The School Houses

The school is currently divided up into four Houses, named after the founders of Wairarapa towns - Masters, Carter, Martin, and Grey.  The House names were chosen by the pupils after extensive discussion and selection.  The names were chosen because they linked the school to the Wairarapa region and its founding, and because each of the founders had a vision for, and commitment to, the Wairarapa.  Although they were prominent people, they were also self-made and had an unerring desire for opportunities for everyone.  They reflect the attributes the school has for its pupils - to be literate, self-motivated, self-managing, respectful, responsible, and confident.  They are therefore, appropriate role-models for the children.
 
 Each House has two teachers and the senior (Y8) pupils as leaders. The Houses are the pastoral care unit for the school and being a member of the House helps to create the sense of community and service for each child. The children earn house points for good work and behaviour and these points are awarded to the House. When a pupil has earned two hundred house-points they are awarded an Honours Award at assembly. Honours awards also contribute to the House’s points total.
 
The Houses meet during the year and this provides a vehicle for pupil support and pastoral care. Each day the children line up in their Houses and also are seated at chapel and assembly in House groups. The Houses compete as a group and individuals gain points for their House in athletics, swimming, and cross-country. As well there are inter-House sport competitions in softball, rippa rugby, basketball, and soccer. During Term Three the Houses meet to rehearse a song and hymn item for the House Cultural Competition.

 
Joseph Masters
Joseph Masters was born in Derby, England, in 1802. His father died when he was very young and Joseph was sent to work in a silk mill. Masters seems to have been driven by a strong desire to better himself and served an apprenticeship as a cooper, served as a Grenadier Guard, a policeman and a gaoler before migrating to Tasmania with his wife and two daughters.
 
 Still wishing for ways to improve himself, he decided to leave Tasmania and headed for New Zealand, landing in the Bay of Islands but quickly made his way south to Wellington where he traded as a cooper on Lambton Quay Masters was very prominent and vocal in promoting the concept of creating small farm-holdings for the working people on the flat lands of the Wairarapa. In March 1853 a Small Farms Association was formed, and Masters and Carter delivered a petition on behalf of the potential small-holders to Sir George Grey, who was happy to support their scheme for settlement if they could convince Maori to sell their land. Masters, Carter, and H H Jackson tracked to Ngaumutawa Pa to meet with the chief Te Korou, who listened carefully to what they had to say, and agreed with the proposal. The first settlers arrived in May 1854, while Joseph Masters arrived in September of that year. With his great energy and his determination to get on, Masters threw himself into establishing a viable future for himself and his family. As well as successfully farming his small holding he represented the area in the Wellington Provincial Council and was a strong promoter of the Trust Lands Trust which now is a significant benefactor to education in the Masterton area. His was a strong influence over the community that bore his name until his death in 1873.
 
A leader of vision and courage, Joseph Masters had a sincere desire to improve the lot of others. He is generally regarded as the founder of the Small Farm Association, whose aims were achieved largely because of his energy and practical leadership. The Wairarapa settlements which he helped establish were the earliest planned small farm subdivisions in New Zealand. Although the size of unit and terms of occupancy would vary, the same pattern of subdivision was followed by official and private agencies for the next 50 years.
  

 
Charles Rooking Carter
Charles Carter was born in Kendal, Westmorland, England, the son of a builder, John Carter. He lived in London from the age of 21 and through adult education classes at the Westminster Institution, broadened his knowledge and outlook. His studies led him to advocate emigration and, in particular, emigration to New Zealand, as one means of relieving distress. Following his marriage in 1850, he left for New Zealand with his wife. In Wellington he quickly made a position for himself as a resourceful and enterprising contractor, among the works which he completed being harbour reclamation, sea walls, and the Wellington Provincial Buildings (1857).
 
In 1853 he was elected to the committee of the Wairarapa Small Farms Association, an organisation responsible for the settlement of Greytown and Masterton. The town of Carterton was established in 1857, originally as Three Mile Bush. In 1867 Carter’s suggestion that the unsold lands should be used for educational purposes within the district led directly to the establishment of the Greytown and Masterton land trusts. 
 
Carter represented the Wairarapa in the Wellington Provincial Council from 1857 to 1864, and in the General Assembly (for Wairarapa) from 1859 to 1865. The settlement was named in his honour, originally as Carterville but then, after a petition was presented to the Provincial Council, to Carterton.
 
During his association with Carterton, Carter built the first bridge over the Waiohine River, was instrumental in opening the first public school and was a major benefactor of the Carterton Public Library. He also bequeathed two thousand, five hundred pounds for the establishment of a home where free board and lodgings were available for the poor, elderly men of the district who had come to the end of their working lives and would otherwise be forced to take to the road as swaggers.
 
Carter died in Wellington on 22 July 1896, and is buried at the Clareville Cemetery. He bequeathed a significant book and pamphlet collection to The New Zealand Institute, and the residue of his estate went towards the erection of an astronomical observatory for Wellington – the Carter Observatory.
 
Although somewhat verbose and even tedious in literary style and unpolished in address, Carter by his energy and shrewdness gained a modest success which he was prepared to share in part with the general community. He valued education for all. He was a successful contractor, politician, and philanthropist.
 

 
John Martin
John Martin was born in Moneymore, County Derry in Ireland in 1822, the son of an Irish clergyman. Along with his numerous brothers and sisters, after the death of his parents of typhus in 1838, and on the advice of an uncle, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1840. 
 
Martin, in early Wellington, turned his hand to anything going, working his way up from labouring and carting to being an auctioneer, then wool buyer, property investor and land owner. He went into partnership with a brother-in-law buying a block of land at Tuapeka in Central Otago. The land was not productive as a pastoral business but not long after gold was discovered and their depasturing licence was cancelled and their run officially declared a gold field.  Martin and his brother-in-law sold their stock as meat for the miners and transported gold to Dunedin.
 
Martin returned to Wellington with about thirteen thousand pounds and bought land in Taranaki Street and set up as a merchant and general commission agent. In 1863 he was elected to the town board. In 1869 he purchased the 12 698 acre Otaraia Station in Wairarapa and in partnership bought out the New Zealand Steam Navigation Company.
 
 In 1871 he bought 24 787 acres in the centre of the existing Te Awaiti Station. He also completed a contract for the construction of the new Government House in Wellington. He was made a Justice of the Peace in 1876, and was called to the Legislative Council by Premier George Grey.
 
In 1879 Martin purchased the 33 346 acre Huangarua Station. He immediately split the run into 334 small farms and 593 sections to create a town just north of the existing settlement of Waihenga. Unfortunately, Martin’s speculation coincided with the onset of the agricultural depression and the auction was not successful. It took twenty-six years from the inaugural sale in 1879 to the first meeting of its Town Board on 27 April 1905
 
He also left his mark on Wellington in the form of Martin Square. John Martin died in Wellington in 1892.
 
A labourer, carter, merchant, politician, run-holder, land speculator.   He is remembered as an exceptional self-made man who raised himself by untiring energy and perseverance from the bottom of the ladder.

George Grey
Sir George Grey KCB was born in Lisbon, Portugal on 14 April 1812. He was the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel Grey, of the 30th Cambridgeshire Regiment of Foot, who was killed at the Battle of Badajoz in Spain just a few days before his birth. 
 
Grey was sent to the Royal Grammar School in Surrey and was admitted to the royal military college in 1826. Grey led an exploration of north-west Australia in 1837 and western Australia in 1839. He was Governor of South Australia from 1841 to 1845, and twice governor of New Zealand from 1845 to 1853, and 1861 to 1868. He earned a particular respect for his handling of Maori affairs – he took pains to show Maori that he observed the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi, assuring them that their land rights would be fully recognised. Grey was greatly respected by Maori and often travelled with a company of chiefs. He also was fluent in te reo Maori.
 
Grey became Governor of the Cape Colony (South Africa) from 1854 to 1861. In 1875 he was elected Superintendent of Auckland Province, and was a Member of Parliament from 1876 to 1895, and premier (prime-minister) from 1877 -1879. He died in London in 1898.
Greytown, was first settled on 27 March 1854, on the Kuratawhiti clearing under the Small Farms Association Settlement Scheme, and was named after Governor Sir George Grey, who arranged for the land to be bought from local Māori. It was Joseph Masters who suggested that the first town should be named Grey as a memorial to their excellent Governor. The dreams of potential small-holders centred around Grey’s anticipation of new powers which the Constitution Act would give to provincial and central governments – his land regulations, formally proclaimed on 4 March 1853 were but the first step. 
 
Greytown was the first planned inland town, and was intended to be the region’s main centre, and capital city of New Zealand.
 
George Grey was renowned as a governor who by his high character as a Christian, a statesman, and a gentleman, had endeared himself to all members of the community.