The House System is designed to support pupils with a wide variety of matters such as relationships with teachers or other pupils, careers advice, subject selection, and help them focus on their studies.
The four Houses also provide the basic structure for School sports and other competitive activities. Inter-House competitions in Athletics, Swimming, Winter Sports and Cross Country are highlights of the School year. The House Shield is awarded annually to the House who gains the most House Points during the year. Each House elects two House Captains (boy and girl) to lead the House in these activities under the guidance of the Dean of House.
Grey House
The Dean of Grey House is Miss Claire Westoby (claire.westoby@buller.ac.nz)
The House Teachers for 2012 are:
Sir George Grey, KCB
Born: 1812 in Lisbon, Portugal
Died: 1898 in London, England
Governor
1845 - 1847
Governor-in-Chief
1848 - 1853
Governor of New Zealand
1853 - 1853
1861 - 1868
Sir George was born in Lisbon in 1812. He graduated at Sandhurst and served in Ireland where he rose to Captain but he resigned commission soon after.
He explored in north west Australia before being appointed Governor of South Australia 1840-45. After serving in New Zealand, he became Governor of the Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa from 1854-61. He then returned to New Zealand for a second term as Governor.
Thereafter, he was unsuccessful in a Parliamentary bid in England before returning to New Zealand, where was the elected representative for Auckland, Thames and Christchurch between 1875-95. He served as Premier of New Zealand 1877-79. He died in London in 1898.
Marsden House
The Dean of Marsden House is Miss Ainslie Savage(ainslie.savage@buller.ac.nz)
The House Teachers for 2012 are:
Samuel Marsden
Missionary, explorer, and recorder of early nineteenth century Maori culture.
Born: 25 June 1765 at Farsley in the parish of Calverley, Yorkshire
Died: 12 May 1838 at Windsor in New South Wales
On 21 April 1793 he married Elizabeth Fristan. On 26 May 1793 he was ordained by the Bishop of Exeter. He and his bride took passage in a convict ship, the William, arriving at Port Jackson on 10 March 1794. Their first child, Anne, was born on the voyage. On 4 July 1794 they took up residence at Parramatta, some 15 miles from the main settlement at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson.
Marsden became an outstanding and prosperous farmer, and was a senior officiating minister of the Church of England in New South Wales until his death, performing manifold good works. For many years he was a member of the Bench of Magistrates at Parramatta, and although his career in this capacity was a chequered one, he was one of the colony's most formative early figures.
On 28 November 1814 Marsden set out from Port Jackson to establish a mission in New Zealand for the Church Missionary Society (a Church of England affiliate), and on Christmas Day he held the first Christian service in New Zealand. In his journal of the visit he recorded with telling power of narrative and description the story of these adventurous contacts, and of the Maori way of life at that time. By 1830 the New Zealand mission was under the firm leadership of Henry Williams, and no longer needed Marsden's frequent presence. He made one more visit to New Zealand, his seventh, in 1837 with his daughter Martha.
No stronger or more dynamic personality than Marsden's was ever in New Zealand. His untiring efforts to bring the New Zealand Maoris within the Christian fold, pursued to the limit of his great physical vigour and with unflinching personal bravery, had great direct and indirect effects on the history of New Zealand. Among the direct ones were the success of the mission itself, the interest in New Zealand as a sphere of British influence and settlement which this occasioned, the inland explorations which Marsden carried out, and his introduction of key personages in Henry Williams and other outstanding early missionaries. The indirect ones were the effect – not entirely happy – of these accelerations of European impact on the Maoris themselves, and the invaluable factual contributions to Maori ethnology with which Marsden's writings endowed New Zealand's early literature. Marsden himself was not sympathetic to much of the Maori culture, thinking, under the influence of his stern evangelical creed, that many elements in it were of the Devil. Nor was Marsden always tolerant of or merciful toward what he conceived to be human error, whether of thought or deed. On balance, however, Samuel Marsden must be set down as the outstanding European figure in the history of New Zealand in the decade from 1814 to 1823.
Seddon House
The Dean of Seddon House is Mr Steve Dorey (steve.dorey@buller.ac.nz)
The House Teachers for 2012 are:
Richard John Seddon
Liberal Party Prime Minister 1 May 1893-10 June 1906.
Born: 1845, Lancashire, England
Died: 1906, on ship from Sydney to Wellington, aged 61
New Zealand’s longest serving Prime Minister, Richard Seddon was born in Eccleston Lancashire in 1845. He received a good education at his father's school, Eccleston Hill Grammar. Seddon later apprenticed as an engineer, and on completing his apprenticeship, began a career as a mining engineer and retailer.
He arrived in Melbourne Australia in 1863. At the end of 1866 Seddon left Melbourne in the Alhambra for New Zealand and finally landed in Hokitika. Once in New Zealand, he made his way to the goldfields at Waimea. There he used his engineering skills, making a good deal of money. In 1869 he married and settled down in Kumara.
Seddon held a number of positions in public office before entering Parliament. They include: Westland Provincial Councillor for Arahura 1874-76; Member of the Arahura County Council 1877 and Chairman until 1891; and first Mayor of Kumara 1878.
In his Parliamentary Career, Seddon became Member for Hokitika in1879, a position he was to hold until 1891 when he became Member for Kumara. After nine years as Member for Kumara, Seddon was next elected as Member for Westland, from 1890 to1906.
Seddon rose to the positions of Minister for Public Works, Mines and Defence in 1891 in the Ballance ministry. When Ballance was incapacitated in 1892 from taking his place in the House Seddon immediately took charge. Following Ballance's death, Stout was the favoured leader of the liberals, but as he was out of Parliament for nearly six years, Seddon was securely installed as Premier. He took office on 1 May 1893. Seddon became Treasurer from 1897 to 1906, and Postmaster-General from 1897 to 1899.
In his first session, Seddon extended the franchise to women and passed the local option act to enable electorates to declare upon liquor-licensing policy every three years.
He died suddenly in office on board the Oswetry Grange on his return from a trip to Sydney, on 10 June 1906.
Wilding House
The Dean of Wilding House is Ms Laura Redmond (laura.redmond@buller.ac.nz)
The House Teachers for 2012 are:
Anthony Frederick Wilding
Born:31 October 1883 at Opawa, Christchurch
Died: 9 May 1915 at Neuve Chapelle, France
Anthony Wilding won a total of eight Wimbledon titles (four singles, and four doubles). He also won a number of tennis championships around the world, including tournaments in Christchurch, Melbourne, Paris and Johannesburg, as well as his bronze medal result at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. The highlight of his tennis career was the successful defence of his Wimbledon title in 1913 against the highly favoured American Maurice McLoughlin, in front of 7000 spectators.
Unusually for the times, Wilding did not smoke or drink alcohol, and followed a strict training programme to keep up his level of fitness. He was not regarded as a naturally brilliant player (compared to Norman Brookes for example) but succeeded because he worked hard on improving his game, and was more consistent in his play and fitter than other players. He was a well-known figure on the British and European tennis circuits, playing his “manly brand of tennis”, and with his blond good looks, has been described as “tennis' first matinee idol”.
Wilding was also passionate about motorcycles and cars, spending long periods touring different countries on motorcycle, and when the First World War broke out, chose to join an armoured car division. He was killed in a bombardment that took place on the Western Front near Neuve Chapelle in France.
After the war the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association bought land in Woodham Road for tennis courts and named their new centre for Canterbury tennis, 'Wilding Park'.
