The city of Dunedin boomed massively with the influx of people chasing the gold of Otago. Many areas were built over rapidly and cheaply, to become dilapidated and unsavoury. One such area was given the name of the "Devil's half acre" - a geographic extension from a half acre section which became notorious in the 1860s.
The casual racism expressed in those days is typical of those days and not shared by yours truly.
CITY POLICE COURT
Notorious Characters in a Notorious Place. — Michael James Cain, alias Faherty, alias Donoghue, was brought up charged with making use of obscene language, fighting in a public place — viz, in a right-of-way off Walker street — with assaulting Constable Rooney while in the execution of his duty, and with damaging the constable’s uniform to the value of 40s. — Constable Rooney said that about 12.20 p.m. on Sunday he saw a crowd collecting round Cooper’s grounds, and when hastening up to the place he heard a party calling out that there was a fight. He went to the place and heard the prisoner making use of language of the most filthy nature, and he was apparently engaged in a fight with the woman Farra. They appeared to be quarrelling, rather than having a desperate fight. (Prisoner here wanted to show wounds which he stated were inflicted by the constable’s rough treatment, but his Worship cut him short, saying that, being a witness of the fight, he could say that the prisoner’s behaviour was most disgraceful.) Witness passed a short time before. Mr Cooper was out at the time, and the house belonging to prisoner was on fire, there being two prostitutes and three Brogdenites in it at the time. His clothes, which were torn by the prisoner, cost L5 12s 6d when new (they consisted of a jumper and trousers, which were produced both being very much damaged), and Sub-Inspector Mallard had refused to pass them as fit to wear when on duty. — A witness named Priest, a tenant of Mr Cooper, heard prisoner make use of most filthy language, and saw him struggling hard so as to get free of the constable. — By the prisoner: As far as he could see, the constable neither struck nor choked you. —His Worship considered the persons who let these houses to such characters more blameable than the offenders themselves. He knew for a fact that this particular spot was a disgrace to the neighborhood, and he hoped the police would endeavor to turn them out, as he had determined to put a stop to such conduct so long as he remained on the Bench. — Sergeant Bevan, on behalf of the police, remarked that nearly every bad character, after coming out of gaol, took up his quarters there, nearly all of them being Cooper’s tenants. — His Worship said it was a very great pity that such was the case, and it was a noticeable circumstance that those characters almost invariably lived in that particular place: it was a disgrace to the City that such a state of things should be allowed to exist. He saw the disturbance, and must say that it would be a most disgraceful thing to take place on any day, and more particularly on a Sunday, when respectable persons were continually passing. — Prisoner here showed his breast, which was severely cut, and his Worship addressing him said, “Whatever you received it was the result of your own behavior. It is not the first time you have been here.” He then again referred to the neighborhood, and said it was the worst place in Dunedin, spoiling what would otherwise have been a most re-spectable-quarter. It well deserved the name “Devil’s Half-Acre,” which it bore. On the first charge, making use of obscene language, prisoner would be fined 40s, with the option of one month’s imprisonment; for the second offence, fighting, a similar amount, with a similar alternative for assaulting Constable Rooney, the same; and for damaging his uniform, 40s or fourteen days, making a total of three months and fourteen days imprisonment. The sentences would be cumulative, and he hoped it would be a warning to such characters in future. — Harriett Farra alias Kate Farra, the woman; who had been having a scrimmage with the last prisoner when Constable Rooney put in an appearance, was charged with fighting, and was fined 20s, or in default seven days’ imprisonment. -Evening Star, 7/7/1873.
A Brogdenite was a railway-building navvy, brought over to New Zealand, employed by Brogden and Sons of England.
Alice Hawley, a prostitute, living in what is known as the “Devil’s Half-acre,” Walker street, died suddenly at her house this morning. Intemperance is supposed to be the cause of death. -Evening Star, 3/3/1875.
THE SKETCHER.
TOM GRAB’S YARN.
Owing to the prosperity of the times I have very little to do in my particular line just now, so I thought that if in my spare moments I strung a few lines together concerning some incidents in my professional capacity, some people might possibly take the trouble to read them.
My name is T____s G_____k, and as my initials thus take the form of T.G., some of my facetious friends have nicknamed me “Tom Grab,” by which name I am pretty well known in Dunedin. My occupation is that of a bailiff — a not very enviable one you may remark — but I was driven to it by hard times, and found it the only way in which I could make a living; and some of the experiences that I have gone through when “in possession” have caused me to think rather harshly of my parents for neglecting to have me taught a trade, and bringing me up in the belief that by not becoming a “common workman” (as they would say) I should be sure to rise to some distinguished position in this gay and uncertain world. Well, well, it is of no use regretting now, poor souls; they lived long enough to regret their folly, and now they are at rest, their son must simply bear the consequences.
One of the most painful cases that I have had to take in hand occurred in the year 1867; I remember it was a very cold day in April, with a nasty drizzling rain, and a dull grey sky giving promise of a snow-storm. I, with a few other men on the look out for a “job” of any sort, was standing under the verandah of the old post-office at the corner of Jetty street, when a tall, ill-looking man, who had on a large white oilskin coat, came up and asked me if I was not a bailiff. Visions of earning a few bobs crossed my imagination, and I hastily replied “Yes, I am a bailiff or anything else.” The tall individual then told me to follow him, which I did, to a little office in Princes street, not far from Rattray street corner; he then gave me the necessary papers and instructions to seize for rent. The house which I was about to enter was situated in a right-of-way off Walker street, near that portion now known as the “Devil’s Half-acre;” it contained three rooms, and was let at a rental of 37s a week. (The same house is now let for 8s.) After I was shown the house I had some difficulty in getting into it; for the tenant, knowing that a bailiff was to be put in, had nailed the windows down, and kept the doors constantly locked; however, as I thought they could not possibly know me, I went boldly up to the door and knocked. A woman’s voice from within asked me what I wanted. I enquired if she could tell me where Mr Lalden lived (a fictitious name of course.) She made some sort of reply about not knowing, but I pretended not to hear her, and asked why she did not open the door. As soon as I mentioned the word door, I heard a voice (Mr ____s) call out, “Emily, keep that door locked,” and I got no further replies, so walked away with the painful impression on my mind that some one knew too much for me — Mr ____s especially. After having informed my employer of my unsuccessful attempt to get into the house, he was very wrath with me; called me a fool, and paid me sundry other compliments. He also informed me that if I did not get in the next day, he would employ some one else. On the next day I recommenced operations: went behind the house, tried the back door very quietly — locked; tried to raise the window — nailed down. I now began to entertain serious thoughts of letting myself down the chimney, but as I am rather a portly individual, I thought I would probably stick in the chimney, so the idea was abandoned. (Many brilliant ideas are abandoned when found impracticable.) While I was considering what to do, I saw a man coming up the right-of-way with a basket on his head, and crying watercress; in fact it was “Watercress Jack,” a wellknown character in those days, who used to clean boots at the Provincial corner in the morning, and sell cress in the evening, and according to report made a few hundred pounds at it. It immediately occurred to me that if I could get Jack to knock at the door of “my” house, there would be no suspicion attached to him, and it would probably be opened, and then there would be a chance for me to dash in. So I beckoned to Jack, and, when he came up to me, remarked in an offhand sort of manner — as though I were connected with the family — “I believe they want some cresses, Jack.” “Thank you, sir,” says Jack, and he knocked at the door; at the same time bawling out lustily, “Fine watercresses!” Capital thought I, and edged up behind Jack, so that I might be close when the door opened. There was then some whispering inside, and then the blind was pulled up so that it might be seen who was at the door. I then slunk behind Jack. Now the key was turned, the door partly opened, and a hand thrust out a small plate. I now thought that “time was oop,” and gave a spring with my whole force against the door, smashing the plate, and rolling Jack over his basket at the same time. I discovered that there was a strong arm behind the door, and a set of very hard knucles, for I had no sooner got my head inside, than I received a crack on my nasal organ that made me see a beautiful collection of stars flying about in all directions; however, after a short but tough struggle, I gained my footing inside. “It’s all up,” said I, producing my documents. “Yes, you wretch, it is all up,” was the reply. “You have done me at last.” After I had been in the house a few minutes Mr ____s cooled down considerably, and smilingly said, “Well, I suppose anything is fair with a bailiff.” He then offered to assist me in taking an inventory, and such an inventory it was. The following specimen will give an idea of the whole: — “Child’s perambulator, one wheel off; plated teapot, handle broken; three odd chimney ornaments, one large chest, used as a table; one chair, one sailor’s cutlas, Shakspeare’s works, three odd volumes of Chambers’ Encyclopedia, two cups, three saucers, one Bible, leaves out; one copy “Chronicles of Gotham,” (these were the most valuable articles in the house). Mr ____s took me into the bedroom, in one corner of which, on the floor, was a straw mattrass, covered with some old coats and bags. Mrs ____s was in the room, kneeling over a cradle made out of a gin-case. She looked up at us as we entered the room, and her poor thin white face bore all the appearances of starvation. She had very large black eyes which, when she looked at me, seemed to go right through me, and made me feel as though I were a criminal in being there. The child over which she was leaning was as white as its poor mother; in fact it was dying — aye dying — for want of proper nourishment. After I had finished the inventory I began to feel rather hungry, and enquired if they had anything to eat in the house; and was shown some stale bread, a saucer half full of dripping, and some salt. “This is the dainty food,” said Mr ____s, “upon which we have been living for the last three weeks.” I then gave him half-a-crown, and he sent one of his children for some butter, cheese, and a fresh loaf. While we were eating the bread and cheese, Mrs ____s, who would not leave her child for a moment, gave a loud shriek. I and her husband ran into her, and found her lying on the floor insensible. After giving her some water, and bringing her to her senses, she exclaimed, “Oh, Edwin, our child!” and burst out sobbing. She had been kissing the infant, and, while doing so, discovered that it was dead; its pure little spirit had passed silently away to “that better place” even while the affectionate mother was watching.
I was to sell the furniture next day (what there was) at one o’clock, and at about a quarter of an hour before that time, a rough, fat little man entered the house, looked around, and seeing Mrs. ____s, rushed up and kissed her, and, turning to Mr. ____s, exclaimed, “Halloo, Ned, why, don’t you know me.” It was Mrs. ____s brother. Upon matters being explained to him, two large tears could be seen in the corner of his eyes, and wiping them away he said, “Blest if I aint always too late, now, if I had only a come a day sooner, that there baby wouldn’t a died.” and then turning to me with the remark “What’s to pay mate,” pulled out a leather bag from his pocket, and offered to pay all dues at once. I at once went for the landlord, who, when I brought him, commenced a long story to the effect that he was greatly pushed for money himself, or he would not have been so severe with his tenant, &c., but he was cut short by Mrs ____’s brother (who, by the way, was a lucky digger) exclaiming, “Oh! I don’t want none of your yarns, tell me what’s a owing to you.” He then settled the account, gave me a sovereign, and cleared me and the landlord out of the house. Mr ____s now a prosperous tradesman, not a hundred miles from the principal street in Dunedin, the landlord was, a few months ago, undergoing a sentence of two years’ imprisonment for embezzlement, and from the little I saw of him, I fully believe it “serves him right,” them’s my sentiments.
Tom Grab. -Saturday Advertiser, 4/9/1875.
CITY POLICE COURT.
Saturday, April 15. (Before V. Fyke, Esq., 8.M.) Drunkenness. John White, Thomas Griffen, William Armitage, Samuel Gill, and John Alien were all fined 5s, with the usual alternative. Obscene Language.- -Mary Ann Heffernan, for using obscene language in what was described by his Worship as “the old place” (the Devil’s Half-Acre), was fined 40s, in default seven days’ imprisonment. -Evening Star, 15/4/1876.
CITY POLICE COURT.
Monday, October 1.
(Before H. S. Fish, Esq., and Dr, Niven, J.P.’s)
Drunkenness. — John Thomas (who had lost his passage ticket for Lyttelton), Chas. Beilley, and James Bell were discharged; Alex. Muir, James Litttle, Henry Plummer, and Patrick Horan were all fined 5s, in default twenty-four hours’ imprisonment; Robert Wignia, 10s or forty-eight hours'; Samuel Stephens, George Collett, William Johnston, Thos. Taylor, and Joseph Carey, charged with being drunk yesterday, 10s or twenty-four hours’ each, — Dr, Niven: Cannot the police manage to get at the place where this drink is sold on Sunday? Inspector Mallard: It was not supplied in hotels so far as yesterday’s cases were concerned. These men got into a notorious house in the Devil’s Half-acre yesterday and got drunk. -Evening Star, 2/10/1876.
The Guardian says: — “Rather a novel plea in extenuation of a charge of obscene language was submitted by a decent-looking man who had ventured to explore the Devil’s Half-acre, or Machin’s right-of-way, on Friday night, and had consequently to make his bow to the Bench on Saturday morning. He pleaded that the bad language was simply the expressive dialect of the locality, and consequently could not insult any of the residents. The Bench, however, was incredulous, and inflicted a small fine,” -Dunstan Times, 1/12/1876.
Provincial and general.
"THE DEVIL'S HALF-ACRE."
Walker street has long been/known as one of the most unsavoury localities in Dunedin, but recently things have reached such a pitch that the police have been compelled to resort to extreme measures to clear out the low characters who infest the neighbourhood. On Wednesday, at the Police Court, six women, living in what is known as Bird's right-of-way, were placed in the dock on charges of vagrancy, and Inspector Mallard said if they were not punished they would doubtless go back and give rise to a recurrence of the scenes of dissipation that have taken place there during the last week or two. His Worship ensured a certain spell of decency and quietness by sentencing them each to one month's imprisonment. The evidence of the police disclosed a state of affairs certainly the reverse of creditable. One constable stated that on Sunday last, just as people were returning from morning divine service, he had been attracted to the right of way by hearing screams. He found in one of the hovels that one woman had got another upon the floor "pommelling" her: a half drunken man, only half dressed, was lying on an old sofa; and round the door a knot of women, most of them nearly naked, were doing their best to apprise the neighbourhood within a mile or so of what was going on by screaming "murder," and so forth, at their very highest pitch. The calm stillness of the Sabbath morning appears to have been liable to rude invasions in this neighbourhood. Nor was the evening treated with any more becoming sanctity. About 7 o'clock Sergeant-major Bevan visited the neighbourhood,, and as a result of what he saw, hunted a number of young lads away from the place. Sergeant Anderson said the place was a regular resort of lads of about fifteen and sixteen, and Chinamen, and among the ennobling sights he had seen was a woman stalking about in a perfect state of nudity. What the police have seen and heard, it will be allowed, is bad enough; bit when their backs were turned, there can be little doubt things assumed even a more forbidding aspect. Frequently from Saturday night till Monday morning, when larrikins, often to the number of twenty or thirty at a time, were distributed through the various houses- or "hovels," as they were more correctly described in Court — this right-of-way was the haunt and abiding place of vice and degradation in their lowest, most debasing, and brutal forms. The landlord of this den of debauchery came in for some rather severe rubs. He is a Mr Bird, and he lives in a house closely adjacent, but which of course rears a decent front to the main thoroughfare. He was put in the witnessbox by Inspector Mallard, who explained that the present prosecutions were as much for the purpose of bringing him under the notice of the Court as anything else. He admitted sometimes supplying the denizens of the houses in his tenancy with "dinners," which he got payment for if he could. For a two roomed "hovel" he said he asked the moderate rental of L1 a week, but his actual receipts on account of it wire only 10s a week. On an average he got 5s a week for the rest. This statement was not further proved. If it had been, it might have been found to mean that taking a three months' average, and deducting those unfortunate slack periods during which his tenants are in gaol, and when, of course, he can hardly expect to get rent, the five shillings a week represented his income from each of these delectable two-roomed dens. "As Mr Bird is in Court," suavely, almost sweetly, queried Mr Mallard, "perhaps he would kindly promise to raze these places to the ground." But Mr Bird was a bird not to be caught with chaff, and he turned a deaf ear to the blandishments of the charmer. "Then," said the Magistrate, "Mr Mallard's only plan will be so to harrass the tenants that Mr Bird's property will become useless." But the property of a landlord who charges L1 a week for houses of such a description, and who rests under the suspicion of making further profit out of his tenants by supplying them with — well, "dinners," is not so easily rendered valueless. The unfortunate thing is that the law has no power over such men. The whole neighbourhood to which we have been referring is peopled by a very poor, if not low class of people. From Mr Bird's peaceful right-of-way nearly one hundred yards down the street, and half way back to Stafford street, the dwellings are mere dog-kennels. Many of them are even greater hovels than those so described by the police. They are almost destitute of conveniences of every description, and their inhabitants must live in utter disregard and violation of all habits of decency. There are children amongst them, although, thank goodness, they don't abound there — the soil is not congenial to their growth; and what notions of propriety and decency they must contract ! Of course there are other landlords, of those places. Some of them are, as the world goes, most respectable and good living men. They parade the street on a Sunday morning, models of respectability, with a gilt-bound Bible and a suit of orthodox black, and they occupy the front seats in the synagogue. But on Monday morning they are again the heartless landlord. Defaulters who have nothing are turned out, and those who have the wherewithal for security are bound over to pay interest on rent in arrear. This is strong writing, but we have reason for believing the above is not a supposititious case. Legislation, however, may not be able to work any reform here; it may not be able to prevent the grasping landlord going to church with the best of men. But it can and should prevent him trading on the necessities of the vicious and degraded by keeping houses for them that a true Christian would not ask his horse to pass the night in. It surely can cause landlords to provide such a class of houses that it would be to his interest to see they were not inhabited by dirty, degraded creatures, and that they were not injured and depreciated in value by rowdy, fighting tenants. As it is, the landlords of the hovels we have referred to are careless of such matters, and can afford to be so, for if the tenements were utterly destroyed the real monetary loss — as represented by the value of the building— would be less than "an old song." In the meantime, however, the public have to thank the police for their action so far. They have not only done something to root out a den of infamy — for throughout yesterday Bird's right of-way was aa quiet and deserted as if there was no such thing as vice in the world — but they have earned thanks for exposing to some extent the character of the landlords of these places. -Otago Witness, 17/8/1878.
A Social Blot. — It is estimated, according to the Guardian, that fully 90 per cent. of the drunkards who have figured at the Dunedin City Police Court during the past 12 months have been captured on or near a small block of ground situated between Walker and Stafford streets, known as the 'Devil's Half-acre.' The land in question is occupied with miserable dilapidated hovels, and peopled by the worst of characters, but a large revenue in the way of rent is derived from this plague spot. Small as its area is, the 'Half-acre' has done more to keep the police and Bench of the City employed night and day than all the rest of Dunedin and its suburbs. -Southland Times, 10/9/18777.
CHARACTERISTICS OF DUNEDIN. (excerpt)
By "Minos." (Continued.) The buildings of Dunedin, though well-designed and well-built, possess no striking peculiarities, and it is not worth the time to here describe even the most important of these edifices. I might descant on the architectural beauties of Knox Church, the Colonial Bank, the First Church, and many other buildings that are ornaments to Dunedin; but, when your readers saw that the Characterists of Dunedin was wholly devoted to the description of divers structures, they would pass over my effusion with an exclamation of impatience (or something worse), and search for far more savoury reading matter. Dunedin, when seen from the Peninsula, presents a most pleasing spectacle. The principal buildings of the city are readily distinguished, the Town Hall, with its white towers gleaming in the rays of the sun, put one in mind of Bunyan's description of the Heavenly City. The suburbs of the town, Roslyn, Mornington, Caversham, and North East Valley, greatly resemble those peaceful villages which are so often thought of with feelings of regret by those who have left Old England to seek a home in this far-off country. However, at present we have to deal with Dunedin itself and not its suburbs. The leading commercial city of New Zealand has, as I daresay every other large town has, several, what I might call, dark spots. For example, there is a place between the Gaol and the Bay which, especially in hot weather, emits a perfume that puts the best manufactured scents into the shade altogether. It goes by the nom de plume of 'Stinkum Awful.' Letters have appeared in the Press relative to this spot, requisitions and petitions have been presented to the Council, growls have been as plentiful as gooseberries in summer, but all to no purpose. This Slough of Despond refuses to be conquered. Near Pelichet Bay there is a piece of ground, or rather mud, that is also a great eye-sore to those living in the neighborhood. Nobody seems to know with whom the responsibility of blotting out these 'lazar spots' rests.
THE BACK SLUMS. We read that in London, New York, and other large cities of the world, there are alleys and lanes where misery, vice, and poverty reign; where the inhabitants are for ever squabbling about their individual rights; where children are brought up in such a manner that their future life, unless wonderfully changed, will be of the utmost depravity. Yes, people in this country read these tales of misery and thank God that 'such a state of things docs not exist here.' But are they, can they be, blind to the fact that this 'state of things' does exist in Dunedin, and also in other towns of New Zealand, not perhaps to such a degree as it does in the larger cities of the world, but in a small way, as said before, it does exist. In the south end of Dunedin there is a street noted as being the worst in the town. Walker Street is the retreat of the lowest of the inhabitants of this town. Habitual drunkards, thieves, &c., &c., in fact it is that class of people who have made the acquaintance of the prisoners' clock in the Police Court more than once or twice, and who have no moral respect for themselves, who frequent this favoured locality! One portion of this street, which might be styled the headquarters of these fallen people, has, I think, an exceeding appropriate name. It goes by the name of 'The Devil's Half-acre.' It is exactly an half-acre plot, and is covered with huts about three feet in height. The huts are built of palings, kerosene tins, boxes, cast off galvanised iron, and various articles of the like description. The occupants appear to have a great liking for Hobart Town palings. For example, if a man comes home drunk, and knocks his wife through the side of the hut, the next day he mends the hole with a few Hobart Town palings, which are easily obtained from the garden fences of 'the upper ten' who reside in the more respectable parts of the town. Walker Street is not the only 'back slum,' for one has only got to wander through a few secluded streets near the railway line, and he is sure to find many such homes as are seen in Walker Street. Of course it must not be supposed that all the people who live in these sort of streets are rogues and vagabonds. Not a bit of it. Some honest, hard-working families are to be found here, who, through reverses of fortune, have been compelled to accept a miserable tenement, in default of a better home. But let us turn from these unpleasant pictures, and study the favorite promenades of Dunedin, of which there are not a few. -Clutha Leader, 5/10/1883.
We hear a good deal occasionally of our "Devil's Half-acre." What rules there — vice or grog ? Ask the police, and those who have occasion to go there, and they will tell you it is grog; that the people are not so vicious as they are drunken. I don't know how many publicans and brewers live on the sixpences and threepences of these people who live on the grog, with which the latter make themselves worse than any beast yet heard of, while the women and children are in hunger, rags, and filth. Don't you believe it? If not, put on your old clothes, Sir, and take a walk through this place some evening, and don't scruple to examine minutely. The number of hotels you would find I am rather frightened to name. I only know that within 100 yards from a central position in that street there are an immense number of hotels, and that one building actually holds two of them. -Otago Daily Times, 6/2/1886.
Forty-four houses in Dunedin, near the "Devil's Half-acre," will probably be demolished by order of the municipal authorities. -Auckland Star, 22/3/1888.
CONDEMNED DWELLINGS.
THE DEVIL'S HALF-ACRE.
At last night's meeting of the City Council the following special report from the Works Committee was read:
With reference to the sanitary condition of a large number of dwellings on the land between Walker and Stafford streets, lately reported by petition to the council as unfit for human habitation, your committee, to whom the matter was remitted for investigation, proceeded to inspect the houses on several occasions, having first obtained a plan of the ground and called in the aid of two medical practitioners, whose certificate is hereto attached.
The examination embraced a total number of fifty-eight dwellings. Of these, three are certified by the doctors to be in fairly good condition; five in fairly good condition, but in want of repair; two requiring repairs and drainage; four needing extensive repairs; and the remainder (forty-four) in such a condition that they should be demolished in the interests of public health. Since the inspection thirtyone of those last mentioned have been removed, thus leaving only thirteen condemned dwellings to be dealt with in addition to the fourteen stated above as in want of repair.
Notwithstanding the certificate alluded to, your committee are of opinion that in every instance it would be better that these very dilapidated premises should be ordered to be pulled down rather than an opportunity should be given to the proprietors to patch them. Without exception the dwellings numbered on the accompanying plan are insanitary, being old and ruinous, and very undesirable places of abode; and all should be condemned, thus not only removing unsightly buildings, but at same time getting rid of a certain cause of nuisance and sure source of disease.
Your committee accordingly recommend that steps be taken under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1886, as each case demands, and that your committee be empowered to continue further inquiries in the same direction.
The following is the medical certificate referred to: —
We hereby certify that on the 16th and 17th days of February, 1888, we examined the area of land comprised in sections 27, 28, 29, 30, and 41, lying between Walker and Stafford streets, Dunedin, with a view to reporting on its sanitary condition, and that of the dwellings and buildings situated thereon, and that we have come to the following conclusions:
That Nos. 2, 38, and 39 are in fairly good condition.
That Nos. 30, 42, 43, 44, and 53 are in fairly good condition, but in want of repair; 42 and 43 being rather too small for habitation.
That Nos. 8 and 40b want repair and drainage.
That Nos. 6, 40a, 48, and 54 want extensive repair.
That all the others are in such a condition that they should be demolished in the interest of public health.
That a great part of the area comprised in sections 28, 29, and 30 is intersected with foul open (surface) drains, which should be swept away
Frank Ogston, M.D. and CM.
Millen Coughtrey, M.E. and CM.
Dunedin, 6th March, 1888.
Also, there are several cesspools in sections 41, 27, 28, 29, and 30, of such a type and in such a state as to be highly dangerous to public health.
Cr Gourley said that the committee had gone to considerable trouble in visiting the locality three or four times. He was quite at a loss to understand under what circumstances the doctors had recommended that some of the buildings should stand and others be patched up; the committee being unanimously of opinion that all were unfit for habitation. He hoped that the council would carry out the recommendation of the committee, and empower them to continue investigations in this direction all over the town.
Cr Carroll said that as practical men the Works Committee felt called on to bring up this report, inasmuch as the doctors did not go far enough. The buildings were a real source of danger.
Cr Kimbell desired to move an amendment that the old London Tavern should not be condemned. It was now uninhabited, and was merely used as a cooperage, and it would be a hardship to the occupier to destroy his workshop.
Cr Cohen was of opinion that a matter of such importance should not be hurried. Those members of the council not on the Works Committee had not had an opportunity of perusing the medical report. Seeing that the recommendation of the committee went beyond the medical report, he urged that a fortnight's adjournment be granted, so that all councillors might make inquiries on the subject.
Cr Fish, in seconding the amendment, said that as one living in the neighborhood he quite concurred in the committee's report. If one house ought to come down more than another it was the old London Tavern, which Cr Kimbell had sought to exempt. That building was an abomination and an eyesore.
Cr Gourley hoped that Cr Cohen and those other councillors who had not seen the locality would make it their especial business to visit It. He offered no objection to a fortnight's postponement.
Cr Solomon raised the point that the Works Committee's report was inconsistent with the Act, in that it went beyond the medical men's certificate. The Mayor overruled this.
Cr Cramond defended the action of the Works Committee and urged that all councillors should visit the locality.
Cr Cohen's amendment postponing the matter was agreed to. -Evening Star, 22/3/1888.
FIT OR UNFIT.
TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I see that the committee and doctors appointed to examine and report upon the state of certain tenements situated in Lower Walker street have done good work so far in condemning and causing to he removed the above-mentioned miserable dens. But, sir, it appears to be a one-sided affair after all, and anything but a finished work, because the buildings left standing are in many points worse than those pulled down. They are not only unfit for habitation, but a source of danger to the passer-by. Again, the street has two sides to it, and why have the committee and doctors confined their investigations to one side. This looks like making fish of one and flesh of another. There are dens on the opposite side equally bad, and quite as unfit for human habitation as any of those that have been pulled down on the Devil's Half-acre. This is not all. There are several closets with large cesspools, containing tons of putrid soil, the stench from which at times is simply abominable. The Devil reigns over more than one half-acre in Walker street.
— I am, etc., Not a Painter's Toady. Dunedin, March 20. -Evening Star, 26/3/1888.
Old parishioners of St. Matthew's have hardly forgotten their muscular parson, the Rev. C J. Byng, of whom it was related that, having on one occasion to pass the then notorious "Devil's Half-acre,'' he witnessed an altercation between a man and the woman with whom he consorted, and that on the former threatening to inflict personal chastisement on the weaker vessel the rev. gentleman took off his coat and showed that he had not forgotten the lessons in the noble art that he received in his youth. -Evening Star, 25/11/1904.
WHERE EAST MEETS WEST
CHINESE AND EUROPEANS LIVING IN HOVELS
A CLEAN-OUT NEEDED
CARROLL STREET MARRED BY CROWDED LANES.
Years ago a not very salubrious spot in Carroll street rejoiced in the name of the “Devil's Half-acre,” and some months ago it. was disclosed at an assessment court session that South Dunedin boasted a spot that owned to a similar appellation. A reporter who visited Carroll street the other day found that he had not the heart to blame His Satanic Majesty for shifting his abode. He would have found no room to flourish his ebony sceptre had lie stayed there, for at one point there are as many as fifteen dwellings on a section of not half, but a quarter of an acre.
AN UNFORTUNATE STREET. In some ways a street is like a man. In its good days it has good associates and is a place where many seek to be; but let it become possessed of a bad repute, and its evil name will cling to it tenaciously throughout the years, not to be easily shaken off, and accepted by many people ns a signal to turn their steps elsewhere. What should be one of Dunedin’s best streets has been unfortunate. Its position is excellent; it is sunny and broad and bandy to town; but it got into unkind hands, and, though it boasts many fine residences, it is shamed and defiled by the presence of some rows of dirty hovels, inhabited by Chinese and Syrians, and, it must be mentioned, some Europeans. That street was first called Walker street, but the name became so synonymous with what was repugnant and undesirable that it was changed, and the street was named Carroll street, after an ex-mayor. Deputations from some Scottish societies of Dunedin asked that the old name be retained, pointing out that Walker street was one of the streets which led from the noble Princes street of Edinburgh, and stating that it was fitting that the Edinburgh of the South should also have a street so called. But the City Council was adamant, and Carroll street it continued, much to the approval of many who lived there. However, it seems that now there is more than a mere ray of hope that the street will win to its deserved place as a residential quarter, for it is reported that influences are at work to improve the quarter. The name of more than one well-known citizen is mentioned in regard to such influences, and a glance at the street even so early as this shows that what has been done has by no means been done in vain. One of the worst spots has been condemned, and the passing of a year will see its buildings disappear.
DWELLINGS CROWDED TOGETHER. Let those who doubt all this look at the places in Carroll street where live the Syrians and Chinese, as they were seen by the curious newspaper man some few days ago. We turn from the busy traffic of south Princes street, with its trams and motors and hurrying people, into the broad, sloping street that, pleasant enough at first glance, leads away from the more busy part of the town, and ends, as one can see from the foot, when it reaches the green slopes of Montecillo. Such first impression dies almost as quickly as it is born. A glance to the left reveals a very old and neglected looking wooden erection, and a dirty old hoarding bearing the tattered remnants of some gaudy advertising posters. A place described as a Chinese cook shop, and another shop, wooden and old, indicate that we are nearing what we have come to see. The worst is still to come. Further on we turn into a dismal little alleyway. On either hand are tiny hovels, dirty, ill cared for, and crowded one against the other. Most of them are of wood, the windows are cracked here and there, the paint is blistered and faded and worn. An old man (one of the occupants apparently) passes us at the entrance. Poverty and pain have left their imprint on his thin lace, with its straggly board. His shoulders are slightly bent with age, his cheeks hollow. At some time he has been a tall, powerful man; now he moves wearily and with tiredness, as though the closing years of his life have been one long process of bitter disillusionment, he has reached life's eventide; but with that eventide comes no welcome dusk to soften to his view the sordid surroundings where must be spent his failing years. We move further up the lane. Here Chinamen and Europeans are close neighbors. The places are all jammed together; there lives a Chinaman, there a Syrian, here a European. There is not enough room to swing a cat. On the ground are some fragments of decaying fruit and peelings, and the whole is marked by strips of dirty grass. In a central space is a water closet, shared, seemingly, by at least three or four occupants of those places, and from it down the lane oozes a filthy stream. The place has evidently been cleaned out by the tossing in of a can of water. There are many cats about. Two or three black-and-white beasts lie blinking lazily in the warm sunshine, and others are prowling about. Round the other side are more shacks with more filth and one or two more felines, and at the end of the lane a man is outside his hut performing hasty ablutions in a kerosene tin and puddling about in the water. We turn away from the whole place in disgust, eyed in our exit by a dark woman and girl housed somewhere near.
RUSTY ROOFS AND DECAYING WOOD. Seen from behind and above, on the Stafford street side, the lane presents nothing but a sheer mass of decaying wood and rusty roofs, begrimed with dirt and smoke. Here is a hovel in winch a Chinaman lives, and not far away, near a ramshackle fowlyard, we see a dozen or more children playing in an untidy yard. The Syrians must have big families, for there are crowds of children, many of them cheeky and unclean and untidy, and nearly always playing on the road. Near by a woman has her abode in an ancient iron shed, greatly corroded by years of rain. There are three or four such patches in the street, crowded, but cleaner than the one described.
But many of the closets are in a state of uncleanness, and each, as we have seen, is used by several families. It must not be supposed, however, that many Syrians live in these huts. They own a number of good houses in the street, though the suspicion is that there are three or four families in each house. One whose work takes him among them from time to time states that they are pretty clean about the house, though there is a sad lack of conveniences tending towards cleanliness. The Syrian as a rule is a wily customer. His countrymen are buying property all over town so it is reported, and charging high rents. There are a lot of them in a terrace in Filled street, though it may be mentioned that they do not own those houses. They have bought two houses in Stafford street.
FIRES REVEAL BAD STATE OF THINGS To return again to Carroll street, it may be mentioned that there have been two or three fires there; and there is nothing like a fire t rip down the curtain that hides the sordidness of these dwellings. Superintendent A. G. Napier, of the Dunedin Fire Brigade, expresses his opinion in the following terms: — “I can say without fear of contradiction that that portion of the town requires a thorough cleaning out. From the experience of the Fire Brigade it certainly has been shown that there are far too many persons living under circumstances which should not be permitted.”
A fire in that locality on November 9, 1918, resulted in the death of an old Chinaman. He occupied two rooms, which comprised a lean-to against another two rooms occupied by a Syrian and his wife and child. On October 8, 1922, another fire damaged three residences which housed quite a horde of people. On May 24, 1924, two dilapidated sheds on the Stafford street side caught fire. The firemen forced a door, and found a woman lying on a bed in an unconscious or drugged state. She was stated by the police to have been living with an old Chinaman. She was in the Dunedin Hospital for many weeks.
STRANGE HIDING-PLACES. It was in Carroll street, too, that an old man died some months ago, after living in a house haunted by a hideous stench. His miserly habits were such that he often begged food, yet when death eventually tore him away from his jealously guarded wealth bank notes and valuable debentures and bonds were found hidden under his bed and round the walls. No one knew of his secret hoard, not even his next-door neighbor. Yet the stories of this quarter are not without a glint of humor. Once a fire broke out in a washhouse in which a Syrian slept. He escaped from the blaze, but showed great agitation until it was extinguished. He then dived in, threw open the front of the copper, and joyfully and with great relief removed a cocoa tin full of sovereigns which he had cached there. He did not believe in anything so risky as a bank. At a later time a two-story place caught fire, and a Celestial dashed out to the street in great anxiety. He desperately pleaded to be permitted to go upstairs by way of the ladder, and frantically cried: “Me lose my two pun! Me lose my two pun!” The fire superintendent permitted him to go up, and two firemen, glancing in the window, were amazed to see him go in and take from a drawer not “two pun” only, but a big bag of sovereigns. Even when there was a danger of losing it altogether, the cunning Celestial was loth to disclose the size of his cache, in case someone should get down on it.
CHINESE FRUIT SHOES INCREASING. The Chinese fruit shops in Dunedin have increased a good deal. It is a difficult matter to estimate the number of Chinamen here, for it is stated that only one in a dozen years comes to Dunedin direct. One came a few weeks ago, but the last before then was in 1912. Most of them land in Auckland, and it is at the landing port that poll tax is collected. Most of The Chinese fruiterers are clean. They are getting to know what is expected of them by the sanitary authorities. It is stated that while there are a few of the type which cannot be taught, many of them are intelligent young fellows. The laundries, too, are clean. It is mentioned also that all of the older Chinamen are married, though where their wives are no one seems to know. Now and again they bring their boys out from China; and only recently two Chinese boys went back home, apparently to get married. They are said to be very intelligent where school work is concerned.
In conclusion, it is stated by those who are in a position to judge that Carroll street is not nearly so bad as it used to be. That may be so, but there can be no doubt that there is a vast field for improvements. -Evening Star, 11/7/1925.
A MELTING POT
THE DEVIL'S HALF-ACRE
PASSING OF NOISOME BLOCK
Unsavory morsels from London, Calcutta, Hongkong, the Yukon, and Ballarat provided Dunedin in its early days with a noisome quarter — the Devil’s Half-acre. Squalor, immorality, and abandon gave the Half-acre its opprobious name, since, erased by the cleaning up of the block.
This melting pot of Bohemians from scattered parts of the world was situated between Walker and Stafford streets, Sheedy’s right-of-way and Gilmore’s grocery shop being the boundaries. When the population first moved into Dunedin the hill about High street was covered with bush, and the settlers looked to the places where buildings could be erected with least inconvenience. Some chose that part of the town later notorious as the Devil’s Half-acre. First, it was a settlement of tents, but it did not progress with the times. The tents gave way to shanties of Hobart Town palings and old timber, with roofs of sacking or flattened kerosene tins. In '62 the Devil’s Half-acre was indeed a cosmopolitan quarter. Hindus, Chinese, half-caste negroes, and nondescript whites lived in these shanties, huddled by their hundreds on the small area of land, and separated only by a maze of winding and irregular paths.
At one time the Devil’s Half-acre had a population of close on 2,000. It was a place for care-free life. Diggers arriving from overseas headed for the settlement for a spree before leaving for the goldfields, and the diggers who returned to town with their pockets well filled wasted their money in wild living in the tumbled-down cribs. The Half-acre had its Chinese cookhouses and lowhouses, and Stafford street in those days was lined with hotels.
The people lived by day and night, but it was during the night that the Devil’s Half-acre was a riotous quarter. Although the hotels closed at 11 p.m., big supplies of beer were held in stock by the residents and pleasureseekers, and all night long an unholy noise was created in the district. The yells and merriment could be heard half a mile away.
It was an unchoice neighborhood, and the police always kept a watchful eye on the inhabitants. They were irrepressible. As declared by one man who stayed in the quarter when he deserted his ship, no respectable man or woman would have been seen in the Half-acre.
The land was owned by Lunn’s estate, and as the owner was an absentee from Dunedin the rents were collected by a truly Dickens character, Old Man Cooper. A wizened fellow with a white belltopper, Old Man Cooper was a piece of old London dropped in Dunedin. Dickens would have seized upon him as a character. He was a celebrity of the Devil’s Halfacre and of Dunedin.
Two other old notorieties, Dick Myers and his donkey, also lived close by. Dick was a carrier, and h
is donkey was a well-known beast on the town streets. Another character of the district was Black Sam, the bottle gatherer. The inhabitants were rowdy when they were drinking. Old residents tell of seeing drunken, half-naked women chasing each other about the settlement, throwing beer bottles, and pulling out their hair. Many a man and woman who lived there spent a day or two inside the shanties following a drunken ball and a hit on the head with a bottle. Strangers drifted from the waterside to the Devil’s Half-acre, but those who had any sense soon shifted to more refined quarters. The settlement was a hot-bed of sin.
In 1886 the Devil’s Half-acre lost many of its wild inhabitants, but it continued to be the notorious district for years. With the dredging boom, the plot became again iniquitous, but in the early ’nineties it was cleared away. For years the Devil’s Half-acre was a blot on the city. A dissolute people, who lived in shanties that even a slum would be ashamed of, and whose furniture consisted of boxes, were shifted.
To-day the block of land is the site of good homes, and the name so nauseating to the early settlers is practically forgotten. -Evening Star, 30/6/1927.
