Black November

The statement in the new book West that Waikumete Cemetery is "home to a mass grave filled with most of the 1128 Aucklanders who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918” still had me going this past week. Such a statement is contradicted not only by Geoffrey W. Rice in his extremely good reference on the 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand, Black November, 1988, reprinted 2005 (with a specific chapter on the effect in Auckland) – but even in the conservation plan for Waikumete Cemetery produced for the Waitakere City Council itself (the local body that backed the West book):

“In 1918-1919 following the end of the First World War, there was a catastrophic outbreak of Spanish pneumonic influenza that caused a large number of burials in a short period of time. In the autumn of 1918 the disease spread quickly from country to country, resulting in a heavy death toll … The railway line to Waikumete station played an important role in transporting the dead, particularly when the number of deaths reached its peak in the third and fourth weeks of November 1918. Auckland recorded the nation’s highest death toll of 1,680. From 1-26 November there were 469 interments at Waikumete.”

Even that history isn’t completely correct. The figure of 469 interments was taken from the report by Auckland’s City Engineer to the Mayor of Auckland on 27 November 1918. Rice amends that to 444 burials at Waikumete related to the influenza outbreak (as there were, of course, burials resulting from other causes during that period), and puts the total Auckland influenza toll at 1128, agreeing with Matthew Gray. Still, 444 burials out of 1128 deaths still doesn’t mean that Waikumete Cemetery is where “most” of those who died were buried. Just over a third, yes.

Auckland’s public mortuary was the first stop for the increasing numbers of the dead caused by the virus. When that filled to overflowing, Victoria Park’s grandstand and grounds were used as a temporary measure as an open-air morgue (according to Rice, this move led to other influenza legends of bodies laid out not only there, but also at the Domain and Albert Park; as well as bodies being incinerated at the nearby Council Destructor, or buried at sea).

I located in the Auckland City Council archives a wonderful treasure, a file of newspaper cuttings pasted on brown paper (it seemed hardly looked at, with pages almost sticking together) from the pandemic period in Auckland (ACC 219/18-289). That, along with the City Engineer’s report (ACC 398/18d), provided a brief summary of just what had happened in Auckland City as the death toll mounted and something needed to be done with the bodies.

In 1918, Dr. Joseph P. Frengley (1873-1926) was acting Chief Health Officer in Wellington when a milder epidemic of influenza raged through that city. As things started to look particularly bad in Auckland towards the end of October, the Mayor of Auckland, James Henry Gunson (1877-1963) urged Dr. Frengley to visit Auckland. He arrived 3 November.

Victoria Park had been chosen by the City Engineer after an inspection of a number of sites on 9 November to relieve the overburdened mortuary, and a large room at the pavilion was opened to receive the bodies. The following day arrangements were made to transport extra gravediggers to and from Waikumete Cemetery, and “also for the pegging out of extra grave spaces.” (CE report)

The NZ Herald reported on 12 November that Dr. Frengley had, the previous day, acting under powers contained in Section 50 of the Public Health Act 1908 “ordered all bodies of those who had died of influenza to be buried forthwith.” Relatives and friends of the deceased had to immediately organise burial of the dead, rather than leaving them at Victoria Park. Ministers of religion were actively encouraged to keep in touch with the required burials “so that deceased persons are interred on portions allotted to the respective denominations.” That day, twelve more gravediggers were sent out to Waikumete Cemetery.

Two special trains ran from November 13 to convey coffins out to Waikumete from Auckland. The Herald reported that undertakers and relatives had to make their own arrangements with the railway authorities for receiving the caskets and conveying them to the cemetery. The trains did, however, stop at Mt Eden to pick up more caskets and mourners. (NZH, 13 November) William Wallace of the Auckland Hospital Board, authorised “several large woodworking factories to construct caskets” in order that the burials be carried out as quickly as possible. (NZH, 14 November)

Six more gravediggers were sent to Waikumete on the 14th, followed by another six the following day, and three more ten days later. In all, the City Engineer reported that 1 surveyor and 35 men were employed at Waikumete during the outbreak, while there were an additional four caretakers at Victoria Park.

The Herald reported on 16 November that there had been 289 interments at Waikumete since November 1, compared with the (non-outbreak) average of 50 per month. It was announced on 20 November that the special trains were to be discontinued, but to free up hearses still servicing Purewa Cemetery, the railway authorities undertook to continue carrying caskets to Waikumete by the 9.29 am train each day. Anglican clergy, during the crisis, attended the burials in relays, along with those from Auckland’s other denominations. From the Herald on 22 November:

“In some cases a number of bodies have been interred at a time when the relatives or friends have been incapacitated by illness, but care has been taken to number all the graves, so that they may be easily located. A complete record has been kept, and by applying to the Town Hall, relatives and friends will be advised of the exact location of graves.”

From the City Engineer’s report:

“In connection with the Waikumete Cemetery, 469 interments took place from the 1st to the evening of 26 November and this large number of interments necessitated the pegging out of graves in the area recently cleared and ploughed on the Western Boundary, the number of new graves utilised to date in such ground being 131.”

So, not “mass grave” or “mass graves”, but rather, this was a case of a procedure of mass burials, each burial individually dug and sanctified where possible, over the course of just over two weeks. The City Engineer’s description appears to indicate that there were two distinct areas for the mass burials of the influenza victims at Waikumete, with 131 (at least) graves in the second area “on the Western Boundary”. The conservation plan identifies the main area for the graves as “Gumtree Gully” with “more unmarked graves in Pauper’s Gully” (appendices maps), which is somewhere between (according to the cemetery map) Anglican H, Anglican F, Anglican G and Anglican M&N (Rice had in a caption in his book that Plot MN was the site used. This is possibly not quite correct.) With the cemetery at that time mainly occupying the far eastern corner of the whole site, such a location would have been a relatively short distance from the train station, assisting with the unloading of so many caskets in so short a time.

An update: this from the Friends of Waikumete Cemetery Facebook page, 27 August 2014.

"Waikumete Cemetery Monument to the victims of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic. Anglican Division E, Row 6. The green area behind the monument holds individual graves up to 1915. Many of these people died in hospitals. There are no victims of the Influenza epidemic in this row. People who died from the flu were buried in individual graves in the area of their religious denominations often in family graves. Louisa Mary McFlinn died on the 15th November 1918 from influenza and is buried in her family grave. You will see many graves through out the cemetery with dates around November 1918 which indicate that they may have been a victim of the influenza epidemic ... Row 6 was opened in November 1907 and has burials up to 1915. These were mainly hospital patients and so didn't have headstones. It does have some headstones down the far end. Row 7 was opened in May 1918, Row 8 was opened in July 1918, Row 9 which is the 2nd row in from the gums was opened in November 1918, and Row 10 in April 1919. These rows do have headstones. There is a myth that the grassed area behind the monument is a mass grave or pit where flu victims were buried together. This is untrue."

Postal Humour

From the Auckland Star, 14 May 1932.

POSTAL HUMOUR


QUAINT MAIL ADDRESSES


PUZZLES FOR SORTERS


EXAMPLES IN NEW ZEALAND

Not long ago there was posted in Wellington a letter which as an address bore several bars of music and the word Dunedin -- nothing else. Within a day or two it was duly delivered at the office of the "Evening Star" Company. Wagner's Tannhauser excerpt, "O Star of Eve," was what the bars of music represented, so delivery was but a small puzzle to the postal sleuths, one of whom at least must have had a good knowledge of music. With regard to the delivery of this letter, the postmaster at Dunedin wrote: "The letter was posted at Courtenay Place on the 24th, was received on the morning of the 27th, and was delivered within a few minutes of receipt. The exhibit may possibly be of some interest, and certainly indicates the intelligence of postal officers."

Cryptic addresses, humorous and otherwise, form the subject of an interesting article in the Evening Post, Wellington. A self-styled humorist tried to flummox the post office by addressing a letter as follows:

"Mrs. ABCDEFGHIJKMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ,
Spud St.,
Windy."

It was duly delivered to Mrs. Noel (no "L"), Murphy Street, Wellington, for whom it was intended.

For jokes of that kind postal officials have no great appreciation, but when it comes to deciphering addresses obviously not intended to perplex them purposely they leave no stone unturned to decipher the sender's intentions. For instance, "Ogairie King, c/o Er. B., Ltd.," presented few difficulties, and the letter thus addressed went to Ellis and Burnand, Ltd., Ongarue, King Country.

A letter addressed to "Kaupi Kanine, Wellington," ultimately got to the place it was intended for, namely, Kaupokonui, Taranaki.

"Jugesche Street, Manganiri," was rightly translated to be Ingestre Street, Wanganui.

A foreigner's attempt to address a letter to Shakespeare Road, Napier, resulted in "Sha Kesneera Road, Napfea" but the letter found the addressee.

The somewhat vague "Wa H. On, K. 78, N.Z." was on a letter which arrived recently from China. It was duly delivered to Wah On, a compatriot of the sender, who lives at that number in Molesworth Street.

A letter to the Cafe De Luxe in Willis Street was addressed "Coile De Waxe, Wes St., Niceineton, New Leacemp," and it got there!

Few would guess rightly to what address a letter with "Orient, St. Olla Bei, Newa Zelando," on it should be delivered. The Wellington postal officials took it to Trent Street, Island Bay, and they were right.

Hundreds of instances might be quoted of wrongly spelt place names on letters. The following few will suffice:
"3 A. E. Koa" for Paeroa;
"P. Line, Merton," for Plimmerton;
"Emclohsina" for Eketahuna;"
"Molincka," for Motieka;
"Gildrie" for Geraldine;
"Camary", for Oamaru;
"Lake Raw", for Takarahi.

On one letter "Wolliglesoan Geoft" was deciphered as being an attempt at Wellesley Street (Auckland), and on another "Thinane, Theodscia," was rightly interpreted to be Theodocia Street, Timaru. Who can accuse postal officials of lack of intelligence after that?

A George Hemus compendium

I've received emails this morning from Meg Smith, great great-granddaughter of George Hemus, who has featured or been included in a number of past Timespanner posts. Here's the list:

Bell & Gemmell Tannery update (George Hemus was involved with the Riversdale Manufacturing Company as a shareholder and Auckland bootmaker).

The George Hemus Scandal, 1884.

A further update on George Hemus.

Even more on George Hemus (includes headstone image from America).

The list of Riversdale Manufacturing Company shareholders.

Here's Meg's email:

"According to family lore...

George and Frances had 8 children (4 did not survive childhood).
The eight children were named Ernest Howard Hemus (1874-1951 Topeka, KS),
Janet Mary Hemus (1870 - ? died as a baby),
Frances Hemus (1871-? married Arthur Blake and had 1 child Frank Butterworth),
George Harwood Hemus (1873 - died 1944 Colorado Springs, CO, married to Blanch Herman), Leonard Gray Hemus (1877 died the same year),
Percy Turner Hemus (3/7/1878 - 12/22/1943),
Harold Hemus (1878-1879),
Ethel Maude Hemus (1880-1881).

While in New Zealand, Frances Harwood Keane Hemus was abandoned by her husband who left for America. She told people in New Zealand he was setting things up and she was to follow with the children. She tracked him down in San Francisco where her husband gave her some money and put her and their four surviving children on a train to Kansas. Her son Ernest became the bread winner at the age of 9 when he started working for the Santa Fe railroad to support Frances and his siblings. He was a very bright man who worked for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad throughout his life. He married Lucy Riggs and had two daughters Marjorie Riggs Hemus (later Marjorie Hemus Crane) Feb 2, 1902 - Aug 25, 2000 and Bernice "Babe" Hemus. Marjorie was my grandmother and a wonderful strong woman. She married Alfred Harry Crane and had two daughters Marjorie and Judith Ann Crane. Marjorie had two sons with Donald Schnacke (Gregory and Timothy). Judith had two daughters with Robert Harold Elliott, Jr.; Kathryn Crane Elliott and Margaret Harwood Elliott Smith.

George's son Percy Turner Hemus had success as a singer and actor. He cut the first gold record for RCA and was an actor on the radio for the show "Tom Mix" as the character The Wrangler in the 1930s.

George's son George Harwood Hemus settled in Colorado Springs, CO and taught in the State School for the Blind. In 1937 he and his sister Frances Butterworth visited Auckland.

I don't know what happened to George after he abandoned Frances. Needless to say we don't think highly of him ;0)

Hope that helps.

Meg Smith"

My thanks to everyone who has emailed me on the subject of George Hemus. I now know much more about him than when I first started out, and all your contributions has meant that the information provided can now help others. Cheers!

The riches of the Whau River

Audrey from West Auckland, a fellow history researcher, emailed this wee gem to me this morning, from the Bay of Plenty Times, 18 May 1880.

I'm not surprised Gittos may have found pearls -- in much more recent times, if I recall correctly, a hunk of serpentine was discovered by those engaged on a Friends of the Whau organised clean-up of the river's banks. Lots of stuff ends up in the Whau River, which is tidal for much of its length. But the clipping doesn't say it's the Whau River, or even that it's the Oakley. It could have even been a creek somewhere in the city, where their warehouse was based.

When I can, I'll see if more comes to light.

Kintalk: a family history resources blog

I've seen this off and on for a while, but decided last night (while talking to Karen, the Auckland City Library's family history librarian who runs the blog) that I should include Kintalk on the list of links here. It's aimed at genealogists and family historians -- but some of the information on Kintalk about new databases and other info becoming available might prove useful to general historians as well.

West: a new history of West Auckland

I attended the launch of the book West: The History of Waitakere tonight, held at the Waitakere City Council chambers. I have been looking forward both to the launch, and to obtaining the book (it retails for $79.99, but they took $10 off tonight as a launch special. According to the Western Leader, the book cost about $280,000 to produce, receiving $180,000 from Waitakere City Council, $35,000 from the ASB Charitable Trust and $39,500 from the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts.

My thoughts:

It is a beautiful book, and it has fulfulled one monumental aim, to try to compile together as much of the essense of "westie-ness" as possible within constraints of funding, page numbers, etc. Reading the book, you definitely get a feel for the story, both past and present, and it has turned out to be great timing in terms of the publication. With Auckland's Super City just around the corner, this volume will fit in nicely with other "swansong" municipal publications prepared in years past by other authorities lost in amalgamation. I also think that the book is a good starting point in terms of research into West Auckland, for those who make the effort to do so.

I liked the geological summary at the beginning by Bruce Hayward, the underpinning of the entire area. This will prove a great resource. The chapters on the history of Te Kawerau a Maki and Ngati Whatua in terms of West Auckland (the former claim mana over the whole of West Auckland, and surrounding districts, the latter claim the Auckland isthmus and that they are tangata whenua in Waitakere City) provide information on the complex history of Maori settlement and resource use in the area.

Some parts of the work stand out as areas where a little more research would have assisted with accuracy.

In David Luxton's chapter "Struggle Country", "Long" John McLeod is referred to, the difference between Thomas Henderson's possible early mill and the one sighted by J. C. Loch in 1861 "all down to one man, "Long John McLeod, a lumberjack ..." McLeod wasn't just "one man" -- his partner until the late 1850s was Cyrus Haskell, who was a lumberjack, while McLeod was more an engineer.

In "Read All About It" by Rene Bridges, mention is made of a local paper owned by Noel Roseman called the Avondale Dispatch. This is (excuse the pun) news to me. I've heard of The News operated by Avondale's Arthur Morrish, but not mentioned in the chapter (although it extended in coverage out to Swanson), and I've heard of the Avondale Advance (which the chapter does mention.) Not the Dispatch, though. I'll leave that one open for now -- if Waitakere City Library has copies of this, I'd love to see them. It isn't in their catalogue, however. Or anywhere else. [Edited to add, 12 November 2018: A reference to the Avondale Dispatch has been found. A single issue, either complete or in part, in Council Archives from the late 1940s. Looking forward to sighting this.]

In "Fire in The West" by Robyn Mason, the date of 1852 crops up again with reference to Daniel Pollen. I imagine it will take a long, long time for this ill-founded belief that Pollen's brickyard and pottery works started at that time to finally fade away. It is ill-founded: Pollen purchased his property on Rosebank in 1855, a son was born there in 1856, but by 1860 he was over at Eden Crescent, having left the management of his brick works at least in the hands of John Malam. In 1852, Pollen was on Kawau Island during the first part of the year, moving to Auckland later on. The not-totally-accurate Goodall map of West Auckland brick and pottery yards is reproduced without correction. Also, mention is made of "the Craig family's Glenburn Fireclay & Pottery Co (Avondale)" in 1929. In that year, while the Craig family were finalising purchase of the Glenburn site with John Melville and James Fletcher, it was already (and had been since 1920) run by these two men. In 1923, the business became known as Glenburn Fireclay & Pottery Co.

Tara Jahn-Werner in "The Children of Hauauru" writes of Avondale having movies screened in the area "as early as 1920" (actually, movies were shown much earlier, at least 1910). The Avondale Public Hall is described as "a tiny corrugated tin hall" (the hall is wooden, with a corrugated tin side closest to the Hollywood Cinema, and has never been "tiny") and the cinema is described as a neo-classical building constructed when the hall was moved over (no dates are given, but the neo-classical part of today's Hollywood -- the facade -- was built in 1915, and served as the grand front for that same "tiny" hall until 1924). Jan Grefstad's history of the Hollywood Cinema has the details.

In "City of the Dead" by Matthew Gray, reference is made to Waikumete Cemetery being "home to a mass grave filled with most of the 1128 Aucklanders who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918." I know that local West Auckland historian Audrey Lange has disputed this. I was on a bus trip with West Auckland Historical Society a couple of years ago, when Audrey took us around on a brief visit to the cemetery, and showed us where an area of land beside a memorial to those who had died during the pandemic wasn't a mass grave, but actually a series of individual graves, very few marked with a stone. The "mass grave" story crops up in other places, such as Waikaraka (no mass grave there), and to do with the removal of remains from Symonds Street cemetery when the motorway was put through later on last century. I'd always been told, and believed, that the remains were in a mass grave in Waikumete -- until I saw that the remains had actually been cremated, and returned to special deposit memorials in Symonds Street.

The book includes a summary of early development of the area's schools -- but there's only four references to churches in the area, and most of those references are just side references. I realise that the editors were constrained by space restrictions, but even a two-page list of the area's churches and the dates they started would have been a useful tool for researchers. The West Auckland Historical Society is similarly treated -- two references, one to published works used as reference by the authors, the other a mention of Mill Cottage.

All in all, though, it can't be said that West is a white elephant. The team took on a big task, and achieved a book which, hopefully, will provide a historical research resource as well as several glimpses into what Waitakere City in 2009 is all about.

A stroll along Grafton Bridge

I was out in the wonderful breather of fine weather yesterday, doing some work at the Domain before heading back to the city, and decided to walk across Grafton Bridge. (The photos here are in reverse order of shooting).

Above is the view from Symonds Street. For some time now, it has been closed to vehicular traffic while strengthening goes on underneath. For a while, it's a pedestrian/cyclists' open route.

Along the way, the contractors and Auckland City Council have put up signage summarising the project and a bit of the bridge's nearly 100 year history. Below is a close up of the old photo showing the opening day and the stream of people flooding across.

The bridge from Grafton Road.

This is the motorway built half a century after the bridge. Grafton bridge used to span a verdant, bush-clad gully. Today, it spans a motorway interchange. I took this shot on one knee, poking the camera lens through one of the lower arches in the cement side. Couldn't take a shot above, due to the anti-suicide shield.

123 Grafton Road. When the bridge was first being constructed, this was where the city engineer lived, but the house is likely to be around three decades older than the bridge. Usually, you can't see the house for vegetation. Right now, someone is repiling the house (at least, I think they are, judging from the advertising signage on the site). The trees, bar one, have been removed, and once again the Victorian architecture is shown to the world. This is one of the last of its kind in the Grafton area.

Land Wars Memorial, Symonds Street

A bare-breasted Zealandia has had her back to the smog-creating traffic of burgeoning Auckland for nearly 90 years, now.

This is the Auckland memorial to those of the fallen among the Imperial and Colonial side during the Land Wars of the 19th century. It was organised by the Victoria League, and unveiled in 1920.

The Victoria League was founded in London in 1901, a time when Queen Victoria had just died, and the Boer War was soon to follow suit. The guiding principle of the League was “the conservation in memory of Queen Victoria, of the deeds of British soldiers and sailors, and other patriotic men and women in the Empire, and the assistance and hospitality shown to overseas visitors in England.” A meeting in Parnell in 1909 led to an Auckland branch being established.

A Graves Committee was set up in 1910 to search out and tend to the graves of New Zealand War veterans. Realising that many of these graves were unmarked, and that not all the names of the fallen could be recovered, Edith Mary Statham (1854-1951) and the Committee set out to erect a monument in Auckland to all the soldiers who had fallen during the Land Wars. In 1911, a triangular reserve site at the corner of Wakefield and Symonds Street was offered by the Auckland City Council. Sir Joseph Ward had already pledged £100 from the Government towards the project. Onehunga architect John Park won the initial design competition, but his plan was not adopted.

"Showing the memorial on the corner of Wakefield and Symonds Street, Auckland of men who fell in the New Zealand Wars", Reference 4-3393, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

In 1913, the Government raised its offer to £1000, and now a second competition was held, this time won in 1914 by British sculptor Thomas Eyre Macklin (whose entry arrived late, and who was chosen despite the disgust of local sculptors and monumental masons such as W. Parkinson). Macklin (1867-1943) was born in Newcastle –on-Tyne who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1889 and also at Paris. In his obituaries, among his works is included “the Auckland War Memorial”. This isn’t the Cenotaph outside the Auckland War Memorial Museum, however – it’s the Maori War Memorial at the top of Wakefield Street. His design incorporated the three steps from Park’s earlier design, as well as the obelisk, but had a draped female figure representing Zealandia offering a palm to those who had died for the country during the Land Wars.

The names of the sculptor and the Paris foundry where the statue was cast are engraved at the edge of the flag which drapes, as if of cloth rather than metal, down the steps. This is my favourite part of the monument.

The wording of the monument attracted debate; the Victoria League wanted “and Empire” added, while others disputed the original dates of the Wars revealed as at the unveiling on 18 August 1920. The monument was altered so that “1845-1866” was changed to “1845-1872”. Soon after the unveiling, the monument was got at by the city’s larrikins. The palm leaf soon disappeared, so today Zealandia doesn’t offer peace to the fallen; it appears almost as if she’s reaching up to pick something off a tree or a bush which is no longer there. It’s a pity that palm couldn’t be restored.

Still – this is a memorial to the British, Australians and New Zealanders, along with the Maori allies, who fought during our civil wars in the 19th centuries. In the flood of memorials since to World Wars 1 and 2, this at least is something different.

According to The Sorrow and the Pride by Chris McLean and Jock Phillips (1990), Edith Sttatham had 73 graves or cemeteries under her care by 1919, and had been instrumental in the erection of monuments, as well as Symonds Street, in the following places: Waikaraka Cemetery, Te Awamutu (2), Taupiri, Whatawhata, Te Rorae, Paterangi, Tuakau, Ngaruawahia, Waitara, and Opotiki. Eventually, memorials she was associated with came to include those who had fallen from among the other side of the conflict as well. But from 1930, the Land Wars memorials ceased. As McLean and Phillips put it:

"Once more a national amnesia descended about the New Zealand Wars, as New Zealanders struggled to forget about the conflict lest it upset their naive belief that they had the best race relations in the world. Edith Statham had retired from government employment in 1928, and although from a new position as honorary inspector of war graves for the Auckland RSA she continued to write imploring letters to the government about the subject through until at least 1941, she had become a lone voice. Statham died in 1951, virtually unrecognised for her work."

The Edwin Fox

A link to a fascinating page detailing history of the Edwin Fox, currently a Category 1 registered heritage attraction in Picton.

The Lacre lorry of Messrs Archibald Bros. of Avondale

A wonderful surprise in the post today: a photocopy of the front page of The New Zealand Motor & Cycle Journal of 25 February 1913, sent to me by Bruce & Wilma Madgwick of the Otahuhu Historical Society. This is going to be the front page image for the next issue of the Avondale Historical Journal. I can't see anything cooler coming along to pip it.

The caption beneath the photo:

"30 h.p. two-ton Lacre lorry supplied to Messrs. Archibald Brothers, brick and pipe manufacturers, Avondale, by Messrs. Holland and Gillett, North Island agents for the Lacre Motor Company. As proof of the great saving in time effected through the employment of this vehicle, it may be mentioned that a two and a-half ton load of pipes was conveyed from the works at Avondale into the city, a distance of seven miles, in ten minutes under the hour, as compared to two and a-half hours occupied by the horse-drawn lorries."

Bull Baiting

A delightful description of a court case in Christchurch, from the NZ Truth, 14 February 1914.

In the Magistrate's Court at Christchurch before Mr. T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., Henry James Wells sought to blight the fair name of Frederick Bull, by having recorded against him a conviction for assaulting the said Henry James on January 3.

To look at Bull a casual observer would conclude that he had about as much chance of committing' a fair-sized assault on Wells as a pup has of assaulting an elephant. Each of the parties in the case lacked confidence in their verbal punch, and Cassidy occupied the informant's corner, whilst Lawyer Donnelly defended the alleged bully.

Wells unfolded a gruesome story concerning the treachery of his brother butcher, Bull. While following his profession as meat artist at Hogarth's flesh foundry, Sydenham, one day Henry James had occasion to use

A BOTTLE OF AMMONIA,

which he had in his hand when Bull entered tho establishment. Wells said, "This stuff doesn't smell like gin, Fred." Wells allowed Fred a smell. No sooner had he sniffed the ammonia than he hauled off and landed a double turbine, ginger laden bang on Well's eye. The injured optic assumed the color of a moonless night, and its wearer had to hawk it along to a doctor for repairs.

Mr. Cassidy handed in a doctor's certificate containing a pen picture of the injured eye. Lawyer Donnelly barked out: "Wh-what's this ?"

"A certificate," said Mr. Cassidy.

"You know you can't do anything with that. It's merely a certificate that Wells got a black eye. You can get that for a guinea." ("Truth" could not say whether the latter remark referred to the black eye, the doctor's certificate, or both.)

Mr. Cassidy's next exhibit was a picture post-card—a

VERITABLE TRIUMPH OF ART.

On one side were depicted two men— one with a face like a flat-iron and the other with an elaborate bandage covering his optic. The ornamented one was offering words of advice to his chum with the black eye. The reverse side of the post-card bore the following poetic gem which Mr. Cassidy spitefully referred to as "doggerel" :—

"Ah well your eye is black.
There is no doubt I had a crack. . .
I'll stop gin smelling and take a pull,
Or else stop a crack from beastly Bull."

Waving the post-card aloft, Mr. Cassidy asked the witness if the card was delivered to him by the postman. He said it was. He and Bull had always been friendly prior to the morning on which the latter dealt out stoush.

Mr. Donnelly offered a bottle of ammonia to the S.M. and Mr Cassidy to smell. Mr. Cassidy brutally suggested that Mr. Donnelly should smell it, it might clear his head. Lawyer Donnelly, for the defence, said that Wells had played a scurvy trick on Bull, and could not expect anything but that Bull would retaliate. The defendant's story was that when he entered the butcher's shop, Wells took the cork out of the ammonia bottle and said to witness,

THEY SAY THIS IS GIN.

What do you think it is, Fred ?" Fred tested the fluid, and when he regained consciousness he hit Wells on the eye and told him not to play silly jokes. He admitted that he struck Wells on the spur of the moment, although that was not the part of his anatomy that blackened.

Since the dust-up, witness had met Wells and had merely said, "Good morning, Mr. Wells." Nothing was farther from his mind than to taunt the man and goad him into fighting. Witness did not write the post-card to Wells, and had never seen it before. It might have been a joke on the part of the shop boy.

The S.M., after sniffing the ammonia bottle and satisfying himself that it did not contain gin, said he did not want to lay it down that there was justification for the blow, but he was surprised that when one man played a practical joke and got a crack in the eye for his pains he should let it rankle in his mind for so long. The case was dismissed.

From billiard cue to dentists' drill

I found these three photos in a 30 June 1924 issue of The Builders' Record. They show the progression of development at the corner of Lorne and Victoria Street East, from the Auckland Billiard Centre (building there from before 1908, billiard saloon set up in 1919) and adjacent tyre shop, to a 9-story building called the Medico-Dental Chambers.

The tall building to the extreme right is the AMP Building, from c.1913. Around 1958, that, and the three-story building beside, were replaced by a modern glass-fronted office building, also owned by AMP.

The first two photographs were taken by noted photographer Henry Winkelmann (the first is on the catalogue at Auckland City Library as well, 1-W313).

Caption: The above photograph by Mr. H. Winkelmann shows the old buildings at the corner of Victoria and Lorne Streets, Auckland, which have recently been demolished to make room for the splendid, modern, 9-srory building to be called The Medico-Dental Chambers."

Caption:
"The above photograph specially taken for The Builders' Record by Mr. H. Winkelmann shows the Medico-Dental Chambers in course of construction. The contract price is £49,000, the Architects are McDonald, Mullins and Sholto Smith, and the Contractors are Fletcher Construction Co., Ltd."

Caption:
"The above is a photograph of the finished plans of the new Medico-Dental Chambers now in course of erection at the corner of Victoria and Lorne Streets, Auckland."

(Update, 12 July 2009) Here's how it looks now:

Wanted: multi-talented bush handyman

"Wanted, handy man ; must be able to milk, plough, fell bush, kill, cook, assist in laundry and teach children the theory of music. Salary, £30." (Poverty Bay Herald, 19 October 1906)

This attracted the attention of two Wellington newspapers, the NZ Truth and the NZ Freelance:

"They have some very acquisitive people in the Poverty Bay district, if the following advt. from a recent issue of the "Herald" should give ample proof ...Just "imagine " coming in from a twelve or fourteen hours' day at those light farm; field, and forest duties, to a job of ironing and folding, with a cheerful lesson in the theory of music to half-a-dozen vulgar brats, on the side, and all for 15 bob a week. But surely it is not genuine, but a throw off at some skinflint cocky."

(NZ Truth, 6 November)

"God's Own Country! ... "Poverty" Bay, too! But, why stop short at this list of desired qualifications? Couldn't the handy man teach the missus drawn threadwork and bridge. Nothing is said about languages. Doesn't even say the man must be the son of a peer or a teetotaller or a "Christian." It is supposed, however, that the applications will be so very large that a good, meek, smack-me-on-the-right-cheek sort of man will be sorted out of the heap. Milking and the theory of music, Ploughing and assisting in laundry. Thirty pounds a year!"

(NZ Freelance, 3 November 1906)

Aotearoa: still nailing the meaning down

This is just my opinion: why those of us of British lineage have to always have translations for names which derive from someone else's culture, I don't know.

I saw today in Jayne's blog Our Great Southern Land the use of "Land of the Long White Cloud" in reference to New Zealand. Natural enough term to use, because next to everyone else in the world does -- but it isn't quite right, whichever way you look at it.

I was taught at school, on first learning how to spell Aotearoa, that it meant "Land of the Long White Cloud" because a long white cloud is what Kupe's wife saw on the Great Migration. From Te Ara:

"The arrival of Kupe is of great importance, and many tribes are at pains to cite a relationship to him. It is said that his wife, Kuramārōtini, devised the name of Ao-tea-roa (‘long white cloud’) on seeing the North Island for the first time."

Yes, the North Island. Otherwise known as Te Ika o Maui (in one case I've seen, also as Te Whai o Maui, because it ressembles a stingray), for a while my island of birth had the name Aotearoa as well.

According to the late Michael King, an edition in 1916 of the New Zealand School Journal published the Kupe legend and the naming of the North Island as Aotearoa. We Europeans probably thought Aotearoa was a champion native alternative name for the whole country, and Maori have readily adopted its wider meaning (as an alternative to the transliteration "Niu Tireni").

In turn, the School Journal entry probably harked back to William Pember Reeves and his 1898 classic The Long White Cloud. Even earlier still, a reference to Aotearoa in Papers Past where a letter published in newspapers in September 1862 from Tamati Hone Oraukawa of Ngatiruanui, addressed as coming from "Weriweri, a pa of Aotearoa" was given the added note (perhaps by an editor): "i.e. , of New Zealand". (Tamati Hone Oraukawa, however, may have only been referring to the North Island.) European newspaper editors publishing translations of letters from Maori during the Land Wars kept making this same error, unless the context made it absolutely clear to them that it was the North Island, not the whole country, which was referred to.

By the mid 1880s, however, Aotearoa as the Maori name for the whole country had taken hold.

Several Maori scholars with Paul of Orakei have visited tho Raratouga Embassy now in Auckland. The Star says:— "The language of the two people is nearly the same, and the Maoris and Rarotongans can understand each other easily ... Queen Makea and the others said they had never heard of tho name Aotearoa, as the name of a country, till they were told that it was the Maori name of New Zealand.

(Timaru Herald, 30 October 1885)

There was still shifting back and forth between just North Island or New Zealand as a whole claiming the title -- but then, William Pember Reeves got the cement out and laid the foundation firmly for today's usage, backed up by the shot in the education system's arm from the 1916 School Journal. "Niu Tireni" makes an appearance as a translation for New Zealand as late is 1909 -- and then joined the moa and the huia in extinction (apart from the odd guest appearance now and then. Sort of like looking at a huia or moa re-creation.)

But, do things end there? No.

For one thing, Aotearoa does not include "the land of" in the name. It is just "long white/bright cloud". Or, also, "long twilight". This from 1997:

Here is a drastically pruned down version of the entry for "Aotearoa" in the forthcoming Dictionary of New Zealand English, edited by Harry Orsman and to be published later this year by Oxford University Press:

Aotearoa ... [Ma. /|aotea|roa/ ao cloud; daytime; world + tea white + roa long, tall; or aotea bird; or aoatea (=awatea) with elision of medial /a/, daybreak, dawn.]

[Note] Usu. transl. as the LAND OF THE LONG WHITE CLOUD q.v., though 'Land of the Long Day' (or 'Dawn'), or 'Land of the Long Twilight' have more to recommend them.

Why "long twilight"?

"A third explanation is connected with New Zealand's location below the tropics. Polynesian seafarers would have been used to tropical sunsets, in which the sky goes from daylight to night very rapidly, with little twilight. New Zealand, with its more southerly latitudes, would have provided surprisingly long periods of evening twilight to travellers from the tropics. It has been suggested that this long twilight is the actual origin of the term Aotearoa.

The same explanation - or a related one dealing with the presence of the Aurora Australis - is often given for Stewart Island's Māori name Rakiura, which means "glowing sky".

From here.

Somewhere I read recently that Maori scholars advise not to go down the road of translating everything in local place names. We should just accept the word as it is: today, Aotearoa has come to be the Maori name encompassing the whole of New Zealand, rather like the "Land of the Angles", a small fraction of a certain West European country way up north in the 600s CE came to be known as England across the whole country. I do like the "long twilight" explanation, though. Probably because it's so different from that which was taught to me over 30 years ago.

More Blockhouse Bay Murals

These photos were taken on Saturday 27 June, on a foggy morning visit to the Blockhouse Bay Farmers' Market. Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.

1. Gathering Shellfish, 1930s
2. 1939 Boat Ramp, Gordon Abercrombies' "Lois"
3. Mr. Stefano Armanasco & Family 1901



4. Kathleen & Nora Mitchell, 1925
5. Bridge at the bottom of the Esplanade
6. L & W Woods general store.



7. Smoke House
8-10. A view of the beach.

Disease, morals and “the social evil”: a brief look at Auckland’s Lock Hospital (1883-1886)

This is a much broader subject than it appears at first glance. At some stage, I’ll do some thorough trawling through the Herald and Star editions of the period to fill in gaps and flesh out the tale of the hospital. For now, though, here’s what I have to hand.

In 1864, Great Britain passed the Contagious Diseases Act. This appears to have been legislation in response to concerns as to the prevalence of venereal diseases in military towns and bases in the country, and meant that police had the right to enforce a physical examination upon women suspected of sexually transmitted diseases, and detention in a lock hospital for up to three months while being treated. [Update, 16 August 2010: the term "lock hospital" appears to have originated from the term "locks", rags which covered the lesions of lepers who were "treated" in early hospitals in England during the Middle Ages. The term "lock" came to associated with contagious diseases in general, and venereal ones in particular -- hence the term "lock hospital" for an institution dealing specifically with sexually transmitted diseases.]
 

In New Zealand, a place in the 1860s where there were some military encampments and barracks during the Land Wars in the North Island, it was oddly enough Mr. W. Rolleston from Canterbury who championed the passage our own Contagious Diseases Act in 1869. (Wellington Independent, 19 August) Even so, it wasn’t until 1872 that the Act came into operation in Canterbury. (Taranaki Herald, 10 April) Wellington sought to follow suit in 1877, but the council there met with stern opposition from morals groups, who viewed the legislation as not so much a prevention of disease amongst the public as it was, by the system of certification of clean health to those women who had no infections, a kind of encouragement of the “social evil”.

“SANCTIMONIOUSNESS.: A more contemptible exhibition of sanctimonious folly than that displayed at a recent meeting of the Wellington City Council it would be hard to imagine. From a short account of the meeting, which will be found in another column, and which we have reprinted from the Post, it will be seen that it was called for the special purpose of considering the late petition in reference to "the social evil." The police laid before the Council a very favorable report of the working of the "Contagious Diseases Act " in Christchurch, but on a motion being made for put* ting the Act in force in Wellington, it was defeated by six to three, and another motion passed asking the Government for fresh legislation on the subject. We don't know what answer this application will receive, but we know how it ought to be answered. If the applicants be of the number of those who “fear a curtain lecture more than hell," let them resign their places in the City Council to men of sense, who will bring the Act into operation at once. “

(Wanganui Herald, 1 April 1881)

On the other hand, there were groups, also with a moral view, who felt that something needed to be done about prostitution in the capital, and saw the Act as a means to that end.

“A petition of Wellington residents to their City Council praying to have the Contagious Diseases Act brought into operation within the Borough, alleges that Wellington, with its population of 20,000, is more immoral than Melbourne with its 250,000 inhabitants. The memorial has been referred to the Minister of Justice with a recommendation that he should take strong measures to suppress the immorality complained of.”

(Taranaki Herald, 14 May 1881)

However, it was Auckland, not Wellington, which was to be next after Christchurch to undergo the experiment. Exactly why Auckland decided to go down this track is not something I’ve ascertained yet. One suggestion is that the Council wanted to show the Royal Navy that Auckland could be a suitable, and venereal disease free, base for their Pacific operations. (I need to look into this further).

In June 1881, the Auckland City Council petitioned the Colonial Secretary to allow the Act to come into affect in the city. (Grey River Argus, 14 June) By later the following year, when it appeared that the Council were absolutely dead-set on setting up the Lock Hospital, the petitions against the scheme began to fill the table at their meetings. In response, the Mayor at the time, James McCosh Clark, assured a deputation of clergymen that while he didn’t want to stop the process of being the Act into operation in Auckland, “he would endeavour to prevent prostitutes obtaining certificates of cleanliness.” (Evening Post, 3 October 1882) A tender for erecting the Lock Hospital, adjacent to Mt Eden Gaol on the stockade reserve, was accepted in February 1883.


In 1883, a new mayor was elected, William R. Waddel. The Lock Hospital proceeded, but with a slightly different intent – disease prevention, rather than personal detention. In August, Dr. C. F. Goldsbro’ was appointed medical superintendent at £150 a year, and a matron has been appointed at £100 a year — both subject to three months' notice. (Hawkes Bay Herald, 29 August) The Observer in October 1883 reported that the hospital was fully operational, with 80 women already on the books.

In December 1883, Dr. Goldsbro’ died, and Dr. Tennent appointed as visiting surgeon in his place in February the following year. The petitions appeared to have continued.

“A meeting was held of persons opposed to the enforcement of the Contagious Diseases Act. A petition was drawn up for signature praying the Mayor and City Council to take the vote of the ratepayers as whether further public moneys should be appropriated for a Lock Hospital : also whether it should not be handed over to a recognised body of citizens under trust for the purposes of a female reformatory.”

(West Coast Times, 28 April 1884)

However, it was probably not morals, on either side of the debate, which caused the Lock Hospital to shut down. It was costing the city a considerable amount of money to run, in a period when the Long Depression began to make an impact economically. While the initial annual cost had been estimated at £450, the NZ Herald reported that more money had been expended on the hospital in the first six months of operation than on road formation in the city, and only £30 less than that spent on the new Free Library. (Te Aroha News, 17 May 1884) By October 1884, appeals were being made to the central government asking that they take over the hospital, and ease the burden on Auckland’s ratepayers. The Government, unsurprisingly, said no. (Te Aroha News, 4 & 11 October 1884)

In 1885, the statistics impressed some, but not others.

“The agitation against this institution has been resumed, and another effort is being made to secure its abolition. Some discussion took place at the City Council last evening, when reports from Dr. Tennent and the police were submitted. These bore unanimous testimony to the value of the Hospital, and the police statement asserted that the effect of the Act had been to decrease the number of abandoned women by 63, while no less than 28 had entirely reformed, been married, or taken into refuges through the instrumentality of the Act. On the other hand, Mr R. H. Hughes, secretary of the society which is antagonistic to the Lock Hospital, wrote asserting that since the Act had been brought into force the visits of men to brothels had increased twenty-fold. In his report, Dr. Tennent said the number on the Hospital register originally was 84, and at the first examination, eleven women had been detained for treatment for several diseases. He then proceeds: There has been, at least, 50 per cent of a decrease in the number of prostitutes since the opening of the Hospital, and I am informed by Detective Hughes that prostitutes soliciting in the street are now rarely if ever seen. I have received from Mr. Superintendent Thomson the following report from the Police Department :—

Number of prostitutes known to the police in Auckland and suburbs to date: 103 Number proceded against under the Act: 98
Number brought under the Act, and who attended the Lock Hospital: 84
Number who left for the bush and other parts of the colony 14
Average number that attend for medical examination twice every month, and average number in Hospital 40
Married and reformed: 8
Living with men not married: 5
Number gone into service and reformed by the ladies of the Parnell home and of the Salvation Army Refuge 20
Number in Mount Eden Gaol 10
Number left Auckland for other parts of the colony 15
Number not proceeded against: 5
Decrease of number of prostitutes: 63

Dr. Tennent adds :— The establishment of the Lock Hospital has also arrested the spread of infectious diseases. I cannot close my report without bearing grateful testimony to those benevolent ladies who have rendered valuable aid and sympathy in the work of attending and reclaiming the fallen, some of them making regular visits to the Hospital weekly.”

(Te Aroha News, 9 May 1885)

The petitions against the Act in general and the Lock Hospital in particular, though, kept coming.

Then, there came the Great Breakout of August 1886.

“DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT.
UNRULY HOSPITAL PATIENTS.

A very scandalous scene of insubordination occurred on Wednesday in connection with the Auckland Lock Hospital. Owing to the illness of Dr Tenant, Dr Walker visited the institution, and as the result of his visit ordered the further detention of the patients then in, numbering seven.

In the evening the whole of them stampeded from the building, save one old women, and came down town in a body. They paraded the wharf, singing songs. Their conduct and the use of obscene language arrested the attention of the Harbour Board watchman. The police were informed, and shortly afterwards intelligence was received from the Lock Hospital that six of the inmates had cleared out.

Being now certain of their quarry, and of the task before them, Sergeants J McMahon, Clarke, Detective Hughes, and Constable McDonnell proceeded in pursuit. They had not far to go, as the girls, in bravado, were coming up Queen-street abreast. The police rounded them up, and took them to the lock-up where they kept the station lively far on into the night, singing songs, and using language more expressive than polite.

The six prisoners are Theresa King, Maria Ann Long, Mary Ann Curtis, Elizabeth Irwin, Agnes Austen, Alice Stewart, and they are charged with a breach of the Contagious Diseases Act, 1869 by escaping from the Auckland Lock Hospital.”

(Poverty Bay Herald, 6 August 1886)

The Council decided by early September, to close down the hospital, due to the financial drain on the city. It was closed on 15 September, and the building was sold to the Crown in early February, 1887. Even that final chapter proved controversial.

“Some queer facts were made known during a discussion on the Lock Hospital question by the City Council on Thursday night. Cr Kidd opposed the sale of the building to the Government on the ground that other customers were in the field. Cr La Roche drew attention to the little game that was being kept dark. The other customers were [the] Charitable Aid Board who would apply it to the uses which the Council had resolved to discontinue. Cr Crowther said that it was not a time to reopen the question of maintaining the Lock Hospital. There were 19 closed shops in Queen-street, and business was more depressed than it had been for 15 years past. The 403 objections to city assessments showed that ratepayers found their taxes pressing severely upon them and at any rate in the face of the reduction in the salaries of their laborers, they could hardly perpetrate the anomaly of keeping open the Lock Hospital. The Mayor felt that £350 was altogether too small a price for the hospital, but under the circumstances they could do no better. “

(Wanganui Herald, 19 February 1887)

“The apparently interminable discussion upon the Contagious Diseases Act came before the City Council again last evening. Notwithstanding the resolution of the Council at a previous sitting to accept the offer of the Government for the Lock Hospital building, Councillor Kidd introduced the question upon the ratepayers' petition presented at the last meeting in favour of a poll. He declared that the evil of prostitution had greatly increased since the suspension of the Act. His opinion was based on information supplied by the best medical men, the Inspector of Police, and the detectives. Inspector Thomson's report was that the Act was beneficial.

"Councillor Kidd also quoted from a statement made by Mr Beetham at Christchurch, wherein that gentleman deplored the abandonment of the Contagious Diseases Act in that city. Detective Hughes' report estimated the number of fallen women now in Auckland at 150, many of them being mere girls between the ages of 11 and 15, who had come out on the streets since the Act was repealed. The only law by which they could be reached now was the Police Offenders Act of 1884. Under this Act they could be charged with having no lawful visible means of support ; but it was almost impossible, under the circumstances, to obtain convictions. Councillor Kidd at this stage moved — "That the Council continue sitting," the time being close on 10 p.m.; but the motion was negatived. He proceeded to quote the opinions of Drs Stock and Tennent in favour of the Act, when the arrival of 10 o'clock interrupted the debate, and the Council adjourned.”

(Christchurch Star, 5 March 1887)

Great Britain repealed the Contagious Diseases Act in 1886. It was finally repealed in New Zealand in 1910.

In an earlier post, I wrote about the ladies of Rokeby Street. During the period of the Lock Hospital, a number of them went through the system.

Valentine Becquet (the infamous “Madame Valentine”, owner of brothels in Rokeby and Wellesley Streets)
Religion: Roman Catholic
Discharged with certificate 28 January 1884, after treatment for condylomata warts and gonorrhea

Elizabeth Burton
Religion: Church of England.
Admitted twice from Rokeby (gonorrhea), three times from Wellesley, and once from Victoria Street.

Eleanor-Emma Butwell
Religion: Roman Catholic
Admitted once from Rokeby with gonorrhea, and twice more from Wellesley Street.

Mary Collins
Religion: Roman Catholic
Examined 21 January 1884 and detained. Readmitted April 1884 with gonorrhea.

Catherine Davey
Religion: Church of England
Certified as free from disease September 1884, but readmitted November 1884 with gonorrhea

Emma Gifford
Religion: Roman Catholic
Certified free from disease in 1886

Clara Gray
Religion: Church of England
Discharged 28 June 1884 with certificate

Rose Haultain
Religion: Church of England
Admitted to the Lock Hospital five times, gonorrhea

Emily Hawkes
Religion: Roman Catholic
Suffered with gonorrhea and chancre. Admitted twice from Rokeby, twice from Victoria and once from Wellesley Street.

Elizabeth Hennessy
Religion: Roman Catholic
Admitted from Grey Strert in 1884, and from Rokeby in 1885, that time with gonorrhea

Mary Maher
Religion: Roman Catholic
Admitted once from Rokeby in September 1884 with ulterior hemorrhage, and once from Wellesley Street.

Ada Mandell
Religion: Roman Catholic
Admitted twice, certified in October 1883 as free from disease, but back in with gonorrhea in February 1884.

Jessie McLaughlin
Religion: Presbyterian
Certified free from disease 1886.

Lily/Lillie Meadows
Religion: Church of England
Admitted from Rokeby in March 1884 with syphillis, and twice more from Wellesley Street.

Margaret Moran
Religion: Roman Catholic
Discharged with certificate 28 January 1884, but admitted twice more, from Victoria Street

Ada Morgan
Certified as clear in September 1884, but admitted again later from Wellesley Street.

Rose Pearson
Religion: Church of England
Admitted first from Wellington Street in January 1884, then from Rokeby Street in March 1884, with gonorrhea and chancre (syphillis), and then again in July 1884 with chronic gonorrhea.

Sophia Pearson
Religion: Church of England
Admitted once from Rokeby with condylomata warts, three more times from Grey Street, once from Wellesley and once from Grafton Road.

Nelly/Ellen Ryan
Religion: Church of England.
Admitted voluntarily in June 1884 with chancre (syphillis), but also admitted from Upper Queen Street and Wellesley Street.

Rose Thomas
Religion: Church of England
Certified as free from disease in January 1884, but readmitted twice more from Rokeby Street, with gonorrhea and warts, and once from Wellesley Street

Mary Vaughan
Religion: Presbyterian
Admitted in June 1884 with gonorrhea.

Annie Williams
Religion: Church of England
Admitted twice from Hobson Street, and once from Rokeby, that time with chancre and condylomata.

Julia Wilson (“Black Julia”, the operator of Madame Valentine’s Rokeby brothel, Paddington Villa.)
Religion: Church of England.
Detained, but discharged February 1884.

Sources:
Lock Hospital Register, ACC 329 Item 1, Auckland City Archives
Women in History: Essays on European Women in New Zealand (1986), p. 22
Various papers on Papers Past
Auckland City Council reports 1883-1887, held at Auckland City Library

The staff at both the Auckland City Archives and Auckland Research Centre at the library were wonderful in helping me get this far on a very involved topic. My thanks to both teams for their help and patience.

More on baby engines, and fires in 19th century NZ

Further to the fire hand grenade post, and my perplexion as to "baby engines". Phil Hanson, in his comment to that post, appears to have hit the nail on the head.

Here are some entries referring to "baby engines" in Papers Past:

FIRE IN ALBERT BARRACKS.
Yesterday evening, shortly before 8 o'clock thick volumes of smoke and showers of sparks were observed to rise in the vicinity of Albert Barracks. A few seconds later flames were seen darting upwards, and it scarcely needed the alarm-bells, which pealed forth from their stations in the city and suburbs, to tell that a fire had broken out. It was speedily ascertained that a building outside the walls of the barracks had ignited, and thither Mr. Asher and the members of the Fire Brigade hastened; two of the men taking with them each a " baby " engine.

SC, 6 March 1872

In a city like Auckland, where the buildings are for the most part wooden, and close together, it is not to be wondered at that when a fire breaks out many buildings are destroyed, especially when the appliances provided for extinguishing fires are of such an unsatisfactory nature. Mr. Superintendent Asher, who is an old and thoroughly practical fireman, knowing that a vast amount of damage may be done at any moment by the outbreak of a fire, has provided himself with a “Baby Engine," with which, on more than one occasion recently, he has been able to arrest the progress of a fire. He has discovered that a new water-throwing apparatus — the “hydronette" — has been invented and patented, and it is his intention to send to London for one of them by the next outgoing mail. This instrument, which is worked by compressed air, has for its recommendations ample discharging capacity, wide range, varied force of impact, instant power of graduation, ease of action, and above all, simplicity. It is said that no water-throwing machine in the world, worked by the power of one man, as this is, can equal the hydronette either in the length of its throw or in the graduations of force at its command The hydronette has been tested by a number of people in England, and they speak of it in very high terms.

SC, 2 December 1873

About 11 o'clock yesterday morning Mrs. Jones, of the hairdressing saloon at the corner of Queen Street and West Queen-street, observed a strong smell of burning in the room at the back of the shop, where a small fire was kept for business purposes. Mr. Jones soon extinguished all the flame that could be seen. The smell of burning still continuing, however, he went over for Mr. Asher, superintendent of the Fire Brigade, who suggested the removal of the bricks that formed the back of the chimney, and sent for the " baby " engine belonging to the Insurance Companies, and this small engine to all appearance was the means of arresting what might have been a large conflagration.

SC, 10 July 1874

The fire-engine, in charge of Mr. T. Humphries, Captain of the Fire Brigade, was brought quickly into position, but owing to the only well available being too deep, the engine was of no utility. Fortunately Mr. Halse had on the premises a valuable hand fire-engine, called a "Baby" engine, and this was at once brought into use.

Taranaki Herald, 1 November 1880

Our contemporary the News this morning, in noticing the usefulness of the "Hydropult," or, what is better known as a " baby engine," at the fire on Sunday afternoon last, recommends the distribution of a number of them about the town, and commends this suggestion to the Borough Council and agents of the Fire Insurance Company. Our contemporary is evidently unaware that there are four of these engines in the place, and that they were introduced some time since into New Plymouth by Mr. H. Weston, the Agent of the New Zealand Insurance Company. At the late fire, two of them were in use, the one owned by Mr. Halse, and the other by the New Zealand Insurance Co. The Bank of New Zealand has one on the premises, and Mr. Cottier, of the Masonic Hotel, another. For the information of the public, we may state that the use of the New Zealand Insurance Company's "baby engine" can be obtained at any time in case of fire, the police having a key of the place where it is kept, and can always get it as well as a supply of canvas buckets.

Taranaki Herald 6 November 1880

A "hydropult" is defined as: "A machine for throwing water by hand power, as a garden engine, a fire extinguisher, etc."

In an advertisement in the front of an edition of Daniel Deronda by George Eliot, there's mention of:

"VOSE'S PATENT HYDROPULT, A PORTABLE FIRE ANNIHILATOR. "
Weighs but 8 lb., and will throw water 50 feet.

So, a baby engine may have been an early form of fire extinguisher. At the moment, that's my best guess.