On 10 March 1880 the world’s first fully government-funded school for the education of the deaf opened in Sumner, Christchurch. The idea of establishing a school for the deaf in New Zealand was first promulgated by the Canterbury Provincial Council in the early 1870s, and gained momentum in the later years of the decade with members of the new central government championing the cause.

The most notable of these was William Rolleston, former superintendent of Canterbury, who had taken a personal interest in the education of the deaf, having already exerted his considerable influence in the public and private spheres to raise funds for two Dunedin boys, enabling them to obtain an education at the nearest school for the deaf - in Melbourne.

Dissatisfied with the Australian solution, Rolleston made impassioned pleas to the House of Representatives on the issue, on one occasion stating that ‘The greatness of a Government is shown by its capacity for dealing with matters affecting even the smallest number of the community. The importance of the subject is measured, not by the numbers affected, but by the wider consideration of the State to its individual members.’ His rhetoric was enough to convince then Prime Minister Sir George Grey to conseny in 1878 to the establishment of a school which would provide free education for the deaf, funded entirely by the government.

Now known as Van Asch Deaf Education Centre, the school opened in Sumner in March 1880, with Dutchman Gerrit van Asch as principal. In the early years, the students boarded with the principal and his wife in a large house nestled close to the Sumner hillside, known as Beach Glen. The arrangement must have been a happy one, for in his first inspection report to the Minister of Education in 1880, the visiting medical officer Dr. Prins was able to state that the students’ progress was ‘wonderful, and requires to be seen in order to be appreciated and understood’ and that ‘the impression left was of having visited a happy family home rather than a public institution.’ Indeed, the photograph here of four students in 1913 is illustrative of the familial ethos which the School has fostered throughout the years. The second image shows the magnificent edifice of what was known as the ‘Main Building’ of the School, built in 1904.

As a leading exponent of the ‘pure oral’ method of deaf education, van Asch prohibited all signing and finger language amongst his students, instead employing spoken language and lip-reading as the sole means of instruction and communication. This was still the teaching method in use when Helen Keller visited the School in 1948. By contrast, today’s students learn in an environment in which New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) is an integral part of the curriculum, and has been embraced as New Zealand’s third official language.

Archives New Zealand’s Christchurch Regional Office holds a wealth of material relating to public educational institutions in the Canterbury and Westland areas. These images, which can be viewed in person at our Christchurch Reading Room, are from the following archive:

Sumner School for the Deaf Photograph Album - 1913-1922 Archives New Zealand/Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Christchurch Regional Office [Archives Reference: CH8/1, 15]. For updates on our On This Day series and news from Archives New Zealand, follow us on Twitter twitter.com/ArchivesNZ