In 1934, politician and war veteran John A Lee wrote a sensational book, under a pseudonym. "Children of the Poor" was a semi-fictionalised account of his growing up on the meanest streets of late victorian Dunedin. The Garrick family lived that life also. The detailed account of their living conditions is very strong stuff.
The family grave contains a number of very young children and their dates of death are taken from the Dunedin City Council cemetery records.
It will be remembered that some time ago a man named Garrick, employed at the works of Messrs Reid and Gray, met with a serious accident which necessitated the amputation of his leg. By an extraordinary and melancholy coincidence, an accident of a similar character yesterday befell his brother, George Garrick, also an employe of the same firm. The latter was mending the belt of the lathe at which he had been working, and foolishly got upon the machinery instead of using a ladder. He was caught by the belt, carried round, and dashed upon the floor, his left arm being completely smashed. On his removal to the Hospital it was found necessary to amputate the limb about four inches below the shoulder, and the operation was performed by Drs Maunsell and Roberts. -Otago Daily Times, 28/11/1882.
It can be assumed that the loss of an arm lessened the ability of George Garrick to provide for his family, and this is reflected in a number of court cases, beginning ten years after the accident, seeking money from George for goods or services rendered. He was also prosecuted and fined in the 1890s for failing to send his children to school.
Emiline Garrick, four months old, died on February 26, 1897.
EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.
At the Dunedin Police Court on Saturday a number of parents were charged with failing to send their children to school as required by the Act, and four of them were fined — one 4s and three 2s each. The case in which the larger fine was imposed was a very bad one. The defendant, one George Garrick, had previously been convicted 19 times of a similar offence. His son, who formed the subject of the case, is 10 years of age, and has not passed any school standard. He knocks about the streets selling papers, and is growing up without any education to help him through life. Nothing was elicited as to the circumstances of the boy's parents, but we can scarcely imagine that there are any in this colony who are so poor that they cannot give their children the benefit of the free education provided by the State. Under all the circumstances the penalty imposed seems ridiculously light, and we can only suppose that the presiding Justices had some good and sufficient reason for not marking their sense of the enormity of the defendant's offence by making the fine much more severe. As Mr Cohen, one of the Justices, remarked, that where education is free a child should be growing up 10 years of age with practically no education is little short of a public scandal. To the parents such a state of things is a disgrace, and yet there is reason to believe that the case is not an isolated one. We have little doubt that were a searching investigation made into the matter parents would be found in this community equally unmindful of their responsibilities and equally remiss in the discharge of a solemn duty devolving upon them. That there should be such parents is a blot upon our boasted civilisation and social organisation. Such parents should not be allowed to have the control of helpless children, and some means should be devised whereby the State could intervene and effectually protect the unfortunate children from the serious consequences of parental criminal indifference and neglect. That arraigment before the Court and the imposition of fines are not sufficient to arouse callous parents to a sense of the duty they owe to their offspring the case of the man Garrick affords sufficient proof. That inhuman father has now been twenty times convicted of neglecting to send his child to school, and what better off is the boy for all this invoking of the aid of the law? Apparently the process may be repeated indefinitely without producing any better result. But it is not only in the matter of education that parents are guilty of grave disregard of their duty. Mr Cohen incidentally referred to another, and possibly more serious, neglect of duty when he remarked that "they had the evidence of their own eyes that boys and girls, often of tender years, were to be found in the streets at all times and hours when they should be either in the schoolroom or in their beds." With Mr Cohen every sensible person will agree that it is "simply shocking that so many young boys should be wasting their time in idleness and worse,'' and with him there will be a general agreement that there is no difficulty in guessing what the fate of most of them will be. The whole colony has been shocked by the recent disclosures of juvenile depravity of so dreadful a nature that the very mention of them must send a thrill of horror through every breast wherever the subject can be mentioned. And yet such things are but the inevitable consequence of cruel and criminal neglect of parents who give no heed to the incoming and outgoing of their children. With this phase of the question the Government propose to deal during the current session of Parliament, and it is really well deserving of consideration whether power should not be taken in the measure to enable the State to set aside entirely the rights of parents and assume the care of children whose future is placed in jeopardy of being utterly blasted by reason of parental neglect. It seems to us that in such a case as that of the boy Garrick it would be a proper thing to remove him entirely from the control of a parent evidently without shame and without any sense of parental duty. Children found roaming the streets and in receipt of no education to qualify them for the duties of citizenship are, it seems to us, just as fit subjects for an industrial school as those who are otherwise neglected, and to many of them it would be an act of merciful charity to place them in an institution where they would receive an educational and moral training that would fit them for good useful lives. It may be urged that the adoption of such a course would relieve parents of their responsibilities at the expense of the State. But it need not follow that such a release should be given, for where the parents were in a position to do so they could be made to contribute to their maintenance; and where they could not do so the first outlay by the State would possibly be more than recouped by a future saving of the cost of maintaining an ever-increasing number of criminals. Ignorance is potential for evil, and where parents habitually neglect the education of their children it is essential that the State should step in and protect the interests of the children and so guard its own. -Oamaru Mail, 28/9/1897.
William Garrick, 18 months old, died on May 1st, 1898.
Court appearance by George Garrick continued into the new century. He appeared for non-payment of goods, truancy of his children and having an unregistered dog.
One month old Victoria Ruth Garrick died on April 21, 1900 and eight month old Edward Kitchener Garrick died on November 4, 1901.
Fifteen month old Adeline Frances May Garrick died on May 15, 1905.
CITY POLICE COURT.
(Before H. Y. Widdowson, Esq., SM)
Drunkenness. — A first offender was fined 5s or the usual alternative.
Obscene Language. George Garrick pleaded guilty to a charge of using obscene language in a right-of-way in King street. It appears that the accused on the day in question was under the influence of liquor, and made use of the language to his wife and daughter. The language could be heard by the surrounding residents. The accused was warned by the police, but again made use of the language. — The accused had nothing to say, save only that he had had "too much beer.” — Fined £5 and costs. -Evening Star, 31/1/1908.
Three week old Isabella Garrick died on March 13, 1908.
Four month old William V Garrick died on March 14, 1908.
In the Magistrate's Court this morning Messrs Harty and Co., for whom Mr Bathgate appeared, applied for an order giving them possession of a cottage, 200a, Great King street, at present occupied by George Garrick. They also proceeded against the same man for £3 3s 6d, amount of rent due. Mr Widdowson made on order that defendant and his family vacate the premises referred to before Monday, 30th inst., and he also gave judgment for the amount claimed. Defendant did not appear. -Evening Star, 26/3/1908.
DIRT, DEATH AND DAMNATION.
SICKENING SQUALOR OF A DUNEDIN HOVEL
The Daughters and Their Illegitimate Brood.
THE REVELATIONS OF A RECENT INQUEST.
Industrial School, Caversham, January 30, 1908. 4/11/01
The Secretary for Education, Wellington.
INFANT LIFE PROTECTION.
Sir, — On the 30th instant I visited Mrs Garrick's home, 200a King street. Her eldest daughter has had an illegitimate child. The girl is working at the biscuit factory, and, the mother informed me, earns £1 per week and pays her 10s per week towards the keep of the child. My impression on entering the house was that I would have been sorry for my pigs to be brought up in such filth. The living-room was filthy; the smell beyond description. In a pram lay the baby, anything but clean, with rags for clothing. It certainly had enough to eat — was partaking of warm milk, and looked fairly well nourished. The two younger daughters of Mrs Garrick were in a filthy condition. The little one, 2 years old, was filthy enough to be scraped with a knife. Mrs Garrick was perhaps worse. The two boys were committed some little time ago and transferred to Wareroa. The bedrooms were awful, one room having a bed with a filthy mattress, springs sticking out of the tick, and no bedclothes. Another had a mattress with a dirty blanket on the bed — a heap of feathers in one corner of the room — all that it contained. Here are these people allowed to have these children to drag up anyhow; with the result that one daughter has just had an illegitimate child. There is another child — about twelve. What is to become of her with such an example? Could not this man have some of his pay deducted, and compel him to allow someone to look after his children, as he has proved himself incapable? I have told Mrs Garrick that as she is receiving pay from her daughter for looking after the child, she will have to be licensed. I cannot recommend a license under the present conditions. Child born November 21, 1907.
(Signed) H. PETREMANT, District Agent.
This report was sent to the Education Department in Wellington on the 30th January last, by an accredited agent of one of the Industrial Schools established at Caversham, Dunedin. On the face of it the report showed the case to which it referred was urgent; but the Education Department, with that delightful system of procrastination that has already made it notorious throughout the Dominion, calmly buried the document in one of its pigeon-holes and troubled its useless head no more about the matter. As the following particulars will show, the Department has practically made itself responsible for the death of two children, for one of the babies to which reference is to be made is dead, and the other, if it lives, will
REMAIN A DEFORMED WRECK. Had the Department done its duty, and treated the report with the despatch it is reasonable to expect, both children might have been saved. On November 24th last, in a little 3 roomed house in a right-of-way of King-street, Dunedin, the 17-year-old daughter of George and Isabella Garrick was found to be on the point of becoming a mother and was at once removed to the Maternity Hospital in Forth-street. A boy was born there, and it remained in the hospital for a fortnight. Then mother and child were returned to King-street, and shortly afterwards the girl (Jane) returned to her work in a biscuit factory. The baby was very delicate, and did not thrive. On the 9th March its state was such that Dr. Roberts was called in. The doctor found the infant lying asleep in the one living room, with his eyes half open and his mouth open. When he touched the child he found it was covered with flies, and a number flew out of its mouth. Two young women (one the mother of the child) and a young man were present, and the doctor told them, that the child was suffering from sickness and diarrhoea and prescribed a course of treatment. The squalor of the house at this time was something damnable, according to such information as is available. The baby and all the inmates were m a filthy condition, as were the rooms, which did not admit fresh air. The window of one of the bedrooms would open only about an inch. The other bedroom was a long, narrow, tunnel-like den, six feet high and six feet wide, with no window, and four persons slept there. When the outer door of the house was shut no air could possibly get in, except, perhaps, by a disused chimney on one side of the house. This chimney was covered in with iron, and at the other side of it was a water-closet. Nine persons in all inhabited this three-roomed hovel — mother, father, three daughters, son-in-law, a little girl three years old, and two illegitimate babies. The eldest daughter gave birth to one of the latter in October last, and has since married. The second daughter had been misconducting herself with a half-paralysed man, and as a result gave birth to a child the month following her sister's confinement. The youngest daughter was about fifteen years old — a well-grown, bright-faced child. She was, however, fast
FOLLOWING IN HER SISTER'S FOOTSTEPS. Her parents were in excessively poor circumstances, yet she went to the theatre every night, and the Kingstreet police ascertained that she seldom returned before 12 o'clock. Dr. Roberts was so struck with the wretched state of the people living in this house that he, on the following day gave information concerning them to the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children. This organisation, despite its long silly name, does good work. It is composed mostly of "sassiety" dames and Dr. Truby King. Dr King is doing a noble work amongst the wretchedly poor women and children of the bigger towns, and it happened that he heard immediately of the Garrick case. He streaked round to 200a King-street, and made enquiries for himself. He found that the miserable baby had been fed for a time on humanised milk. But that proved too expensive, so cow's milk had been resorted to. Presently lack of cash forbade that also, and the child was given Neave's Food. Very little even of that was available, so that the child was practically dying of starvation, for Neave's Food is a concoction that does not allow a child a proper amount of nourishment. The energetic medico had the child at once removed to the Karitane Babies' Home for proper treatment, but too late, for it died there on the 14th instant. He examined the other baby, but it was, in the grip of rickets, and was practically past all help, The doctor found that Isabella Garrick had been the mother of fifteen children, of whom about half were dead. Two young boys had recently been taken to an Industrial Home, and Garrick pere was contributing to their support.
Garrick is an old employee of a well-known mercantile firm (Nimmo and Blair) in Dunedin, from whom he gets the magnificent weekly wage of 35s. One of his arms is slightly crippled, but otherwise he is an ablebodied man, who should certainly he worth more than the miserable pittance he is paid. He is in miserably poor circumstances, and has to support a family; therefore he dare not growl,
WHILE THE BLOATED FAT MEN who run the seed business grow rich on his earnings.
At the inquest connected with the death of the baby the whole of the circumstances of the above case were laid bare. Giving evidence, the grandmother of the deceased infant said that her daughters had borne four illegitimate children altogether. One of these had died, and there was another in the Caversham institution. Dr. Coughtrey, who conducted a post mortem examination, said the weight of the child was under 7 pounds; it should have been twentyone pounds. Death was practically, due to starvation. Harriet Petremant, Government Inspector of Infant Homes, said that when she visited the Garricks' home some two months ago the two babies, though wretchedly dirty and ill-kept, appeared in a perfectly healthy condition. Had both been removed at once they would have been saved, she believed. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the evidence.
A couple of days later, Elizabeth Garrick, the fifteen-year-old daughter referred to, was herded into the Juvenile Court along with a couple of other waifs, and charged by the police with being a child habitually frequenting the streets. She was committed to the Caversham Industrial Home.
In conclusion, this paper simply wants to drive home the criminal carelessness and neglect of which the Education. Department have been guilty. A word need only have been given to the police, or to any of the charitable institutions in Dunedin, and the lives of those children might have been saved. This country wants children, and wants them more as the birth-rate decreases. And it does not matter one little damn whether those children are legitimate, or whether they are not; for the purposes of a young country they require only to be healthy and have average brains. It is to be hoped that the authorities are not going to lose sight of this case; that the lazy official responsible for the shelving of that inspector's report will be shown that he is expected to do something
IN RETURN FOR THE FAT SCREW granted him by an indulgent country; and that the red-tape-bound Education Department will get a shaking up and learn that the business of the Dominion is to be transacted now — not next year. One other point might be emphasised. This country maintains a Public Health Department, the several units of which are expected to be looking out for just such cases as are particularised above. There are several Health Officers in Dunedin who draw big screws, and on the strength of their coveted billets, pile on no end of boiled dog. The Garrick case is not new. The family have existed m a terrible state of squalor for some considerable time. Of what use is a Public Health Office when such a case is allowed to remain until a medical man, on his own authority, sees fit to interfere? Further, is the Dunedin Corporation's Inspector of Nuisances doing his duty? -NZ Truth, 28/3/1908.
George Garrick pleaded "Guilty" to drunkenness and to using obscene language on two different occasions. — The Station sergeant said that accused lived in Rhodes's right-of-way, off Stafford street. On Friday he made use of very vile language from the upstairs window in his house. He was having a disturbance with his wife. On the following afternoon he made use of similar language, and on coming out on to the street he was arrested. — His Worship fined accused 7s, or 24 hours, on the first charge, and 20s, or seven days, on each of the other two charges. -Otago Daily Times, 7/2/1911.
53 year old George Garrick died on July 9, 1912.
FUNERAL NOTICE.
THE Friends of the late George Garrick are respectfully invited to attend his Funeral, which will leave his late residence, Great King street, North Dunedin, for the Southern Cemetery, TO-MORROW (Tuesday). the 9th inst., at 2.30 p.m.
A. J. WYNN AND HOPE, Undertakers, 36 St. Andrew street. -Evening Star, 8/7/1912.
Maintenance. — George Garrick was charged with failing to provide his mother with adequate maintenance, the arrears on the order amounting to £6 up to December 23. — After hearing evidence his Worship inflicted a fine of £7, in default three months imprisonment. On payment of the fine £6 is to be allocated towards the remission of the arrears. -Otago Daily Times, 18/1/1913.
CITY POLICE COURT
Idle and Disorderly. — Walter Thompson pleaded not guilty to being an idle and disorderly person. He was remanded for medical examination. Isabella Garrick was charged with being an idle and disorderly person who habitually consorted with reputed thieves. She was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. -Evening Star, 23/11/1914.
Deaths
GARRICK. — On November 20, 1928, at Christchurch, Isabella Garrick, late of Dunedin; aged sixty-six years. Dunedin papers please copy. -Star, 22/11/1928.
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