Infanticide in 19th-century New Zealand was difficult to assess, especially for newborn indigenous Maori infants. Resultantly, many New Zealand women who might otherwise have been sentenced to penal servitude or

capital punishment in New Zealand Capital punishment in New Zealand – the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence, as ordered by a legal system – first appeared in a codified form when New ...

had their sentences commuted to the lesser charge of "concealment of birth" under the

Offences Against the Person Act 1867 Offense or offence may refer to: Common meanings * Offense or crime, a violation of penal law * An insult, or negative feeling in response to a perceived insult * An attack, a proactive offensive engagement * Sin, an act that violates a known m ...

. However, this relative leniency only extended to mothers of concealed or hidden infants who subsequently died. Fathers, grandparents and "baby farmers" like

Minnie Dean As a first name, Minnie is a feminine given name. It can be a diminutive (hypocorism) of Minerva, Winifred, Wilhelmina, Hermione, Mary, Miriam, Maria, Marie, Naomi, Miranda, Clementine or Amelia. It may refer to: People with the given name * ...

, the only woman to be executed in New Zealand history and Daniel Cooper in the 1920s, were viewed as more culpable for the death of such infants.

Background: Infant Mortality in late 19th-century New Zealand

In a 2012 volume on childbirth, pregnancy, infant mortality and infanticide in 19th-century New Zealand, Alison Clarke places the deaths of newborn infants in colonial era 19th-century New Zealand in historical context. Over the four decades (1861-1899) for which statistical evidence is available, an estimated cumulative 53,000 such infants perished in New Zealand. Early New Zealand colonial statistics show that from 1872 onwards, more than 1,000 infants or small toddlers died each year from maladies and environmental factors summarised below, peaking at 1,995 such fatalities in 1883, although in 1872 (1,941 deaths), 1875 (1,816 deaths), 1886 (1,889 deaths), and 1899 (1,806 deaths), more than 1,800 infants died. If the afflicted child was less than one month old at their time of death, there may have been premature birth. Without the complex life support technology available in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, this would often prove fatal due to the lack of sufficient infant respiratory development.Alison Clarke: ''Born to a Changing World: Childbirth in Nineteenth Century New Zealand:'' Wellington: Bridget Williams Books: 2012 Other than that, newborn infants might also perish from sharing beds with their parents, who might roll over and smother them inadvertently during sleep; negligent parental

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

abuse and impaired standards of care; administration of alcohol to prevent infant cries; and the associated use of soporific drugs such as

laudanum Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine). Laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum Linnaeus'') in alcohol (ethanol). Red ...

and

chlorodyne Chlorodyne was one of the best known patent medicines sold in the British Isles. It was invented in the 19th century by a Dr. John Collis Browne, a doctor in the British Indian Army; its original purpose was in the treatment of cholera. Browne ...

. In the case of

prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...

s and single pregnant women,

sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral sex ...

might be passed on to their newborn infants during prenatal development, while inadequately warm clothing might affect mortality for the newborn infants of the poor. Infant malnutrition might occur due to lack of awareness of the benefits of

breastfeeding Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be expressed by hand or pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that br ...

for infants, as well as the absence of medical treatment for conditions such as

bronchitis Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (large and medium-sized airways) in the lungs that causes coughing. Bronchitis usually begins as an infection in the nose, ears, throat, or sinuses. The infection then makes its way down to the bronchi. ...

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

whooping cough Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by two or ...

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...

diarrhoea Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...

enteritis Enteritis is inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by food or drink contaminated with pathogenic microbes,Dugdale, David C., IIII, and George F Longretc"Enteritis" MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, 18 October 2008. Access ...

gastritis Gastritis is inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It may occur as a short episode or may be of a long duration. There may be no symptoms but, when symptoms are present, the most common is upper abdominal pain (see dyspepsia). Other possi ...

ileus Ileus is a disruption of the normal propulsive ability of the intestine. It can be caused by lack of peristalsis or by mechanical obstruction. The word 'ileus' is from Ancient Greek ''eileós'' (, "intestinal obstruction"). The term 'subileus' re ...

, inherited

syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...

and

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

Maori Infanticide? Cautionary notes

In the case of Maori infants, detailed statistics about infant health and mortality are not as readily available, due to their presence in remote and isolated rural dwellings inaccessible through roading and civic transport. Furthermore, there are social policy considerations that need to be considered, as British

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

distorted social relationships that may have either hampered or facilitated infanticide in the Maori context. Given the ravages of higher incidence of poor housing, sanitation, malnutrition and infectious diseases, overall 19th-century Maori infant mortality was probably higher than those of European counterparts, however. Against infanticide, however, large family (whanau) structures were often available to care for any such child. While there are accounts of apparent infanticide, they often seem to be second-hand information from pakeha

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

missionaries. These noted that female infanticide seemed to be prevalent in the context of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, cross-cultural relationships and other such inhospitable grounds. Intertribal warfare was also a factor that militated against female infant survival, given the prospect that surviving male children could then become warriors for the defence of a particular iwi (tribal community and social network). However, it is highly probable that the advent of colonialism and introduction of European transport and weapons technology affected the severity and scale of prior tribal conflicts, so this may not reflect an accurate prognosis of Maori infanticide. As time went on, many Maori adopted Christian religious beliefs due to missionary efforts and this reduced the incidence of

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

and

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

amongst such Maori communities, although it also returned even during the early 20th century during times of economic hardship. In short, it is hard to assess the frequency and prevalence of Maori infanticide and its permissibility during the 19th century.

Legal context

Altogether, Clarke identifies 98 cases of deliberate or intentional infant death that resulted in legal proceedings. Of these, 94 were undertaken against the mother of the deceased infant, while fourteen of these were also undertaken against the baby's father, grandparents or friends of the mother who had assisted in the birth and its concealment. Four involved the father of the deceased infant and another individual, often a grandparent. Usually, if the birth had been concealed, the maximum penalty was two years imprisonment, and as Bronwyn Dalley notes, women could often plead mitigating circumstances through male sexual coercion (a "seduction" narrative), although this was not always successful. Some women were convicted of infanticide or manslaughter in this context, although many others were acquitted. Men could not similarly plead "seduction" or the trauma of unassisted childbirth in this context; as witnessed by the case of William Henry Woodgate, who committed

incest Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...

with his niece that subsequently resulted in her pregnancy and childbirth, leading to the killing of the newborn and his subsequent execution for murder in 1877. Originally, concealment arose in 17th century Anglo-Scottish law and sought to punish secret illegitimate pregnancies and childbirths in which mothers hid the bodies of the infants after birth or stillbirth. As noted above, not all mothers were successful in pleading concealment- the cases of

Phoebe Veitch Phoebe Veitch (nee Harper) (c.1860–1891) was a New Zealand murderer. She drowned her daughter Phoebe in the Wanganui River in 1883 and was tried and subsequently convicted of murder. Whilst she was originally sentenced to death, her senten ...

and

Sarah-Jane and Anna Flannagan Sarah-Jane (born 1841) and Anna Flannagan (born 1866) were 19th-century New Zealand murderers. Like Caroline Whitting (1872) and Phoebe Veitch (1883) before them, but unlike Minnie Dean subsequently (1895), the two women were initially sentenced to ...

stand out as exceptions to this general rule, although the defense was usually effective when it came to mitigated imprisonment or even acquittal, in some circumstances. Throughout the British Empire in the 1890s, concern arose over the negligent standards of "care" offered by baby farmers.

and others may have been viewed as equivalents to

John and Sarah Makin John Sidney Makin (14 February 1845 – 15 August 1893) and Sarah Jane Makin (20 December 1845 – 13 September 1918) were Australian ' baby farmers' who were convicted in New South Wales for the murder of infant Horace Murray. The couple answe ...

and

Frances Lydia Alice Knorr Frances Lydia Alice Knorr (10 December 1868 – 15 January 1894) was an English migrant to Australia, known as the Baby Farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling an infant and hanged on Monday 15 January 1894. Early life and marriage ...

in adjacent

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in Australia, or

Amelia Dyer Amelia Elizabeth Dyer (née Hobley; 1836 – 10 June 1896) was an English serial killer who murdered infants in her care over a thirty-year period during the Victorian era of the United Kingdom.

in the United Kingdom, who were her historical contemporaries. Such trials also built up a volume of relevant case law within imperial jurisdictions.

History

In 1869, Annie Bates had been domestic servant for a

Greymouth Greymouth () (Māori: ''Māwhera'') is the largest town in the West Coast region in the South Island of New Zealand, and the seat of the Grey District Council. The population of the whole Grey District is , which accounts for % of the West Coas ...

merchant and his family on the South Island's

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

. Her employer, William Coates, spotted the body of a newborn infant in the lavatory, with the subsequent revelation of the decomposed body of a female infant. Bates confessed to the apparent concealment of the infant when she was apprehended, but held that it had been stillborn when she gave birth alongside the Grey River adjacent to the town. Mary Ann Swift, a dancer at the Greenstone Pub, argued that had not been the case when she appeared as witness for the prosecution in this case, but her opinion was dismissed. She was found not guilty of either murder, manslaughter or concealment by the subsequent jury when the case came to trial. In the case of Mary Ann Spendlove, concealment was judged to have occurred and she was acquitted of murder in 1866, and subsequently sentenced to two years imprisonment on the lesser charge. Spendlove had cast her baby's body adrift in Nelson Harbour in 1865. The infant had been conceived during an extramarital affair while her husband was absent. She claimed that the infant was premature, but medical examination demonstrated that it was, in fact, a fully developed infant, had been born alive and died of suffocation. Alison Clark argues that one of the reasons that she was not treated as leniently as some of the other women cited in this section was that as a married woman, Spendlove "should have known better." From

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, Bridget Gee (1845-?) was initially described as a "good industrious girl and of a kind disposition" by her employer, Mrs Elizabeth Aikman, while employed as a maidservant at

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

's Glasgow Hotel. However, in June 1871, she gave birth and then concealed the body of her newborn infant beneath her mattress. Although she claimed that the death of the infant was accidental, the infant had suffered concussion to the head, fractures and lost blood through laceration, possibly caused by scissors or a stay. Although Gee was not found guilty of manslaughter or murder, she was found guilty of concealment. Her lawyer,

Robert Stout Sir Robert Stout (28 September 1844 – 19 July 1930) was a New Zealand politician who was the 13th premier of New Zealand on two occasions in the late 19th century, and later Chief Justice of New Zealand. He was the only person to hold both ...

, claimed that the injuries to the dead infant were likely to have been accidental, and the Crown Prosecutor, Bryan Haggit, concurred. Gee was suspected of brutally killing her child and was not acquitted of concealment, however. Similarly, Margaret Collins (1854-?) was

illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

and had no family available in New Zealand to assist her covert pregnancy and childbirth, thus leading to her slashing her newborn baby's throat and hiding the body under her mattress in

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

in 1875. However, she was found guilty of manslaughter, given the nature of her infant's fatal injuries, although only sentenced to two months imprisonment. In 1884,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

mother Rosina Smith initially fostered out her newborn infant, but then absconded with the two-month-old baby, before burying him in a market garden in Parnell, an Auckland suburb. The presiding judge in that case, Chief Justice James Prendergast, suggested three options to the jurors- they could either find Smith guilty of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

insanity Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...

. The jury found the latter verdict was the case, although this was an unusual outcome, as courts usually did not find that mothers were mentally ill when they killed their newborn babies in this context However, at least three other women may have had diagnosable mental health concerns by current medical standards, given Clarke's assessment of newspaper accounts and court documents. In 1878, Margaret Wilson gave birth to a daughter at

Timaru Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home to ...

's Benevolent Society, an emergency housing facility for indigent women, their infants and children, but the baby only survived for three months before it was strangled. When Wilson appeared before the New Zealand Supreme Court, it was apparent that she was unfit to face charges of

in the context of her daughter's death. She was admitted to the

Sunnyside Hospital Sunnyside Hospital (1863–1999) was the first mental asylum to be built in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was initially known as Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum, and its first patients were 17 people who had previously been kept in the Lyttelton gaol ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

and custodial staff testified that she was unable to comprehend what was said to her, was violent and had to be restrained. Fanny Bonnington (1868-?) was a Blenheim domestic servant who gave birth at sixteen in secret in 1884, and threw the dead body of her infant down an ablutionary facility. Postmortem medical investigation revealed that it had been alive at its birth and had several superficial scratch wounds on its trunk, and cause of death was determined to be haemorrhaging from the umbilical cord. Doctor Thomas Porter noted that Bonnington appeared to be experiencing what might be defined today as

post-partum depression Postpartum depression (PPD), also called postnatal depression, is a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth, which can affect both sexes. Symptoms may include extreme sadness, Fatigue (medical), low energy, anxiety, crying episodes, irr ...

, as had one of the defendant's sisters after her pregnancy and childbirth. Her grandfather also experienced what might be diagnosed as

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

in contemporary medical practise. Bonnington was found not guilty of concealment through reason of insanity at the time of birth and although held for three months doing kitchen work at the

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

Lunatic Asylum, she was subsequently released and returned to Blenheim. Justice William Richmond commented that in such instances, judges and juries were often swayed by the 'seduction narrative' and held the man who had impregnated such women more culpable than the "abandoned" and isolated single women who gave often traumatic birth without the attendance of family or doctors in the new colony, so they would not convict a young woman of infanticide, murder or manslaughter in this context. Margaret Heads/Edwards was servant to a

bank clerk and his family. In 1889, while boarding with a labourer's wife, this young woman gave birth and concealed the body of the infant in that woman's wardrobe. It was unclear whether the infant had been born alive or not in this instance and she was acquitted of concealment of birth. She had been "seduced" and then had been left indigent. As with Bonnington's case, a ''Tuapeka Times'' journalist referred to Heads/Edward's 'seduction" and argued that the man who had abandoned her was "truly" responsible for this tragedy. Sometimes, however, the balance of evidence pointed otherwise. In 1881, Dunedin coroner Thomas Morland Hocken advised against keeping an infant in bed with its parents, as there could be problems with respiratory distress if the sleeping parents rolled over and inadvertently suffocated the baby in question. However, in the case of Mary Ann Weston, there were grounds to suspect that the death of the infant may have been deliberate, as Dunedin's Industrial School

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

had taken her two earlier children into custodial care, and Weston was drinking heavily. The coronial inquest jury found Weston had a manslaughter case to answer, but Weston was later acquitted of manslaughter in the Dunedin Supreme Court.

Popular perceptions

In 1895, Edward Tregear, a civil servant and local intellectual, suggested to

's ''Evening Post'' newspaper that New Zealand society was responsible for the spate of infanticides in recent years of colonial history. He was referring to the contemporary case of Mary Davis (1889), in which that

domestic servant had given birth secretly, and as with Margaret Heads/Edwards had concealed the baby's body in her wardrobe. Davis had tied but not cut the infant's

umbilical cord In placental mammals, the umbilical cord (also called the navel string, birth cord or ''funiculus umbilicalis'') is a conduit between the developing embryo or fetus and the placenta. During prenatal development, the umbilical cord is physiologic ...

, and was acquitted of both murder and concealment of birth in the local Magistrate's Court. Tregear advocated for parenting education in this contextE.Tregear: Letters to the Editor: ''Evening Post:'' 29.10.1895; 13.11.1895; 18.11.1895; 19.11.1895

References

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