamutu Museum which looked back on 100 years of secondary education in Te Awamutu.
See: Pirongia toasts 150 years
Ngaire Johnson (later Phillips), at front left, in the sixth form of the then consolidated school in 1946. She was also a school prefect.
Some of the Mangapiko School pupils of 1937, from left, Back row: John Moltzen, Bill O’Brien, Len Day, Stan Clarke, Max Ellis; Middle row: Doreen Rose, Nola Day, Merlene Day, Audrey Welham, Barbara Woolly, Margaret Clarke, Unknown, Rosie O’Brien, Isobel O’Brien, Viola Hope; Front row: Ngaire Johnson, Shirley Rose, Ailsa Johnson, Janet Woolly, Johnny O’Brien. Teacher – Miss Gertrude Cameron. Photo: Edna Johnson
