Rare 19th century issues of Whanganui Collegiate magazine up for auction

Richard Bourne is holding one of three unique presentation copies of the first 79 issues of The Wanganui Collegian, in the Whanganui Collegiate School Museum, next to the school's complete set of The Collegian from 1883 to the present day.

The first 79 issues of The Wanganui Collegian, the quarterly magazine of Whanganui Collegiate School, have been repatriated from England by Henry Newrick, director of Heritage Art Auctions in Whanganui.

The 79 issues, covering the period 1883-1909, were collated and bound into three fine leather-bound volumes. These were presented to the then-headmaster Walter Empson upon his retirement in 1909 after serving 21 years as headmaster. Volume 1 was signed by all the school prefects in 1908, and Volume 3 by all the prefects in 1909.

The three-volume set is being offered for sale by Heritage Art at their upcoming 10-day online sale which begins March 28.

The ceremony which marked the Whanganui Collegiate Chapel foundation being laid in 1911.

The school has preserved, in its museum, every issue of The Wanganui Collegian from 1883 until the present day, but the presentation copies are special because they are signed and were the personal copies of the school’s long-serving and much-loved headmaster.

Excerpt from The Wanganui Collegian 1883

“Now that the winter is coming on, with lots of wet days, boys are very glad to have some way of exercising their physical powers indoors ... Bannister and Hickson have a very graceful way of getting off the horizontal bar, namely, sitting on the bar and then falling backwards and landing on their feet on the ground.”

Walter Empson was headmaster of Wanganui Collegiate and served in that role from 1888-1909. He was perhaps the most inspirational and influential headmaster of Collegiate School.

Empson was born in North Hamptonshire, England, in 1856 and educated at Charterhouse before entering Trinity College, Oxford. He came to farm in New Zealand in 1884, then spent four years teaching at Collegiate School before taking on the role of headmaster.

A notable feature of his teaching style both in and out of the classroom was his use of the dramatic: For example, a bust of Julius Caesar which adorned his classroom, was paraded around the school on the Ides of March.

“Upon his retirement in 1909, Collegiate Old Boys asked the headmaster (Empson) what he would like for a present,” according to Richard Bourne, an old boy of Collegiate from the early 1960s, who set up and has been looking after the school’s museum for 25 years.

“He replied, ‘Nothing for myself, but if you would like to build a chapel for the new school, it would give me much pleasure’,” said Bourne.

The old school was on Victoria Ave, and the new school is on the present site in Liverpool St, where the chapel foundation was laid in 1911 and the building was completed in 1912.

For more information on this, these books and other items in the sale go to www.HeritageArtNZ.com or email Henry@HeritageArtNZ.com.