'We need more Jack Alabasters who hold the line'

“Seriously, we need to stop faffing around in schools now, we need more Jack Alabasters who hold the line. They are not cruel or unkind, they know what they stand for and hold the line.”

Jack Alabaster played test cricket for New Zealand and then went on to become the rector at Southland Boys’ High School.

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Jack Alabaster might well be the best cricketer Southland has ever produced. But don’t be mistaken, that’s not the biggest impact he has had on his home province.

It came while working in education.

On Tuesday, Alabaster’s innings came to an end at 93-years-old. The former Southland Boys’ High School rector passed away in Central Otago where he and his wife Shirley had lived in their retirement years.

Alabaster carved out an impressive cricketing career. He played 21 tests for New Zealand and took 500 wickets as a leg-spinner in a first-class career that stretched from 1955 to 1972.

His second first-class game was his first test and he was part of the team that recorded New Zealand’s first test victory in 1956 after 26 years of trying.

His career in education was also a lengthy one.

He briefly taught at a primary school before returning to his old school Southland Boys’ High School to teach science and mathematics from 1955 to 1975.

He became principal of Kingswell High School in 1975 before in 1981 returning to Southland Boys' as its rector until retirement in 1988.

Ian Baldwin joined Southland Boys’ High as a teacher in 1974. He spent much of his career working under Alabaster.

Baldwin - who later became a Southland Boys’ High rector himself - said Alabaster was very supportive of younger teachers.

He said Alabaster had the reputation of being a very stern man. Many pupils feared Alabaster.

But Baldwin added Alabaster was a very effective maths teacher and a compassionate person.

“He was absolutely a stern person, but deeply compassionate.

“I am at odds with how some people see schools now. We do have declining standards.

“We do have more and more children who need some certainty in their school environment because the school is the only place where they will get predictability and certainty.

“Jack provided that, there was certainty. You knew where you stood.

“Yes, he was stern, good on him. Staff and students needed it. His expectations were very explicit, there was no doubt. He was a major force in the school.

“Seriously, we need to stop faffing around in schools now, we need more Jack Alabasters who hold the line. They are not cruel or unkind, they know what they stand for and hold the line.”

Baldwin said Alabaster was on track to become a rector at Southland Boys’ but still opted to leave for a period to take on the job as principal at Kingswell High School.

“It said a lot about him as an individual. He went to a school with a whole set of challenges, you would think he would just carry on at Southland Boys’ and take the natural path there to rector, but he had other things to learn and brought that back to the school.”

Baldwin recalls a poignant moment soon after Alabaster returned from Kingswell to take on the Southland Boys’ rector job.

“With no prior warning to the staff or to the school he stood up at our prize-giving assembly and sung a waitata.

“It blew us away and you could see the mouths drop. He was basically saying to us - I think - as a school we needed to wake up and have a close look at what we were doing for Māori in our school and in our community.

“It was no criticism of what had gone on in the past, but it was basically saying it was time to take another step forward.”

Peter Skelt was a pupil at Southland Boys’ High School when Alabaster worked there.

He later offered Skelt a job as a teacher at Southland Boys’.

It might be better described as Alabaster telling Skelt he was starting work at Southland Boys’.

At the time Skelt was a teacher at Verdon College.

Skelt was actually in Tasmania on a tour with the Southland cricket team when he had a message that he needed to call Alabaster.

“I got hold of him, I called him Sir then. He said, ‘I have a job opportunity for you at Southland Boys’, and I said, ‘Yes Sir’.

“He said, ‘I would like you to teach economics and physical education, and you will start on…’ whatever the date was. I said, ‘Yes sir’.

“And he said, ‘you will also coach rugby and cricket, and I said, ‘Yes Sir, thank you’.

“That was it, it was probably a two-minute conversation.”

Given Alabaster was a former international leg-spinner, and Skelt at that time was a leg-spinner in the Southland Hawke Cup team, Alabaster helped Skelt with his cricket.

Alabaster himself had represented Southland from 1954 to 1975.

“He was the rector, and I was a teacher. For most probably a couple of seasons, he would come out in the big quadrangle after school and work with me,” Skelt said.

Alabaster’s younger brother, Gren, who is 90, was also a former first-class spinner.

Gren was a former New Zealand selector and manager after playing 96 first-class matches. As an offspinner, Gren Alabaster formed a hugely successful spin partnership with his brother Jack for Southland and Otago across two decades.

Jack Alabaster was the last born and bred Southlander to play test cricket for New Zealand, with his final test match in 1972.

Brian McKechnie, Jeff Wilson, and Jacob Duffy have since played for New Zealand, but not in a test match.