Newsletter 39 December 2021

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A Bad State of Things

Richard Watson, Friend and Tour Guide, contributed the following revelation penned by “One Who Knows”.

Background

The New Town Charitable Institution was established in 1874 to care for the aged poor in the former Orphan School buildings. Many residents were former convicts. It separated male and female residents: the male residents were in the two wings of the Orphan School buildings at the end of St John’s Avenue, and the women were in the Infant Orphan School buildings at the top of the site (now Southern Cross Care, Rosary Gardens). The New Town Charitable Institution was also known as the New Town Infirmary and Consumptive Home (1912-1934), the New Town Rest Home (1934-1937), and finally St John’s Park Hospital (closed 1994).

NEW TOWN CHARITABLE INSTITUTION. A BAD STATE OF THINGS REPORTED.
CRUELTY TO THE AGED.

‘For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance’.

DEAR CLIPPER—Knowing your dislike of humbugging and your unwillingness at all times to present the truth to the public on all matters of public interest, I venture to bring under your notice the management or rather mismanagement of one of our institutions for the relief of the destitute and afflicted, viz., the New Town Charitable Institution.
Some short time ago the Revd. Mr. Symonds inserted in the Mercury his impressions of this place, representing everything coleur de rose; but Mr. Symonds was conducted over the institution by the officers in charge. He did not go amongst the inmates nor endeavour to illicit from them their impressions of the treatment meted out to them. For the most trivial offences the old men are locked up in cells for 24 or 48 hours on bread and water and their tobacco stopped. They are sent out to work in the cold weather on a pint of gruel and tea and about 3oz. bread. For dinner they have a similar allowance of bread, about an ounce of meat and a pint of very weak soup with, perhaps, a couple of potatoes. Tea: About 6oz. of bread and a pint of tea. This is the diurnal ration and one hardly calculated,
I think you will admit, to nourish the worn out systems of afflicted old people suffering with almost every variety of disease complicated with the natural fulness of old age. For the bulk of the inmates it cannot be justly called a home in any sense of the word. The one thing is discipline. This of course where numbers are concerned is very necessary, but if discipline is administered on prison lines—call things by their right names—The New Town Slaughter House would be a more appropriate title than the present one.
There are a few billeted men in clover and the rest nowhere. They are worked like gangs of prisoners with bullying ad libitum till they either fall down or are absolutely too weak to work any longer. They are then taken to a sick ward, no alteration made in the diet, and when physically annihilated are trotted out to the Cornelian Bay cemetery and thrown into a hole by the dozen, and this in the name of Charity. The only parallel that occurs to me is the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks.—Yours truly, ONE WHO KNOWS.

Reference: Clipper (Hobart) 25 May 1895 p.3.

My First Visit

To prepare for my first visit to St John’s Park precinct at New Town, I familiarised myself with the Friends of the Orphan Schools website and poked my nose into Trove for contemporary accounts of the institutions once located there.

On 31 October, five intrepid tourists expertly led by Jane Hodgman braved a bleak spring day to be introduced to the site and its history. As I drove up St John’s Avenue I was impressed with the glorious avenue of oaks and was eager to learn more about the Church looming ahead with the North and South Wings spread like welcoming arms. There was much more to discover I found.

As the oaks were not planted until 1897, residents, staff and visitors from 1833 would not have passed through the avenue as it is today. An 1872 photograph of the gate houses, avenue and the Church and Orphan Schools buildings can be seen on the Friends website as well as a comprehensive history, photographs, Children’s Register and stories.

Jane met us in the Old Sunday School which serves as the Friends meeting place and before setting out on the walking tour, I took the opportunity to read the informative posters and display boards.

I learned that after the closure of the Orphan Schools in 1879, part of the buildings operated as a home for destitute men and women, many of whom were former convicts whose circumstances led them to seek charity. While they worked, they were classed as inmates and were not free to leave. Punishment was harsh, food was scanty and it was freezing cold.

As the website is very informative and most readers will be familiar with the precinct and its history, I will show some positive aspects of the operation of the New Town Charitable Institution discovered by searching Trove. A search function for individual residents is available on the Friends’ database.

Following on from Richard Watson’s article about life in the 50+ year old convict-built buildings for the poor and vulnerable, I found that reform was underway. In 1895 however people continued to abscond.

A report in the Tasmanian News Monday 29 January 1894 p.2. shows that entertainment was sometimes provided:

The City Band under Mr T.W. Hopkins, on Saturday evening last attended the New Town Charitable Institution and gave the inmates a treat in the shape of musical entertainment. Vocal and instrumental music was discoursed, recitations given and a highly enjoyable time was spent. Mr Richardson on behalf of the inmates thanked Mr Hopkins and the members of the band for their kindness in thinking of them and giving them such an excellent entertainment, and the old people gave them three hearty cheers on their leaving.

Articles such as the one below shows how the then model of care was being questioned. The Tasmanian News (Hobart) Saturday 21 July 1894 p.2. gives an example.

CHARITABLE METHODS.

The tendency of scientific charity is to break up large establishments and to substitute the cottage or boarding-out system. In the training of children the latter has worked admirably, and it is submitted that it is desirable to maintain he home instinct in old age. The officers of our invalid Depot exhibit care for those over whom they are placed in charge, but the barrack system is entirely against the success their efforts so deservedly merit. There are form of disease and helplessness for which the Infirmary, as distinguished from the General Hospital, would be necessary. These, however, are the exceptions and not the rule of large institutions. Under the home system the aged poor could be placed in the village or town in which life has been spent. The cost would not be greater, if so great, as under the present system. Firm and humane treatment could be secured, and many persons now seeking aid enabled to help themselves without detracting from the gracious ministry due to decent age from another point of view, when will the Colony consider the general question of thrift in its relation to charity? The lavish liberality of the state has been little better hitherto than an education in thriftlessness. When will the work be done as stimulus to industry and self-respect?

It would be nearly one hundred years later that the elderly and people with disability could live with support in community settings.

Funding and cost saving has always been an issue. A correspondent in The Launceston Examiner Friday 7 September 1894 p. 3. wrote:

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-Allow me to point out a way by means of your valuable paper whereby a considerable saving could be effected in the expenditure at New Town Charitable Institution without bringing the Launceston inmates down to New Town. The chief officers are-Superintendent (whose duties are mainly supervising), assistant, and clerk. Under the present state of finances could not the two former offices be merged into one? The superintending of workhouses in the old country is worked on a much humbler basis than here, where we are professing such retrenchment and economy.-Yours, etc.,

Hobart, Sept. 5. CONSISTENT.

Unfortunately, residents in the late nineteenth century were still experiencing privations sufficient to abscond. The Tasmanian News (Hobart) Friday 22 March 1895 p. 2. reported:

The New Town Charitable Institution has had an exodus of those inmates who prefer the scent of the hopfields and the freedom of country life to the soup and discipline of the Depot. The authorities are, however, keeping the absentees places warm for them, as they expect them back again before the end of autumn.

The sarcastic attitude of the “authorities” is unjustifiable viewed with 21^st century moral principles.

The following day the Launceston Examiner Saturday 23 March 1895 p.6. advised that:

A large exodus of inmates from the Invalid Depot has recently taken place to the hopfields.

As a new Friend I have a lot to learn.
Margaret Dalkin

The Queen’s Orphan Schools and
the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations.

[1]

Prince Consorts have a limited role in public life.

Prince Albert himself, the father of nine children, must have been a very frustrated man unable to partake in important decisions; while he might tender advice, Queen Victoria relied heavily on her Ministers.

His frustration worked itself out when, with the input of Henry Cole, an English civil servant, inventor and member of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (now known as The Royal Society of Arts), the idea was born for the Great Exhibition.

Many designs were submitted and eventually Joseph Paxton’s ideas were chosen. Paxton had designed the Conservatory at Chatsworth, built originally to house the Giant Waterlily known as Victoria Regia.

By mid-1850, the Hobart Town newspapers were publicising the event: the Hobarton Guardian, or, The True Friend of Tasmania, for example, wrote on 12 June 1850:

National Exhibition

WE call the attention of the Colonists, a second time, to the desirableness of instituting immediate preparations for the Exhibition of the Arts and Manufactures of all nations, to be held in the Great Metropolis. [2]

Then, a few weeks later, the Colonial Times advised:

THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION—A meeting was held last Thursday, composed chiefly of the members of the Royal Society, at the Museum, to take into consideration the best means available for the furtherance of the object of the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations, for May, 1851. A committee was appointed, consisting of Sir William Denison, Mr. Bicheno, Mr. Milligan, Dr. Officer, and Mr. Hugh Hull, with power to add to their number, to conduct the necessary arrangements. Sir W. Denison was of opinion that the large ball-room at Government-house would be the best and most commodious receptacle for the articles intended for the exhibition. [3]

Denison also advocated the presentation of many articles as likely to benefit the colony. These included wool, oil, and timber. As well, it was proposed:

that one half of the expense of freight should be paid out of the Treasury, the other half to be raised by public subscription. This appeared to meet with the general approval.

As far as the public was concerned, it would save the trouble of collection. [4]

The Royal Society Committee determined that the following items should be exhibited:

Raw Produce.

Animal:

Furs—Opossum-skin, kangaroo, wallaby, platypus, cat, devil, tiger.
Wool—Long, fine.
Oil—Sperm, black, seal, mutton bird.
Whalebone. Tallow. Dried Fish. Silk from Norfolk Island. Head matter. Whales teeth. Swans’ down. Honey. Wax. Lard. Cuttle-fish Bone. Horns. Feathers. Beetle wings.

Vegetable:

Grain—Wheat, oats, barley, Norfolk Island maize, rye.
Hops, coffee from Norfolk Island. Bark, wattle. Sassafras bark.
Gum—Wattle, kino, grass-tree.
Resin, white, from Oyster Bay Pine. Carraway seed. Coriander seed.
Timber for house and ship-building, &c. viz.—Blue gum. stringy bark, black-wood (light-wood), Huon pine, myrtle.
Timber for Ornamental purposes: viz.—musk, dog wood, Huon pine, cherry, she-oak, honeysuckle, maple from Norfolk Island.
Gun stocks, (native cherry). Knees for ships and boats. Manna.

Mineral:

Ores—Copper, lead, iron, manganese.
Topaz, Beryl. Cornelian. Agate. Rock crystal. Opal wood. Limestone. Coal, Turkey stone. Iron pyrites. Filtering stone, Norfolk Island. Grindstones. Sulphate of magnesia. Ditto alum. Common salt.

MANUFACTURED PRODUCE

Animal:

Fur—spun and made into gloves.
Wool—spun into yarn, and made into stockings, blankets, cloth, &c.
Soap, candles, cheese, butter.
Leather—ox hide, kip, horse hide, calf, sheep, hog-skin, kangaroo, wallaby, opossum, dog.
Boots and shoes. Parchment. Salted meats, bacon and hams. Glue. Lamp-black. Blacking. Shell chains made by Aborigines.
Skins of animals tanned with fur on. such as seal, Wallaby, opossum, native cat, tiger, devil, wombat, platypus.
Rugs—opossum, wallaby, &c.
Dried skins of penguin and emu. Hoofs cleaned and polished. Saddlery and harness. Trunks, Portmanteaus, leather cases. Brushes. Combs—horn and tortoise shell.

Vegetable:

Starch.
Beer.
Preserved and dried fruits.
Cayenne pepper, Norfolk Island.
Arrowroot, ditto.
Tobacco, ditto.
Flax. Furniture and turnery.
Frames of ornamental woods.
Wine.
Coffee, Norfolk Island.
Native baskets.
Casks.
Staves.
Treenails.
Cidar [sic].
Vinegar.
Flour.
Malt.
Biscuit.
Essential oil from blue gum, and sassafras.
Sponges.
Oatmeal.
Pearl barley.
Pickles.
Mustard.
Extract of bark.
Cricket bats.
Basket-work.
Straw hats and bonnets.
Rope mats, &c.
Linens or canvass fabrics.

Mineral:

Pottery.
Marble from Maria Island and Westbury.
Fire Bricks.
Gold leaf.
Ironmongery.
Potash.
Dripstones, Norfolk Island. [5]

In November 1850, The Courier encouraged those who had not visited the local Exhibition to do so:

TASMANIAN CONTRIBUTION TO THE EXHIBITION OF 1851.—The local exhibition at the Ballroom, Government House, closes next week, and we would advise all those who have not seen it to make a visit in time. Among the most remarkable works of art which are exhibited are a model of Bridgewater Bridge, the Queen's Orphan Schools, [ author’s emphasis] and some very elegant furniture. There are also some handsome specimens of the ornamental woods of this colony and Norfolk Island. Specimens of pottery, saddlery, combs, glue, neats’ foot oil, wool, wheat, cheese, hops, aboriginal necklaces, lace gloves and hosiery made in the colony; mineral specimens; variegated pattern opossum and kangaroo skin rugs; samples of rope made from flax grown here, dried plants, gum kino, manna, Norfolk Island maize, tobacco, dripstones, South Sea whalebone &c. The list of contributions will shortly be published. The exhibition may be treated as one of worldwide importance to the colony; and while we will unite in approval of this contribution to it, it is evident that the project should meet with every encouragement. It is open to all—from the humblest artisan of the community and all should visit it. [6]