Marsden excavation reveals history of first school

"Gold" discovered in the Bay or Islands won't start a gold rush, but the precious find has archaeologists excited.

An archaeological dig at the site of New Zealand's first permanent European settlement site at Marsden Cross in the Bay of Islands has exposed some archaeological "gold".

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust said remnants uncovered from the original 1814 Oihi Mission Station include the site of New Zealand's first school - actually a modest-sized classroom - and other features, including a Maori-style whare, and the remains of what is likely to have been the house of missionary Thomas Kendall and his family.

Led by Otago University archaeologists Professor Ian Smith and Honorary Research Fellow Dr Angela Middleton, the excavation has also involved archaeologists from the Department of Conservation and the trust, as well as graduate students in archaeology from Otago University.

The excavation has shed new light on the mission, and the people who lived there.

"One thing that has emerged, for example, is that the missionaries who established the mission at Oihi were not particularly skilled builders," Professor Smith said.

"The timber they used on the school was of poor quality, and the chimney was not well constructed, so much so that it appears to have needed considerable maintenance to keep it functioning."

Poor workmanship notwithstanding, the school officially opened on August 12 1816 and by 1817 had 70 pupils.

Artefacts recovered from the school site, including slate pencils, glass beads, a clay marble and a small toy cannon made of brass, have enabled the team to pinpoint the location of the school within the overall mission site. The beads were used as an inducement to encourage Maori children to attend school, though food would appear to have been the main means for encouraging attendance.

A more bewildering discovery on-site is the uncovering of a Maori-style whare complete with stone hearth.

"This is really unusual and quite unexpected. It could have been a house built for the missionaries by Maori, or possibly built after the missionaries left as a means of 'reclaiming' the land again," Professor Smith said.