First female university graduate

First female university graduate

The first woman to graduate university in New Zealand lived in Mt Victoria.

Joanna Newman tells her story.

Many famous New Zealanders have called Mt Victoria home over the years, and you can still see the houses they lived in.

One was Kate Evans. As Kate Edger, she was the first woman in New Zealand to gain a university degree and the first in the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts. In 1877, she graduated with a B.A. in Latin and Mathematics. When she applied for permission to sit for a mathematical scholarship for the University of New Zealand, she was only accepted because she mentioned her age and qualifications but not her gender.

She received her M.A. in 1882.

Then, at the age of 26, she was appointed founding principal of Nelson College for Girls.

Kate and her husband, the Rev. Evans, lived at 49 Porritt Avenue (then Ellice Avenue) and she ran a school from there. Here’s how Kate advertised her school in the Evening Post in January 1895.

As well as teaching, Kate helped her husband in his work for the Forward Movement, including giving public addresses. The regular lectures and talks by the Movement included topics such as “The Growth of Socialism” and “The Christian as Citizen”.  Rev Evans also taught adult evening classes and worked with the New Zealand Workers’ Union to improve conditions for the unemployed in the late 1890s.

In 1904, Evans was also taking students at their home. The advertisement at the start of that year read:

In 1904 Kate’s husband was appointed in charge of the Newtown Congregational Church.

They sold the house and moved to Hiropi Street in 1906.

If you’d like to read more about Kate Edger, there’s a very readable recent biography by Diana Morrow – Kate Edger: The Life of a Pioneering Feminist.