Poverty: Hardship on 'the Flat'
Poverty was usually the fate of those without
access to a male's wage because it was assumed
that family incomes would come from this
source. Women were especially vulnerable
since their paid employment was not supposed
to sustain a whole family- just themselves.
Widows and abandoned wives faced difficulties
making ends meet. They almost always had
responsibility for children as well. Men
who could not work were also at risk. Even
in families with a working father access
to his wages was not guaranteed. Some men
drank or gambled away their earnings. Elderly
people of either sex also faced the spectre
of poverty in their declining years.
Between
1890 and 1910 Maria Street in South Dunedin
(later renamed Glasgow Street) was southern
Dunedin's poorest street. It was a dismal
area with one of the few examples of 'row
houses' in Dunedin - a brick terrace smothered
by black, sooty pollution from the nearby
Hillside Workshops, the railway running
sheds (where steam locomotives were housed)
and the gasworks. Maria Street's households
figured prominently in the casebooks of
the Benevolent Institution. This section
of map shows Glasgow Street running from
the upper right to bottom right. The tiny
sections of present-day Fox and Reid Streets
are a prominent part of the centre left
area. (Otago Settlers Museum Collection)
An
original example of a tiny two roomed house
in Caversham - very well kept and still
in use today. (Caversham Project Archives)
In
1937 the government surveyed areas likely
to contain 'slum' housing. This included
most of South Dunedin, Kensington and much
of Caversham, where two or three roomed
cottages were packed on to small sections.
The survey used a remarkably high standard
but still judged only 5% of these homes
as in the worst category, 'beyond repair'.
It found that most of 'the Flat's' homes
were owner-occupied and in satisfactory
condition. There was no over-crowding and
no slums. These workers cottages, close
to the remaining gasworks buildings, are
still occupied today. (Caversham Project
Archives)
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Helping Those in Need]
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