As a former schoolteacher, John Burrell's father knew the value of a good secondary school education. But in December 1931, as the effects of the Great Depression were beginning to bite hard, he had to admit he was finding it difficult to keep John at Northcote High School. In a letter to the school's acting headmaster, Sidney Kitson, he wrote that after having been unemployed for over eighteen months he was 'quite unable to pay any fees ... The present depression has brought me down to zero'.¹

Mr Burrell wasn't the only parent at Northcote High forced by the 'present depression' to beg for leniency with school fees in the early 1930s. His letter is one of several received by the school in 1931-32 from parents explaining why they hadn't yet paid their third-term fees. On 3 July 1932, Mr Dickson wrote that he hadn't been able to pay his son's fees for the term 'owing to being unemployed for several weeks recently and on a very reduced wage'. Mr A Phillips of Westgarth Street explained in a letter on 3 August that 'our present position (working part-time on reduced wages) will not allow me to pay for Keith's school fees'.

For musician Mr HJ West of Dennis Street, Northcote, the Depression compounded the havoc wreaked by the 'talkies' on his profession. The small orchestras that accompanied silent films in picture theatres in and around Northcote were the main source of employment for musicians like Mr West, but that had all ended when synchronised sound was introduced to movies in 1929. He had just completed, he explains in a letter written in beautiful copperplate, 'about three years out of work'. This is the first term he had not paid his son Stanley's fees, he notes, adding 'You will agree with me under the circumstances I have done very well.' Given that, he wrote: 'I would deem it a personal favour if you would be so kind as to allow this matter to stand over until the new year.'²

Northcote High School Orchestra, c. 1930s. Courtesy Northcote High School

The names of Stanley West, John Burrell, Norman Burrell and Keith Phillips appear on a list of around a dozen students that Mr Kitson and headmaster Mr FW Johnson spent months chasing for fees outstanding for term 3, 1931.³ As at December 1931, 25 boys had fees outstanding, the parents of whom had been interviewed by the headmaster at least six times, Mr Johnson reported. His instructions from the Department were clear: none of the pupils should be re-admitted in 1932 unless all fees were paid or the Department received their application for free tuition.⁴ It was a chase that dragged on through much of 1932, with stern letters from the school being replied to with pleading and apologetic letters from parents desperate to keep their children in school despite their inability to pay the fees.