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Kōrero: Camping

First official school camp, Hūnua, 1938

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First official school camp, Hūnua, 1938

This 1938 newspaper article reports on the first-ever nationally authorised school camp, held for senior boys from Auckland's Epsom Normal School at a YMCA camp at Hūnua, south of Auckland. The Auckland Star reported that the boys 'did all the cooking and assisted the cook; they studied chiefly Nature, art, practical arithmetic, music, physical education, swimming and life-saving, went on study rambles, produced plays, and ended each day with a singsong.' Their parents felt that such camps should become 'a permanent feature of normal school policy,' and the Education Department agreed.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past

Reference: Evening Post, 10 February 1938, p. 10

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Mark Derby, Camping – School camps, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/document/39197/first-official-school-camp-hunua-1938 (accessed 25 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Mark Derby, i tāngia i te 26 November 2012.