The Aspirations of Godley’s Time – Sir Charles Bowen

“I know you will be angry with my talking in this way of Canterbury.  But if your Lordship were to land, I fear that, while you admired the material progress if the Settlement, you would share the heart-sickness  of those who remember the aspirations of Mr [John Robert] Godley’s time and who have learned that …

Sir Charles Christopher Bowen (1830 – 1917)

As a teenager, Charles Bowen found himself rubbing shoulders with worldly wisdom and business knowledge in the shape of John Robert Godley, James Edward Fitzgerald and Lord Lyttelton.  He was a budding Irish law student absorbing all he could amongst the upper class ranks of the Canterbury Association in which he had taken a keen …

Cantab Behind Free Compulsory Education – 1877

Before the passing of the Education Act in 1877, children who were fortunate enough to have the opportunity of having an education were either taught at home, through the local church or had to have the social standing to go to a private school. Many others were kept home as the demands of running a …