Ballarat and Its Benevolent Asylum
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Ballarat and its Benevolent Asylum: A Nineteenth-Century Model of Christian Duty, Civic Progress and Social Reform Helen W. Kinloch B.A. IML (Ballarat) B.A. Hons (Ballarat) M.A. (Ballarat) GCTE (Ballarat) This thesis is submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. School of Behavioural and Social Sciences and Humanities University of Ballarat P.O. Box 663 University Drive, Mount Helen Ballarat, Victoria, 3353 Australia February 2004 SUMMARY This study of Ballarat and its Asylum covers the period between the 1850s and the early 1900s when an old-age pension was introduced in Victoria. It is essentially a case study. It argues that Ballarat's Asylum progressively developed and expanded upon a model of organised poor relief practiced among the industrial classes in England, in consequence of the perceived need for rapid capital expansion in Australia, and knowledge of the dangers associated with mining, building construction, and other manual work. The introduction of a secular education system in Victoria, together with enthusiasm among producers for technological innovation and skill development, led to changes in the nature and conditions of paid work, as well as to a push among workers and their sympathizers for greater appreciation of past contributions by older workers and the needs of the ill and/or incapacitated. This push was only partially addressed by the Victorian government in 1901 when it introduced the old-age pension. As a historical case study of the relationship between capitalist, sectarian Ballarat, and its altruistic, non-sectarian Benevolent Asylum, this thesis utilises Asylum records, historical studies and recorded information about early Ballarat and its socio-political development. It also draws on studies of English social policy development to link ideologies governing work, fraternal voluntarism, progress, Christian duty, and the passing of management control to bodies established by a centralized state authority, to a continuing shift in the direction of educated participation in decision making processes, which gained momentum among independent workers ii in Australia. The idea for an asylum in Ballarat arose in 1857 as a result of the suicide of a skilled man for want of work. This event heightened concern among community leaders about the effects of widespread destitution on people whose skills were needed to build the kind of society they envisaged. The Asylum in Ballarat, therefore, constituted a social experiment in the minimization of distress and the fostering of civility in an emerging world perceived by its leading citizens to be more reliant for survival on science and industry, than on old world traditions of class distinction and religious division. The Asylum committee gained local support for its initiatives due to its personal approach which departed from the more rigorous discipline adopted by Melbourne's less fraternal charitable networks. Ballarat, as a generally Christian, and predominantly Protestant, settlement, and its non-sectarian Asylum reflected the inconsistency between Ballarat's ostensibly egalitarian ethos and the spirit of competitive advantage that characterized members of the wider community of gold seekers. Most sections of the community saw the need for guaranteed funding of the Asylum as important, however, due to the lack of alternate support for the incapacitated, the old and/or the destitute, and the fluctuating levels of local donations. Efforts by Asylum committee members to secure a viable level of funding were directed particularly towards local and colonial governments and ordinary people. Neither local nor colonial governments were willing to accept financial responsibility for the health and welfare of constituents, preferring to rely on volunteer groups, but by iii the end of the nineteenth century, the charitable network in Victoria generally, was widely perceived as inadequate and the 1890s depression obliged the Victorian government to intervene more directly in providing relief than it had during earlier decades. This intervention established the state as primary guardian of the common weal, which made for more social dependence and inter-dependence and diminished the influence of local subscribers and committees in Ballarat over Asylum admissions. It also eroded the principle of voluntary contribution they had sought to encourage, but it did not resolve issues surrounding poverty, unemployment, incapacity and class distinction, which had given rise to this change. iv STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Except where explicit reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma. No other person's work has been relied upon or used without due acknowledgment in the main text and bibliography of the thesis. Signed (Applicant) ____________________________________________ Date _______________________ Signed (Supervisor) ____________________________________________ Date _______________________ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people, past and present, whose ideas informed my own, and were helpful to the completion of this project. Of these, I am most deeply indebted to: Librarians in Ballarat's Mechanics Institute, Public Records Office, and the Central Highlands Regional Library, as well as the very able assistance I have received over the years from Librarians in the University of Ballarat's own E. J. Barker Library. I also acknowledge the value to this work of studies by Weston Bate, Anne Beggs Sunter, Peter Butters, R. A. Cage, Michael Cannon, Brian Dickey, Derek Fraser, Stephen Garton, David Goodman, Renate Howe, Anthea Hyslop, Richard Kennedy, Patrick O’Farrell, Geoffrey Serle, Susan Sheridan, Nathan Spielvogel, Shurlee Swain, R. H. Tawney, Christina Twomey, Robert Van Krieken, Max Weber, W. B. Withers and Jean Woolmington. I acknowledge the conscientious approach to the drafting of this study as well as the professionalism of my principal supervisor Beverley Blaskett, and the judicious assistance of my associate supervisor Anne Beggs Sunter. I am also grateful to Doreen Bauer who made the Asylum’s original records available to me. Thanks are also due to staff at the University of Ballarat, to Caroline Taylor for her friendly smiling face and to friends and neighbors who kept me going through difficult times. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTERS PAGES Summary ii Statement of Authorship v Acknowledgements vi List of Tables x Introduction 1 Freemasonry 8 Efforts to Ensure Financial Viability 20 Primary Materials Covering the Asylum 27 The Distinctive Nature of Ballarat’s Benevolent Asylum 30 Chapter Summary 34 Chapter One The “Fallen Woman”, Schooling, Sectarianism, State Intervention and Nineteenth-Century Social Reform 38 The “Fallen” Woman 38 Chapter Two State Expansion into the Realm of Poverty Alleviation 77 The Melbourne Benevolent Asylum 84 Chapter Three vii Views of Ballarat and the Role of its Asylum 102 Gold Seeking and Settlement 104 Eureka 107 James Oddie 109 Depression Unemployment and Suicide 112 Historians’ Accounts of the Asylum 116 The Primacy of the Asylum Amongst Ballarat Charities 130 The Chinese 143 Chapter Four The Ballarat Benevolent Asylum: Practices, Rules and Regulations 150 Bendigo Benevolent Asylum 165 Public Health Concerns of the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum 168 The Lying-in Hospital 174 Outdoor Relief 177 Chapter Five The Business of Charity 181 Financial Vulnerability and Efforts to Secure Viable Levels of Funding 186 Fundraising Concerns and Difficulties in Ballarat 196 The Cazaly Bonus 201 The Appointment of a Government Inspector of Charities 207 Chapter Six Construction, De-Construction and Re-Construction 219 The Old Colonists’ Association 221 Economic Depression in Melbourne 229 After Effects of Depression on Ballarat’s Benevolent Asylum 235 Chapter Seven viii Privacy and Dignity in Old Age 249 James McKain Meek 250 The Old-Age Pension 252 Effects of the Old-Age Pension on Ballarat’s Benevolent Asylum 269 Chapter Eight Conclusion 273 Bibliography 292 ix LIST OF TABLES Pages Tables 1. The Nature and Extent of Poor Relief in Ballarat (1850-1891) 135 2. Donations (in £) Received by the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum (1858-1868) 186 3. Grants, Subsidies and Donations Received by Ballarat Benevolent Asylum (1858-1905) 192 x INTRODUCTION This study of Ballarat and its Benevolent Asylum covers the period between the late 1850s, when the Asylum was first established, and the early 1900s when the introduction of the old-age pension in Victoria in January 1901 restructured both the role, and the degree of independence of the Asylum from governing authorities in Melbourne. The approach to organized charity adopted in Ballarat was more fraternal than that of other charitable societies operating in Victoria at the time, due to a camaraderie in Ballarat stemming from shared exposure to primitive and dangerous working conditions. As a result of the many injuries, fatalities and consequent distress, some of Ballarat’s more successful producers, merchants and administrators sought to reconcile the unsettled nature of life on a crowded alluvial goldfield with what they saw as an inevitable and desirable transformation into a more orderly, better educated, and co-operative manner of local progress towards self reliance and general prosperity. The general feeling among mining workers in nineteenth-century Ballarat was that mining companies