Samuel Edward Portman VERNON was born in August 1880 in Upper Waikaia, Southland, where his parents were goldmining and hotel keeping in the remote Whitecoomb Valley, 40kms north of Waikaia. Sam was of school age between 1886 and say 1895. But where might he have gone to school? He is not on the roll of Waikaia School, which is a long way south. Roxburgh is a possibility, but it is a long way east across the range. In 1887, when Sam was seven, his father wrote to the newspaper (Mataura Ensign 23 September 1887 p.8) deploring a proposal to spend more money on secondary schools, and advocating spending the money instead on 'providing free education for children residing in isolated districts where the children do not reach the number required by the Education Act before establishing a State School'. Was it his own son's education he was concerned about? In 1893, when Sam was 12, he gave evidence in the Warden's Court (Otago Witness 30 March 1893 p.16) about a mining claim that he had pegged. By then, his schooling was apparently over - but had it ever started? Any help or suggestions for research avenues (from the remote Far North!) welcomed. _______________________ Stuart Park Kerikeri, New Zealand <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]