The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Canterbury Provincial District]
Charitable Institutions
Charitable Institutions.
The people of Canterbury have always been ready to extend a helping hand to those who fall behind in the great race that is not always to the swift. In Christchurch there are many institutions, private and public, for the relief of poverty and suffering. Many societies and individuals work unostentatiously, but thoroughly, among the poor. The Ashburton and North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board controls and supports several large institutions, among them being the Jubilee Home at Woolston, which was endowed by the late Mr. J. Eaton. The Twigger endowments, also controlled by the Board, are divided between the Old Men's Home at Ashburton, the Female Refuge, and the Lyttelton Orphanage; the Old Men's Home at Ashburton has also been endowed by Mr. S. Moule. Herrick's Home, a private institution, in Victoria Street, was established by the late Mr. Herrick, and is now carried on by Mrs Herrick and a board of advice The Samaritan Home, in Lincoln Road, is managed by a Board of Trustees, appointed by contributors and local authorities. Several homes are controlled by the Salvation Army. The Christchurch Hospital, with its Nurses' Home and other auxiliaries, is one of the best institutions of its kind in New Zealand, and its efficiency has been much enhanced by the generous benefactions of the late Mr. Hyman Marks. Excellent work, with far-reaching effects, is done by the Children's Aid Society, and there are other bodies which steadily devote their efforts in Christchurch to the cause of humanity.
The Ashburton And North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board. Members are elected annually, in November, to represent the several counties of Selwyn, Ashburton, Amuri, Cheviot, Kaikoura, and Akaroa, and the read districts in Ashley county; also the boroughs of Akaroa, Christchurch, Kaiapoi, Linwood, Lyttelton, New Brighton, Rangiora, St. Albans, Sumner, Sydenham, and Woolston. The Board, which was constituted in 1885 under the Hospital and Charitable Aid Institutions Act, maintains the following establishments: Ashburton Old Men's Home, Queen's Jubilee Memorial Home at Woolston, Lyttelton Orphanage, Female Refuge at Linwood, and the Armagh Street Depot. It is also entrusted with the distribution of outdoor relief throughout the entire district, within which it has power to make levies, for charitable aid purposes upon the various county councils, boroughs, and other local governing bodies. The average expenditure on charitable aid, exclusive of hospitals, on account of which separate rates are levied, is from £13,000 to £14,000 per annum. The office of the board is situated in Armagh Street, Christchurch.
Mr. T. C. Norris, Secretary and Treasurer of the Ashburton and North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board, and Legal Manager of the Lyttelton Orphanage, was born in Sussex, England, in 1848, was educated at St. Saviour's College, Shoreham, and brought up to mercantile pursuits in London. Mr. Norris arrived in New Zealand in 1879, and at once took up has residence in Canterbury. Up to the end of 1885, he was engaged as an accountant in Christchurch, and has occupied the position he now holds practically since the inception of the board. Mr. Norris has been Identified with Church work in Christchurch, as a member of the diocesan synod, and of the standing committee. He has four sons and seven daughters surviving; one daughter was the victim of a bathing fatality at Gisborne in 1895.
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Mr. T. C. Norris.
Da Thomas Leslie Crooke, L.R.C.P. and L.R.C.S. (Edinburgh), (1883), became Senior Medical Officer at the Christchurch Hospital in 1899.
Mr. William Wilson McKinney was appointed Dispenser at the Christchurch Hospital in March, 1899. He is a son of Mr. A. W. McKinney, chemist, of New Brighton, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1879, and received his early education at Lifford. He came to Lyttelton with his parents in 1889, and ‘Completed his education at the Boys’ High School, Christchurch. On leaving school he went into the country, where he gained some experience of station work. He, however, returned to the city, and was apprenticed in 1894 to the late Mr. George Bonnington, chemist, with whom he remained until he received his present appointment.
Miss Mary Ewart, Matron of the Christchurch Hospital, is a native of Ireland, and received a thorough training in every branch of nursing at the Royal Hospital, Belfast. In 1875 she was appointed nurse for St. Ann's district in Belfast, and retained the office for eleven years, but resigned in 1886 on account of ill-health. Miss Ewart then left for New Zealand, and landed at Lyttelton in December 1886. In May of the succeeding year she was appointed a charge nurse at the Christchurch Hospital, and in 1898 was promoted to the post of matron. Miss Ewart is a member of the British Nurses' Association.
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Miss M. Ewart.
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Mr. W. M. Miller.
Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum is situated on a block of land facing Lincoln Road, beyond Addington, and about three miles from Christenchurch. In the early period of settlement in Canterbury, lunatics were accommodated in a portion of Lyttelton Gaol, under the supervision of the chief gaoler, Mr. E. W. Seager, afterwards lay superintendent and later still steward of Sunnyside Asylum. In 1868 the inmates were transferred from the gaol to the asylum, which was originally a wooden building and is now used chiefly for workshops. During Mr Seager's term of service, which terminated in 1887, the main portions of the present asylum were erected, and the architect was largely assisted by the late Dr. Hacon, the first Medical Superintendent, in designing the central—that is, the administrative—block. The female wards, or west wing, were first built, followed by the male wards, or east wing. The central block was erected in 1887, and has both a northern and southern aspect. Each wing contains four wards, and two of these are capable of further subdivision if required. In 1880 a fire occurred in the female wards, which completely gutted that part of the building. Steps were immediately taken to restore the injured section, and the entire wing was re-modelled, enlarged, and vastly improved, as regards accommodation, sanitary conditions, and facility of administration, at a total cost of about £12,000. Up to the time of the disaster there were no proper appliances for suppressing an outbreak of fire. These have since been supplied on the most approved principles, including the system of electric alarm bells throughout the entire building, and there is also a regular fire-drill of the asylum brigade, which is composed of the attendants. The dining-hall is a fine apartment measuring 89 by 44 1/2 feet, heated with steam radiators, and supplied with, twenty tables, each of which accommodates sixteen persons. The room is also used for religious services and entertainments. At one end of the hall there is a stage, measuring 64 by 1 1/2 feet, provided with a drop curtain and other necessary appliances for giving periodical entertainments to relieve the monotony of the life of the inmates. At the other end of the hall there is a gallery with an organ. The departmental offices consist of waiting-rooms, public office, medical superintendent's room, and assistant medical officer's quarters. North of this block and connected by a covered corridor, is the laundry, containing receiving and sorting rooms, wash-house, fitted with enamelled earthenware wash-tubs, two washing-machines with steam-engines, attachment by Oakley and Keating, of (New York, a centrifugal hydro-extractor, by Broadbent and Sons, of Huddersfield, and steam-boilers. There is also a large drying-room, heated by steampipes, and constructed generally on the most approved principles. There are also ironing and mangling rooms, with gas iron-heaters. Artesian water is supplied to the whole establishment on the gravitation principle by means of a powerful pump. The officials of the institution consist of the medical superintendent, Dr Edward G. Levinge; assistant medical officer, Dr Arthur H. Crosby; clerk and steward, Mr. John E. Russell; head attendant, Mr. G. Chapman; and matron, Miss L. Erskine. There are also two engineers, and most of the male attendants are artisans, farm hands, or gardeners, who are capable of directing the occupation of the patients to the best advantage. One of the advantages of having a farm attached to the asylum is that it enables the superintendent to find diversified employment for the male patients, who are stated to be chiefly drawn from the agricultural classes. The variety of employment is the chief and most salutary method of treatment, whilst the produce of the farm, especially the milk, butter, potatoes, and vegetables is of considerable value to the institution. The stock of the farm consists of from sixty to seventy milch cows, besides dry cows and calves. There is a capital dairy constructed on the most approved modern principles, and worked on both the Jersey, creamery, and separator systems. The skim milk from the former being slightly richer, is used in the asylum for cooking, and that from the separator is given to the pigs, of which there are from 100 to 200 always in various stages of fattening. These pigs form a considerable source of revenue, yielding as much, as £552 in one year, with a net profit of £100. There is a pasteurizing plant, and the Babcock tester is used for ascertaining the richness of the milk so as to regulate the class of cows kept on the estate. The cattle are mostly of the Ayrshire breed with a few Shorthorn grades. A working overseer is in charge of the farm, and lives in a detached building with some of the working patients. The asylum is surrounded with fine gardens, ‘with beautiful lawns, which are kept in splendid order, and are very pleasing to the eye of the visitor.
Dr. Edward George Levinge, Medical Superintendent of the Sunnyside Asylum, is a native of West Meath, Ireland, where he was born in 1852. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated A.B. in 1873, and in the same year took his degree as M.B., and L.R.C.S.I., and in 1879 that of L.M. Dr. Levinge had some experience in connection with British Asylums, first at the West Riding Asylum in Yorkshire, where he was under Dr. (afterwards Sir) J. Crichton Browne, as clinical assistant. This asylum was, at that time, the great school of lunacy in England, and there Dr. Levinge gained a knowledge medical was not then taught at the ordinary medical schools. He was afterwards assistant medical officer for about eighteen months at Newcastle-on-Tyne, and latterly at Hants County Asylum in a similar capacity. Subsequently, he was for two years and a-half at the Bristol Borough Asylum as assistant medical officer and deputy medical superintendent. Dr. Levinge came to Wellington in 1884 as surgeon on the s.s. “Dorie.” Soon after his arrival he was appointed Medical superintendent of Mount View Asylum. Wellington, and after rather more than three years' service was appointed in 1887 to the position he now holds. Sunnyside Asylum has been considerably enlarged since Dr. Levinge took charge, and about 200 additional patients are accommodated.
Dr. Arthur Henry Pascal Crosby. Assistant Medical Officer at Sunnyside Asylum, studied at the Middlesex Hospital, and took his degrees of M.R.C.S. (Eng.) and L.R.C.P. (Lond.) in 1895. He was appointed in July, 1896, to the position he now holds at the Asylum.
Mr. John Edmond Russell, Clerk and Steward at the Sunnyside Asylum, was born in 1860 in Peckham, England, and was educated at Deal College. Mr. Russell came to Wellington in 1878, per ship “Wairoa,” and two days after arrival obtained employment at the Mount View Asylum, Wellington, as clerk where he continued for nine years. Mr. Russell was transferred in July, 1887, to the position he holds at Sunnyside. He was married in 1883 to a daughter of Mr. W. F. Parsons, builder, of Wellington, and has one daughter.
Mr. George Chapman, Head Attendant of the Male Department at Sunnyside Asylum, was born in 1860 at Coburg. Victoria, and was educated in the sister Colony.
page 159After a general experience of mercantile life in Melbourne, he came to Lyttelton in 1880, two years later he was appointed an attendant at Sunnyside, and was promoted to his present position in 1888. Mr. Chapman is a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, Manchester Unity, attached to Loyal Addington lodge. He was married in 1888 to a daughter of Mr. Thomas Parsons, of Akaroa, and has two sons and one daughter living.
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Mr. G. Chapman.
Miss Emma Tuersley, formerly Matron of the Women's Department at Sunnyside Asylum, was born in Christchurch, and educated at the private schools of Messrs Donally and Clark. Miss Tuersley was trained at the Wellington Hospital as a nurse, and after serving three years and a half, was appointed matron at Sunnyside Asylum on the 10th of March, 1891. She was afterwards transferred to a similar position at Porirua Asylum, near Wellington.
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Miss E. Tuersley.
The Institute For Deaf Mutes, under Mr. Van Asch's superintendence and direction, is situated at Sumner, and is a very important educational establishment. It was founded in 1880, by the New Zealand Government in small premises, and after several changes necessitated by the growth of the institution, now occupies two large wooden buildings, about half a mile apart, leased from Mr. C. L. Wiggins. The main building, a two-storey structure with verandah and balcony, is in the centre of about nine acres of land and contains about thirty rooms, accommodating thirty boys and a complete staff of servants. The domestic arrangements are in the hands of a steward and matron. At the rear, the school-rooms, four in number, are found. These are insufficient to accommodate the whole of the pupils and teaching staff. Consequently, part of the tuition is carried on at Beach Glen, which is also used as a residence for the director, and as a home for the girls who are in charge of the sub-matron. Pupils are drawn from all parts of the Colony, from Puhi in the north of Auckland, to Riverton in the south of Otago. The children are sent home regularly for their Christmas holidays, their travelling expenses being provided by the State. No child is debarred from becoming an inmate by reason of the poverty of its parents, but where the parents are able to contribute, their payments vary from £3 to £40 per annum, a certificate made before a magistrate as to the ability or otherwise of the parents to contribute, being required by the Department of Education. The clothing of the children is provided by their parents, repairs being attended to at the school. The system of education is that known as The Pure Oral System. The children are taught to speak with the mouth and to perceive the articulate speech of their neighbours by observing the movements of the lips, etc. Signs and finger language are entirely lgnored, their use being detrimental to the acquiring of speech, and of the habit of thinking in forms of language. The age at which children are usually admitted is seven. All pupils are expected to remain at school at least eight years, so as to enable them to learn the same subjects as hearing children, and, on leaving school, to converse with their friends and relatives, to read plain language with intelligence and to comprehend the greater part of the daily newspapers. The system of technical training is still incomplete, owing to the necessity for permanent premises, and, in the director's opinion, Sumner is not the most suitable locality for a permanent institution. It should be nearer to one of the centres of population, where advanced pupils can be boarded out. The staff of the establishment consists of the director and five assistant teachers. In addition to the ordinary schoolwork, the boys receive regular lessons in gardening, and the older ones in carpentry and milking; the girls receive instruction in sewing and domestic economy. The children enter with zest into outdoor and indoor games, the boys being especially proficient in football and other field-sports. There is a small museum in course of formation at the school.
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Mr. G. Van Asch.
Mr. Henry Buttle. Steward of the Home connected with the School for Deaf Mutes at Sumner, is the third son of the late Rev. George Buttle, Wesleyan minister, and was born in 1849 at Waipa, Auckland. He was educated at Woodhouse Grove School, England, brought up to farming pursuits, and was for many years a Waikato resident. He was a member of the Pukekura Road Board, of which he was chairman for many years, member of the Waipa County Council, and for three years chairman of that body. He was also a member of the local school committee. In January, 1893, Mr. Buttle left the Waikato to take up his duties at Sumner. As a member of the Wesleyan Church, he has held important local offices, and was four times sent as a representative to the annual conference. Mr. Buttle was married in 1884 to Miss Matilda C. Young, who had previously been assistant mistress at the School for Deaf Mutes at Sumner, and has two sons.
Mrs Henry Buttle, Matron at the School for Deaf Mutes at Sumner, was born at Drury, Auckland, and was educated privately. At the age of sixteen she was appointed assistant mistress under the Auckland Board of Education at the Otara School, where she continued for seven years, Mr. R. M. Houston, now member of the House of Representatives for the Bay of Islands, being headmaster during that period. Miss Young was appointed assistant teacher at Sumner in 1882, and resigned in 1884. Her influence on the girls was specially commented on by the director in his yearly report. Miss Young was married to Mr. Henry Buttle, of Waikato, during that year, and with her husband returned to the scene of her former labours in 1893, since which she has filled her present position.
The Queen's Jubilee Memorial Home, which occupies a section of six acres of land, with a frontage to Jubilee Street, Woolston, is the outcome of a popular movement inaugurated in Queen Victoria's Jubilee Year to raise funds for the establishment of a home for the respectable and aged poor of both sexes. By the efforts of an influential committee, a large sum of money was raised, which was further increased by a substantial Government subsidy, and the institution was opened in February. 1889. The buildings are almost entirely of one storey, of brick and lron, with accommodation for forty-five inmates. The women's section is octagonal in shape, the centre of the enclosure having a pretty lawn with flower beds. There is a separate section for the men, with a large and well-lighted diningroom. The matron's quarters are situated in the two-storey portion of the buildings, and occupy a central position. In Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Year, a proposal to add an additional wing was made. It was duly carried out, and the wing contains thirty-two rooms, with accommodation for forty additional inmates, making the total accommodation equal to eighty-five. The entire establishment is connected by handsome corridors. The matron is assisted by three female and two male servants.
Miss Margaret Elizabeth Higgins, Matron of the Queen's Jubilee Memorial Home, is a daughter of the late Mr. R. L. Higgins, who was one of the early North Canterbury settlers. She was born at Cust, and educated in the Colony. On the death of her father in 1892 she was appointed to the position which she now fills. Miss Higgins is a member of the St. John Ambulance Association, and has gained the medallion.
Hyman Marks' Trust . Trustees:— Messrs. C. Louisson and A. Fergusson; Agent, Mr. F. D. Kesteven. Offices, Chaneery Lane, Christchurch. This wealthy and important trust was founded on the 21st of May. 1895. under the will of the late Mr. Hyman Marks, who left the whole of his large estate, valued at £38,000, in trust for charitable purposes. The trustees were directed to erect the Marks' Ward at the hospital, which has been duly completed at a cost of over £6000, and to distribute the revenue arising from the properties demised, in perpetuity, for the relief of poverty and distress of every description, in which the trustees possess full discretionary power. In giving effect to the objects of the testator much good has already been accomplished.
Mr. Francis David Kesteven, Agent for the Marks' Trust, was born at Akaroa in 1866, and was educated at Christ's College, Christchurch. During twelve years he had an experience in Custom-house and shipping agency business with Messrs. Cuff and Graham. Mr. Kesteven has always been interested in athletic sports, and is secretary of the Canterbury Cricket and Sports Ground Company, Limited, New Zealand League of Wheelmen, and holds important positions in several other athletic institutions. Mr. Kesteven is further referred to elsewhere as a land, estate, and commission agent.
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Mr. F. D. Kesteven.
The Christchurch City Mission Home, Victoria Street, Christchurch. This institution was established in 1899 by Mr. Herrick, who wished to make permanent provision for temporary relief to the deserving poor. It was thought that many poor families, men, women, and boys, in destitute circumstances, might after being afforded temporary assistance, and given a start, gra-ually become independent through their own industry. Mr. Herrick, a kindly man of an energetic spirit, but weak constitution, was the founder of the Home. He was born at Desford, Leicestershire, England, in 1862, came out to New Zealand in 1886, and died in 1897, when he was lamented not only by his intimate personal friends, but a wide circle of once poor families and destitute men who had received help at his hands. After his death the Home was reconstituted under a Board of Advice, and the superintendency of his widow, Mrs Florence Herrick, who determined to continue the noble work begun by her husband. The objects of the Home are: (1) to furnish food and clothing to destitute families; (2) to provide temporary shelter for destitute travelling men; (3) to assist men, women, and boys in finding employment, and, generally, to afford help in the numerous page 161 necessitous cases, which cannot be adequately met by any system of state aid. The Home is a two-storey wooden building containing about twenty rooms. For the year ending June, 1901, it afforded food and shelter for about 358 men, who were kept until suitable employment was found or a permanent home secured for them. Gospel services are held in the Home every Sunday evening during the winter months. These services are rendered bright and interesting, and are fairly well attended.
Mrs Florence Herrick, Superintendent of the Christchurch City Mission Home, was born at Leithfield, North Canterbury, and educated at the Normal School, Christchurch. In 1890 she was married to Mr. Herrick, who had come out from England. Mr. Herrick established the Christchurch City Mission Home in 1889. During his lifetime Mrs Herrick bore her share of the trying work of the Home, and since his death, in 1897, she has continued the task, assisted by a Board of Advice.
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Mrs F. Herrick.
Miss Maude's Nursing Home. The offices connected with this Home are situated in Durham Street South, a few doors below Walker Street. Miss Maude, besides being a trained nurse, is an associate of the Deaconesses' House, and cases which require nursing are mode known to her, often through the different clergymen. Patients are then tended at their own homes, irrespective of their religion. The rooms in Durham Street are used only as offices. The movement was commenced in connection with St, Michael's Church, but it is now supported by all the Anglican parishes.
Canterbury Children's Aid Society. Mr. A. E. G. Rhodes, president; Miss Bessie Henderson, secretary; Mrs Robert Black, treasurer; Mesdames Bendely, Henderson, Field, Wells, Lees, Sister Marian, Misses Ross, Henderson, and Gordon, Rev. A. C. Hoggins and Rev. I. Sarginson, and Messrs J. O'Bryen Hoare, J. A. Blank, and H. G. Eh, M.H.R., committee. This society is the outcome of a public meeting held on the 12th of May, 1898, and was established on the 2nd of June in that year. Its objects are to secure a more stringent carrying out of the law dealing with children, the introduction of new legislation for the rescue of children from undesirable homes, the relief and care of actual cases of destitution, and the establishment of free kindergarten schools and creches. The society has been successful in its operations, and has a kindergarten with an average attendance of fifty children under five years.
The Magdelen Asylum. Among the numerous institutions which have been founded in modern times for the uplifting of fallen humanity and the purification of society, few if any have stronger claims for support than that which is known as the Order of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, which received the formal recognition of the Holy See about sixty years ago, and now has over 170 houses in various parts of the world. Mount Magdala, the branch of the Order in Christchurch, was rounded in 1886 by the Very Rev. Father Ginaty, who was, at that time, Missionary Rector in the city. The foundation stone was laid by His Eminence Cardinal Moran, on the 18th of February, in the same year, and the institution was formally opened by the Right Rev. Dr Grimes on the 22nd of July, 1888. Ever since that date the noble women who have voluntarily relinquished the pleasures and the allurements of society, in order to devote their lives to the reclamation of their fallen sisters, have laboured assiduously in that cause. Mount Magdala is situated about five miles outside the city in a westerly direction and just off the Lincoln Road. The number of inmates varies considerably, for many of those who are taken into the asylum soon tire of its routine and restraint, and consequently leave it after a short time, not infrequently, however, to come back again and promise to forsake the haunts of vice for ever. The Sisters do all in their power to make the institution self-supporting and independent of outside assistance. Their principal source of income is their laundry work, at which they are exceptionally expert. On two or three occasions the Government has given a small grant to the institution to enable the Sisters to increase its usefulness and carry on its work more successfully.
The Christchurch Female Refuge, in Gordon Street, Linwood, was established in the early sixties, and taken over by the Church of England, under the management of the St. Saviour's Guild, in 1891. The object of the institution is to aid and rescue as far as is possible, first cases amongst erring women. These are sought after by members of the Guild, who voluntarily devote their time and services to the rescae work. The inmates, whether women or girls, are retained for six months, during which they are instructed in domestic duties, and also assist in laundry work, which is taken in to help to defray the expenses of the institution Miss Emily Hewes is the matron in change of this Home.
St. Mary's Home, Stapleton's Road, near Richmond. This institution was founded in 1886 by the Social Purity Society, then under the management of Canon Stantord, and the late Dr James Irving. The object of the Home is the reformation of girls and young women, and the site and the buildings are the property of the St. Saviour's Guild which is responsible for the management of the institution.