Pages tagged with: child welfare

Baby farmers were paid caregivers who allegedly neglected children in their care, concealed their deaths or deliberately murdered the infants. The most notorious was Minnie Dean, who, in August 1895, became the first (and only) woman to be hanged for murder in New Zealand.

High-profile British and Australian court cases in the 1880s introduced New Zealanders to the sinister practices of baby farmers: paid caregivers who neglected children in their care, concealed their deaths or deliberately murdered the infants.

In 1895 Southland's Williamina (Minnie) Dean became the first – and only – woman to be hanged in New Zealand. Her story exposed the stark realities of paid childcare and the lack of choice that many women faced in this period.

A selection of key New Zealand events from 1923

Karitane nurses and babies at Karitane Hospital, Whanganui in 1929

Cartoon about the 1926 Family Allowances Act

A selection of key New Zealand events from 1926

Children with Polio lying their beds in the solarium at the Wilson Home for crippled children in Takapuna, Auckland, 1943

Demonstration relating to the Domestic Purposes Benefit outside the Department of Social Welfare, Wellington in 1977.

Salvation Army homes were the only option for many 19th-century orphans and abandoned children.

In 1923 the New Zealand Truth featured dramatic reports of the trial and execution of Newlands baby famer Daniel Cooper.

The Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children was founded at a meeting in the Dunedin Town Hall. It came to be known as the Plunket Society after its first patron, Lady Victoria Plunket, the wife of the governor.

The sensational murder trial of Daniel and Martha Cooper revealed that the difficulties facing single mothers and unwanted children continued well into the 20th century.