'Such a work as this' : a case study of the All Saints' children's home, Palmerston North : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Abstract

No abstract. The following is taken from the Introduction:

At 4pm on Wednesday 26th of September 1906, about twenty members of All Saints’ Church, Palmerston North, gathered in the schoolroom at the back of the church. They met in response to an announcement by the Vicar, Rev. C. C. Harper, the previous Sunday, that the church intended to open a home for orphan and destitute children, with a creche for working parents.1 The home, which became known as the All Saints’ Children’s Home, was opened on 18 October 1906. Over the fifty-eight years the Home was open it operated from three locations and cared for over 700 children. The Home closed in August 1964, although the Trust which ran it continued to care for children in foster families and by running smaller family homes. For over half of the twentieth century children’s homes, like All Saints’, were part of the provision of child welfare. Children’s homes played an important role in caring for children whose parents, for many reasons, could not. Most New Zealand cities and provincial centres had one or more children’s homes, they were a familiar part of society. However, this system of care is becoming lost to us as the children who were in the homes age and the buildings are demolished or altered beyond recognition.2 Despite the important role children’s homes played in the child welfare system there has been very little specific research done within a New Zealand context. This thesis will go some way towards addressing this by using the All Saints’ Children’s Home in Palmerston North as a case study.