Family History 1.137

Gaze History:

NSG Memoir

Changing Eras

In 1950 Noel was promoted to membership of the national Board of the Baptist College; demand for its services was growing rapidly and it was outgrowing its property. Over the next few years, Noel and his colleagues of the Auckland Administration Committee searched the area for a suitable larger property.  They eventually found what they wanted half way down Victoria Avenue, and the change was made.  At the same time, the College became embroiled in an unpleasant controversy.  

 

When Dr North had retired, the Board of the College had sought a replacement from Baptist ministers in the UK.  Those were still the days of cultural cringe, and no-one really believed a

New Zealander would have the necessary qualities.  So the Rev Luke Jenkins was appointed.  However after a year or two it became clear that some church members were not happy with their new College Principal.  Well qualified and with teaching experience, Luke Jenkins was doing what the Board, or most of them, thought was a good job. But a few more extreme Church members from the south threatened to have him removed at the end of his contract. Noel, as chair of the Auckland committee, was delegated the unpleasant job of telling Luke he might not get re-appointed. 

Noel found himself in the middle and not particularly popular with either party. It was a difficult time for him, made no easier when at the end of the year the appointment was, in fact, not renewed. The Board made strenuous efforts to find a Principal who was more acceptable to the majority as well as having the necessary skills, and at the end of 1953 Rev Ted Roberts-Thomson arrived from Australia to take up the Principalship. Ted and his wife became close friends with Noel and Mary over the following years. 

In 1952, Noel had been elected to the Council of the Baptist Union, for which he had been an honorary solicitor for some years. With his other church responsibilities, local and national, he was now away from home in the evenings more often.

Christmas 1941; Julia, seated second from left,

Auntie Lizzie next to the right.

Mary's father, William Bigelow is standing, left.

But before this the family was undergoing other changes. 1951 saw Franklin at University with a National Scholarship. He talked with Noel about following law, and enrolled in Arts and Law at the University.  But during the year Franklin announced to his parents that he intended to pursue a career as a missionary and so in consultation with Mary’s cousin Royston Brown, who was then Chair of the Council of the Baptist Missionary Society, he concentrated on an Arts qualification with a view to teaching. 

In 1951, too, Julia’s sufferings came to an end, and she was buried alongside Fred at the Purewa cemetery.  Doris was left alone in the big house where she had always had family company.  Later she invited a friend, May Berg, to board with her and was from then on less lonely. 

In 1951 too, Mary’s father died. Noel and Mary were now part of the oldest generation. Auntie Lizzie finally died in the following year.