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As a British colony, New Zealand had early to grapple with how best to implement a state system of schooling. Inspectors of primary schools and governing boards of secondary schools were responsible for appointing school principals. This paper examines the ways in which they dealt with new situations: in the case of the primary schools where there were few suitable male applicants and in the case of the secondary schools where they were responsible for appointing the very first principals of girls' schools. It argues that within a small colony with emerging bureaucratic structures, lone officials and autonomous governing boards were able to engage in flexible decision making when making principal appointments to enable schools to open and remain open. Central to the appointment of women as early principals was the importance of their own social networks and personal connections. It was in this way that the non-traditional school principal began to emerge. She was female, either Maori or European, either non-graduate or graduate, either single, married or widowed, and sometimes from working-class origins. This paper highlights the appointments of several of the first women principals in New Zealand across the three state school sectors - Native Schools, primary schools and secondary schools. These were women who carved out new professional identities for themselves, and modelled alternative vocational pathways for the next generation of New Zealand women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]