The History of St Peter's College

A move had been made in 1885 for a Christian Brothers school in Auckland. Under an agreement between Archbishop Liston and Br Hanrahan the Provincial of the Australian province, the Christian Brothers opened a primary and secondary school at Reeves Road in the Parish of St Benedict on 6 February 1939.

St Peter's College was the first opening in the North Island with Br O’Driscoll as Principal and a roll of 183 pupils. The school soon made an impact with its success in public examinations and results far above the national average.

For 18 years St Peter’s was blessed with the services of the Chaplain Dr Delargy, later Bishop and than Cardinal. He was mainly instrumental in building the college chapel, which was built in 1953. The money was raised by the Old Boys, Men’s and Ladies’ Committees and the pupils. The chapel became a focal point and the good habit of a visit to the Blessed Sacrament before and after school has been maintained over 60 years. “Some idea of the spiritual tone that Dr Delargey and the Brothers were able to instil into the boys can be gauged by the number of ex-pupils in training for the priestly and religious life.”

By the time of the school’s Golden Jubilee, 49 Priests and 25 Christian Brothers and 8 other Religious Brothers were products of St Peter’s. The first of these was Fr Gaines (1950) who became auxiliary Bishop of Auckland (1976) and Bishop of the new Hamilton diocese (1980). Fr Denis Browne (1962) became the second old boy Bishop when he was appointed Bishop of the Cook Islands and Niue (1977).

In the early 1960s St Peter’s had become the largest Catholic school in New Zealand with 834 pupils and expansion became necessary. During the leadership of Br P C Ryan (1957-65) the Brothers’ residence was extended and a new building consisting of science laboratories, classrooms and a lecture theatre was built.

An area of 2 ½ acres was purchased from Dominion Breweries at £11000 (pounds) per acre by Archbishop Liston in 1959. The school repaid £3000 per year through the Men’s and Ladies’ Committees, the fete, and the boys’ annual raffle. Fifteen months of voluntary labour on Saturdays by the Men’s Committee saw a pavilion and changing rooms built and insured for £12,500. It was opened in November 1960. The acquisition proved invaluable to St Peter’s.

“Academically the college excelled in winning University Scholarships and attaining first place in School Certificate examinations. The work done in the Technical Department by Br Wilkes drew great praise from the Education Department Inspectors. Boys from his class obtained the highest mark in School Certificate Technical Drawing for several years."

A major step forward in the history of the school occurred in 1964 when Br Monagle succeeded in having the train stop just by the College. The ‘Auckland Star’ article of 15 September read: “A new station near Khyber Pass Road for St Peter’s and Auckland Grammar School filled with school boys about 8.30 am today when it was used for the first time. It will be used by about 250 boys from St Peter’s and 12 from Auckland Grammar School. The train will stop there once in the morning and afternoon. The boys used to alight at Mt Eden Station which meant crossing Mt Eden Road at one of the morning peak periods.”

A long standing tradition in the Brothers and instigated by the Founder, Br Edmund Rice, was the annual four week holiday at the seaside. As the St Peter’s community grew in numbers it became increasingly difficult to find adequate accommodation at a suitable location. A property at Ahipara at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach, Northland, was bequeathed to the Catholic church. It included a large former guest house, and the Brothers holidayed there first in 1957. One hectare of land, including the house, was purchased in 1960 and for some 40 years the North Island Communities holidayed at what proved to be a most suitable venue for the summer vacation.

Br B E Ryan (1966-74) continued the expansion of the college and he was responsible for a large three-storey set of classrooms plus the hall and squash courts. It was remarkable that assemblies had been held in the school yard in front of the original building until 1974 in spite of noise from Khyber Pass traffic, occasional trains, and eventually, the Southern Motorway.

The 1980s was a period of consolidation and change. In 1980 Br Doherty was succeeded by Br Prendergast, the first Old Boy to be College Principal (1980-88). St Peter’s became integrated in 1982. With smaller class rolls the number of lay teachers increased. The original classroom block was transformed to provide staff and administration facilities and five comfortable classrooms.

St Peter’s continued its success in the sporting scene with several New Zealand representatives. The inaugural national Secondary Schools’ Softball Championship in 1980 was won by St Peter’s. In 1987 the First XV won the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Top Four Championship and in 1988 it won the Auckland Premiership. In 2000, the first XV won the Auckland Premiership and became National Secondary School Champions winning the final in Dunedin. It ended the season undefeated.

When the Government changed its immigration policy in the 1970s there was an influx of Polynesian families into Auckland. In the 1960s there was only a handful of Maori and non-European boys at the college but by 1980 there were over one hundred boys whose parents had come from Samoa, Tonga, Niue and the Cook Islands. The effect of this was to make St Peter’s into a multi-cultured school; the arrival of Asian students in the 1990s reinforced this cultural diversity.

Mr Kieran Fouhy became the first lay principal in 1989. Prior to this Mr Fouhy spent some months living with the St Peter’s community and he won the respect and admiration of the Brothers.

During the 1990s St Peter’s continued to expand. The Br P C Ryan Sports Pavilion replaced the original and the Br W R Smith Music and Drama Suite was built adjacent to the hall and squash courts. Br Smith (1948-53) initiated the first school orchestra.

By 2002 the roll reached just under 1200 pupils, the highest in its sixty years.

The Br. V. A Sullivan building which houses the Middle School was opened on Friday June 20 2003. Containing 12 classrooms it provides Year 7 and 8 students and teachers state of the art teaching facilities and spectacular views across the Auckland isthmus. St Peter’s looks to the new century with confidence built on the hard work of the Brothers in its first sixty years.

By Brother Graeme Donaldson