The problems of juvenile justice, offending and punishment dominate current affairs stories today. Kids are out of control, people call for harsher penalties and naming of juvenile offenders. I think those calling for a return to the Good Old Days of discipline would be very surprised if they examined that allegedly golden era a little more closely.
Researching a post on the Toowoomba Industrial School for Girls led me down some horrible by-ways of history. The stories of how some of the children came to be sent there defy belief.
CITY POLICE COURT.
This Day. (Before the Police Magistrate)
NEGLECTED CHILDREN. — Mary Ann Connors, a girl thirteen years of age, was brought up as a neglected child. Sub-inspector Douglas conducted the prosecution. Senior-constable Brinkley stated that he arrested the accused in Queen-street yesterday morning. In consequence of a complaint made by the girl’s mother, he went in search of her.
He found that on Saturday night she slept in a cellar under a brothel in Albert-street with another girl and some larrikins*, and on the Sunday night she slept inside the brothel. Witness had known the accused to have been walking about the streets at night with larrikins and women of ill-fame.
The mother of the accused girl gave evidence to the effect that the girl left home on Saturday morning to go to service. Saw her again in Queen-street in the night with some bad female characters and boys. Then made a complaint to the police. Did not see her daughter again until Monday night, when she slept at home.
She left again the following (yesterday) morning to go to her work, but the person to whom she was engaged would not take her in in consequence of having seen her walking about the streets in bad company. At that stage the accused was remanded until tomorrow.
Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld.: 1872 – 1947), Wednesday 2 November 1881, page 3
A few things. The 13-year-old girl was working as a servant, and not just on Saturdays. No school. Also, no-one thought to arrest the larrikins or morally-doubtful young women, or even the keepers of the brothel in whose cellars and bedrooms this child slept. There was no Department of Community Services to interview the mother and find out why her child was running off to consort with criminals.
Children were criminally charged with being neglected. As if it was their fault that their parents weren’t feeding them or were exposing them to moral or physical danger. At-risk children were named in the press, the cause of their neglect reported in as much detail as possible, and then they were remanded to various orphanages (if they were very young), reformatories and industrial schools throughout the State to serve their sentences. Children were also sentenced to places like the Industrial School if they had been found guilty of an offence (such as stealing).
Once in the Reformatory, the children were made to work in various areas – garden, laundry, kitchens – as part of their training to become useful members of society (servants).
Happily, in a letter to the Under Colonial Secretary, Toowoomba’s matron described Mary Ann in good terms in 1883 (two years in):
“Since her admission she has conducted herself well, works well in the Laundry. The only fault I find with her is she is rather flighty in her behaviour, but she is very young being only about 15 years of age.”
Item 16295: Letterbooks [Industrial and Reformatory School, Toowoomba] Queensland State Archives
Not long after, Mary Ann was successfully licensed to Mrs Armstrong of Toowoomba, as a servant.
*Larrikin is a term in use in Australia since the 1860s. At the time of its introduction into the lexicon, it was used to describe a young man who was a hooligan or thug, possibly a more serious criminal, and sometimes part of a gang. By the 1880s, larrikins were prone to wearing audaciously patterned or coloured clothing, either too tight or loose, as a kind of identifier. Today the term means loveable knockabout Aussie male. Who generally isn’t concerned with fashion or crime. Or both. KB
It is astonishing how often consorting with prostitutes comes up in the reports of the neglected children who are sent to Toowoomba Industrial School. As does moral danger generally. The case of Violet and Elizabeth Watts is heartbreaking. The Matron at Toowoomba summarises quite delicately in her correspondence:
According to Mr. Whiting’s evidence, the Mother was most culpable in conniving at, and sending these two children to beg and obtain money, and she did not seem to care how they obtained the money, and then asking to have the children released from here on the plea of leaving the colony, in my opinion she wants to have them released for the purpose of making use of them as she has done before for immoral purposes. The young girls do not want to go to their Mother, they are getting on well here they are quiet and industrious.
Item 16295: Letterbooks [Industrial and Reformatory School, Toowoomba] Queensland State Archives
On Saturday 07 October 1893, a man named Trysto Brunicardi was charged with sexually assaulting 12 year old Elizabeth Watts in an outhouse in a yard in Frog’s Hollow. Her 11 year old sister Violet was in the vicinity at the time. It appeared from the evidence that the unaccompanied little girls had allowed him to buy them hokey pokey (honeycomb), and had gone with him to the address where the assault took place. A man named Joseph Whiting, an Inspector for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty – which clearly had a wider brief in the 19th century – had been watching the children and alerted the constable on the day. He later gave evidence:
Inspector Whiting said that he had watched the girls for some time. He had seen them in the streets speaking to men. From his observations he could say that they were neglected children. He knew they were leading immoral lives.
Brisbane Courier, 20 October 1893
Sadly, as the Matron’s correspondence goes on, so do the tales of neglect. To her credit, she seems keen to keep her charges clear of the bad homes they came from.
Edith Lacey was sentenced by the Police Magistrate at Brisbane on the 6th. August 1888 to seven years in the Industrial School at Toowoomba for being a neglected child and residing and dwelling with drunken persons. This young girl was only eleven years of age when admitted. She is a very quiet well-behaved girl and is promising to be a good industrious young woman, but I question very much the advisability of handing over this young girl to her parents …
____________________________________________________________________
These children were charged as neglected children and from the depositions that accompanied them their mother had no means of support as a young child 5 years of age died from neglect being exposed to the cold at night-time, the mother bears an immoral character.
Item 16295: Letterbooks [Industrial and Reformatory School, Toowoomba] Queensland State Archives
For all of her good intentions, she did have a 19th century mind when it came to dealing with the kind of acting out that dealing with a traumatic experience could cause…
I don’t know what you can do with her, she is incorrigible. I have done all I could punished her repeatedly by locking her up on bread and water but all to no use. She kept the whole place in confusion.
Item 16295: Letterbooks [Industrial and Reformatory School, Toowoomba] Queensland State Archives
Not to mention the pregnant girls – including one who at 14 had been impregnated by her drunken stepfather. They had to be removed before their unfortunate condition caused disruption amongst the other girls. One, Martha Sully, was discovered to be pregnant on arrival, and was promptly ordered to go to gaol, again to prevent disruption to others.
The Good Old Days are clearly a myth. Matron and her Industrial School did their best, in the limited way of the times – turning little delinquents into servants to the landed gentry and local worthies.
Moreton Bay and More 