QVS Teachers
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QVS Teachers |
| John Murphy |
 I doubt that there would have been anyone happier than me to have John arrive at the school.
I was covering the art classes for him during the first term, had no art materials and had run out of ideas. He also turned out to be kindred spirit. Perhaps a bit more wild than me. He had a small billiards table and you could find me
down there playing and taping his and my albums. He liked his rock music played loud and tired to get the best stereo gear available. Quite a loud-voiced (EEEE_HAW!!!!) chap, he also had a thick accent which set apart from the other kiwis at the school. So he was the butt of many jokes.
I recall him once telling me: "You know why people despise you? Because your poor!" Hitching a ride with him to Suva was good if you wanted to get there in a hurry. A kid who never grew up - so enthusiastic about eerything.
Back in New Zealand we were able to visit him and his family in Christchurch in 1974 and even hiked a few Southern Alps with him and Shaun. He paid us a brief visit in 1988. Had a subarachnoid (brain) haemorrhage. Became a database expert by creating studnet maangement systems for schools. Retired. He came out of retirement to head up an international database development team involving trips to US and Israel. |
| Article from The Victorian 1971: PERSONALITY OF THE MONTH One of the most familiar voices around the school block is heard from a short, medium sized gentleman. Perhaps, once a day he seems to be quarrelling with someone. He goes by the name of Mr. John Edward Murphy. He comes from Christchurch in New Zealand - and he takes Art classes and Physical Education. It's a wonder how he manages the Physical Education lessons when he wears spectacles and if they fall, God knows how he reacts. When asked if he liked coming to Queen Victoria School or to Fiji as a whole, he replied that he liked it very much for it seemed different from what he had been used to in New Zealand. The way of life was different and the outlook of the people varied considerably with those in his hometown. Q.V.S. is really one place one could have dreamt but the road is too dusty, he said. Although Q.V.S. is a fabulous place, he had some suggestions to make. One was to build a fully equipped common room and the leisure times should be more organized. Speaking on Art, he said that art in QV.S. is generally better than that New Zealand because in New Zealand the students rely more on equipment and not on their own abilities. Art in Fiji is as good as might be expected since mostly Europeans are developing it here in Fiji. He detests the carved masks and the showing of Fijian bures; they are over exposed. Visitors would prefer to see real bures in their proper surrounding. One of the main setbacks in Fiji, of teaching art is that there is no centre for them to be kept or as a selling market, Asked why he usually travelled at round 60 mph. He said, "Don't tell anyone, I would like to kill myself." Aha! Maika Cama, FORM 6-PHYSICS. |
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