Ngā mauhanga tokoora, mahi aroha hoki - Ōtautahi

Charitable aid and welfare records - Christchurch

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Know before you start

The guide includes brief histories of:

• many publicly funded aged care homes

• charitable aid homes and hospitals

• children’s homes

• orphanages

• reformatories and special schools

• lists of associated records.

Early charitable aid records, adoption records and records from the Department of Social Welfare are also covered.

Many of the records detailed below fall under access restrictions. These have been set in place under the Public Records Act 2005 to protect personal information. Permission to access these records may be granted on request to the agency that created them (or its successor).

As responsibility for various welfare functions and institutions moved between different government departments over time, access permission contacts range from Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children or to Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga the Ministry of Education depending on the institution concerned.

Requesting access to restricted records

This is how you can request access to restricted records.

Contact us — Contact us or complete and send the Ask an archivist form and we will provide you contact details to the relevant government agency.

Contact them — Contact the agency and ask for permission to access the records. Include your full name, contact details, reason to view the record and your intention to publish your research or not.

Access the record — When you have obtained written permission, there are 2 ways to access the record:

• the agency will organise your access to the record, or

• you’ll be advised by the agency to contact us again with your permission letter, and we’ll enable access to the record.

Archives codes and terminology

When you use our research guidance, you might find a string of letters and numbers — for example CH384 1/3, 1* — next to a title. These are our archival codes or references.

You can search the letters or numbers separately on Collections search. They can also be useful if you visit our reading rooms or contact us to access a record, as they help our archivists find records quickly.

The numbers and letters in the codes can represent the record’s:

• agency code

• series number or accession number

• record number

• R-number.

For help with searching — including how to use advanced searching and filtering — read our tips on how to use Collections search or ask an archivist for advice.

For more information on referencing the archives, check out the Copying and citing archives page.

Early charitable aid activities

You can find early charitable aid material throughout the Canterbury Provincial Government records that we hold.

The Provincial Government initially looked to families, the church and private charities to be the primary providers of relief to those in need. But the steady growth of that need during the period — especially when the fragile colonial economy stagnated — meant the Government became increasingly involved. The Government helped provide various forms of relief and care to the aged and infirm, the deserted, orphaned, injured, unemployed and generally destitute.

A small Charitable Aid Department was set up reporting to the Provincial Secretary’s Office. For most of the period, the Charitable Aid Administrator was also the Immigration Officer. The 2 functions were closely associated, with poverty and destitution sometimes imported into the province through the assisted immigration scheme. The aid usually took the form of ‘outdoor relief’ in the form of a cash allowance and rations or pay for unemployed working on the public works in the province. The Government also distributed charitable aid by providing places to the people in need in a number of institutions, including:

• Lyttelton Orphanage

• Charitable Aid House

• Female Refuge

• Burnham Industrial School.

At the same time it also continued supporting private and church charitable aid providers and institutions.

Our volunteers have indexed the related material that we hold and the indexes are available via our in-house index terminal, and in the case of items of individual correspondence, on Collections search.

The minute books and correspondence of the North Canterbury Hospital Board (its predecessors and off-shoots) are especially important for example, the Lyttelton Orphanage Committee, the Charitable Aid Board, the Memorial Home and Female Refuge Committee. We also hold early registers and report books from many of the charitable aid institutions themselves (see below).

After the demise of the Provincial Government in 1876, charitable aid was largely left in the hands of local authorities, church charities and private organisations, though significant oversight of child welfare was provided by the Education Department from the 1880s onwards (including the administration of special and industrial schools).

We hold many records from the publicly funded charitable aid and social welfare institutions that have provided care to the people of Canterbury and Westland since the second half of the 19th Century. These include:

• aged care homes

• charitable aid homes and hospitals

• children’s homes

• orphanages

• reformatories

• special schools.

Details of the records that we hold relating to individuals who were housed at, or who attended these institutions, are below. Also included are brief histories of each institution.

We do not hold material relating to private or church institutions. In some cases, the only records that we hold from an institution are administrative in nature. Where that is the case, a brief history of the institution has still been included below, but no related records are mentioned.

In some cases, the full record references are not given. To locate individual items in these instances, please visit Collections search, or use the in-house index terminal in our Christchurch reading room.

An asterisk (*) within a record description indicates that an in-house index is available for the record.

Browse the archives

The records in this guide can be found on Collections search.

We’ve included links throughout this guide that will take you directly to the item or series on Collections search. Scroll to the bottom of that page and click on ‘Record hierarchy’ for individual R-numbers (item codes). These are useful for ordering items to view at the relevant reading room.

You might not be able to access everything online. Many records have been digitised, but if they haven’t, you’ll need to visit the reading room they’re held in to access them.

Search different spellings of surnames as these were often spelled how they sounded to the clerk.

If you still can’t find what you are looking for, contact us.

When the Charitable Aid House reverted to church use, in July 1875, the women and children who had been housed there moved to this establishment. A decision was made to close the Depot in August 1888, and those housed here were then transferred to the Queen’s Jubilee Memorial Home.

In 1894 the original Depot building was replaced, and a new building was opened to serve as a temporary shelter for poor men, many of whom were waiting for admission to Tuarangi (Old Men’s Home), Ashburton.

Aid was distributed from this site for many years, The Depot was used as a temporary home for unemployed young men as late as the 1930s.

• Register of Outdoor Relief for Destitute Children [includes Armagh Street Depot] 1885 to 1886 [CH384 5/3, 2*]

• Armagh Street Depot Admission & Discharge Register 1922 to 1930 [CH384 9/3, 9]

• Armagh Street Depot Admission & Discharge Register 1928 to 1934 [CH384 9/3, 8]

This institution was opened by the Government in 1874 for the welfare of poor and neglected children, and also for the reformation of criminal children. Those who were poor were often boarded out to foster parents, to provide them with a home environment, whilst others were taken into service. In 1901, the institution became purely a reformatory, and many non-delinquent children who had been housed there were sent on to Caversham Industrial School, Dunedin.

• Burnham Industrial School Photograph album of boys [indexed] 1914 [CH438 /1a]

• Miscellaneous Photographs [CH438 /1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 1h, 1i]

Most records regarding attendees of this school are to be found in the Record Books, Registers & Nominal Rolls at our Wellington archive. See the national Child Welfare research guide for further details.

This institution, a replacement of the Christchurch Orphan Asylum (Addington), was established by the Government in August 1870, in the building of the former Lyttelton Hospital. It burnt down in 1904, after which it was superseded by the Waltham Orphanage.

• Various items of correspondence relating to the Lyttelton Orphanage, 1869 to 1876, CH287. See Collections search for individual items.

• Returns / Registers of Children Supported by the Government in the Lyttelton Orphanage 1870 to 1874 [CH287 CP639a/15 (1870)*; CP121, ICPS1171 (1871); CP124, ICPS1704 (1871); CP131b, ICPS 1562 [with 1627] (1871-72); CP644a/9 (1872)*; CP650d/1 (1872)*; CP150, ICPS2141 (1874); CP658a/18 (1874)*]

• Returns of Children Supported by the Government [includes some orphanage attendees] 1874 to 1875 [CH287 CP665a/6*]

• Lyttelton Orphanage Committee Minutes Book - Dec 1885 to Apr 1888 [CH384 1/3, 1*]

• Lyttelton Orphanage Committee Minutes Book - Apr 1888 to Oct 1890 [CH384 1/3, 2*]

This was opened by the Government in 1873 in the buildings of the former Christchurch Orphan Asylum, Addington. In 1875, women and children housed here were moved on to the Armagh Street Depot, as the building reverted to church use.

• H. Callendar — Charitable Aid Report for period 01.07.1874-31.03.1875 — [includes Return of Children at Charitable Aid House] 1874 to 1875 [CH287 CP665a/6*]

• Various items of correspondence relating to the Charitable Aid House 1874 to 1875 [CH287 CP163, ICPS 2021] [and attached files]*

Located in Governor’s Bay, and opened in 1925, this institution replaced the New Brighton Convalescent Cottage which opened in 1900 to care for convalescent children, and the offspring of convalescent mothers. The property was gifted to the children of Canterbury by Hugh Heber Cholmondeley.

To this day, Cholmondeley provides temporary housing and care of children who are unable to stay in their own homes due to family crisis. It is maintained by a private charitable organisation (the Cholmondeley Children’s Foundation), with Government assistance and public donations.

This institution, located in Addington, was founded and administered by the Anglican Church, though most of the children were supported by Government funding. When the establishment closed in 1870, those children supported by the Government were transferred to the Canterbury Orphanage in Lyttelton. These buildings were later used as the Charitable Aid House (also known as Selwyn House).

Various items of correspondence relating to the Christchurch Orphan Asylum, 1862 to 1870, CH287. See Collections search for individual items.

Located first in Barbadoes Street, before moving to Hereford Street, and finally to Fitzgerald Avenue, this home was used for the temporary housing of female children either waiting on foster homes, or to be sent into service.

This establishment was opened by the Anglican Church in 1864 to provide maternity services to, and act as a reformatory for, women carrying their first illegitimate child.

Initially, its administration and maintenance relied heavily upon public donations, but the Provincial Government became involved, with a building grant in 1867, and again in 1874, at which time the Charitable Aid Administrator took over formal control of the institution.

Later in its history, it acted as a maternity home for all women. In 1918 it became known as the ‘Essex Home’.

• Female Refuge Registers 1876 to 1886 [CH384 7/3, 1*, 7/3, 2*, 7/3, 3*]

• Female Refuge Report Books 1878 to 1919 CH384 7/1 series* (30 items)

• Female Reformatory Registers 1880 to 1883 [CH384 7/2, 1*] and [7/2, 2*]

• Female Refuge/Essex Home [Hospital] Case Book 1886 to 1894 [CH395 1d*]

• Female Refuge/Essex Home Registers of Weekly Returns 1887 to 1911 [CH395 /1a*, 1b*, 1c*, 2a*, 2b*, 3a*]

• Female Refuge/Essex Home [Hospital] Diaries 1903 to 1959 CH395 (35 diaries*, many years missing)

• Female Refuge/Essex Hospital Diaries re Patients 1905 to 1908 [CH823 /109*, /110*, /111*, /112*]

• Essex Home Registers [of admissions and discharges] 1912 to 1945 [CH384 9/3, 8, 9/3, 9]

• Essex Hospital Report Books 1920 to 1928 [CH384 7/1, 31, 7/1, 32, 7/1, 33, 7/1, 34, 7/1, 35, 7/1, 36]

• Female Refuge/Essex Home [Hospital] Maternity Registers 1924 to 1930 CH395 (13 registers, many months missing)

This institution was opened in October 1923, to care for the children of patients in the Coronation Hospital Sanatorium, and to build up their health to reduce the spread of tuberculosis. For more information about the Coronation Hospital, and the Fresh Air Home, see Health Records – Patient Information.

A school for these children, the Open-Air School, was opened on the site in August 1926. When the threat of tuberculosis lessened, in the 1950s, the home and school were renamed the Huntsbury Home and School, and cared for children whose families were in crisis until 1971.

• Children’s Fresh Air Home – Register of Applicants 1923 to 1943 [CH373 /19]

• Children’s Fresh Air Home – Register of Patients 1924 to 1956 [CH373 /24]

• Huntsbury Home – Register of Admission 1957 to 1964 [CH552 /23]

• Huntsbury Home – Register of Admission 1964 to 1971 [CH552 /24]

• Fresh Air Home – Register of Admission, Progress and Withdrawal [school] 1920 to 1955 [CH206 /49e]

• Huntsbury Home School [combined with Fresh Air School] – Examination Register 1922 to 1935 [CH206 /62g]

• Huntsbury Home School [combined with Fresh Air School] – Register of Admission, Progress and Withdrawal 1953 to 1965 [CH206 /62e]

• Huntsbury Home School [combined with Fresh Air School] Register of Progress and Achievement 1959 [CH206 /62h]

• Huntsbury Home School [combined with Fresh Air School] – Register of Admission, Progress and Withdrawal 1966 to 1971 [CH206 /62f]

Located in the Strathmore Hospital building in Ferry Road, now demolished, this home served the same function as the Christchurch Receiving Home. It was superseded by Kingslea in 1980.

Officially opened in April 1945, and situated on Murray Aynsley Hill, this institution provided health care and education to children identified as ‘not thriving’ in their home environment. Routine medical examinations of children were done before they started school, and again during their school years, and referrals to health camps were made by Public Health Nurses and the Medical Officer of Health. Once admitted, a child would usually stay at a health camp for several weeks. The Glenelg Health Camp was run by the Ministry of Health, and the attached School by the Department of Education.

Over the course of its life, the institution’s primary focus moved away from providing physical health care to children, towards assisting children with social difficulties. The Camp and School closed in 2012 following the Christchurch Earthquakes, but was later rebuilt by a private charity, Stand Children’s Services, and reopened under their administration in April 2014.

• Child Health – Glenelg Health Camp Admissions and Waiting Lists 1974 to 1984 [CH799 2h, 3c]

The Admission and Withdrawal Registers recording attendees of the school are held by the Ministry of Education. Contact records.services@education.govt.nz for assistance.

Formerly known as Marylands School, this institution was opened in Christchurch in 1955 by the St. John of God order of the Catholic Church as a residential school for children with learning difficulties. In 1984, the school was taken over by the Ministry of Education as a Special School for intellectually impaired students. It is now known as Halswell Residential College. The land and school buildings had been owned by the government since the 1970s, when money was given for it to be rebuilt following a fire.

• Various items, 1976 to 1989, CH232. See Collections search for individual items

This home was situated at the Westland Hospital complex and overlooked the Tasman Sea. Initially, only men were admitted to this facility, but later both men and women lived there. It closed along with Westland Hospital in the mid-1980s, at which time patients were transferred to the Plymouth Court Rest Home, or alternatively into a ward at Seaview Hospital.

• Register of Patients 1954 to 1962 [CH22 /67]

This was a special residential school, for children with learning and social difficulties. It was situated in Russley, Christchurch, but was closed in January 2013 as part of the Ministry of Education’s review of special education services.

• Various items, 1970s to 1989, CH256 (23 items) and CH232 (9 items). See Collections search for individual items.

This home was opened in Woolston by the United District Charitable Aid Board in December 1888, for the reception and maintenance of the aged poor. While the home was being completed in mid to late 1888, the Government allowed the Board to use the immigration barracks at Addington.

• Memorial Home Admission & Discharge Register 1898 to 1930 [CH384 9/3, 9]

• Memorial Home Admission & Discharge Register 1911 to 1939 [CH384 9/3, 8]

• Jubilee Memorial Home Register [of admissions and discharges] 1921 to 1987 [CH389 1/1]

Located in what had been the Addington Gaol, this institution was opened by the Anglican Church and the Charitable Aid Board. It functioned essentially as a ‘halfway house’ for both men and women, between other Charitable Aid institutions and prison.

In 1911, the Government took possession of the building, and the female inmates were transferred to the Female Refuge.

Located at 300 Stanmore Road, it is unclear when this institution for boys was opened, though it was certainly operational in the 1930s. It closed in 1988 and its residents were moved to Kingslea.

• Stanmore Boys’ Home Menu Register 14 Oct 1936 to 3 Jul 1941 [CH438 /7e]

• Stanmore Boys’ Home Daily Diaries 1946 to 1974 CH438 /2a-7a and 8a (19 items)

• Stanmore Boys’ Home Duplicate Daily Diaries 1947 to 1952 [CH438 /7b, /7c, /7d]

This institution, supported by the Government, is for deaf children of any gender. Originally the children it served were a mixture of boarders and day pupils, but currently the emphasis is on the latter.

• Notes [names of pupils with notes] 1880 to 1916 [CH8 /31 and /32]

• Nominal Rolls 1908 to 1942 [CH8 /28,/29 and /30]

• Register of Pupils in Special Classes at Wellington, Auckland & Dunedin 1920 to 1961 [CH8 /34]

• Pupil Status [Admissions & Discharges — including Titirangi 1943 to 1944 & Fendalton Road 1943] 1944 to 1969 [CH8 /3]

• Diaries 1948 to 1955, 1967 to 1973 [Series 2786] (8 items)

• Registers of Children’s Heights and Weights 1949 to 1968 [CH8 /35a,35b]

• 75th Jubilee Records (1955) [Series 2779] (10 items)

• Centennial History (1980) [CH8 /27]

Van Asch College still holds many pupil records. Please contact the principal for more information.

This home was situated at the Greymouth Hospital complex, now known as Grey Base Hospital, and catered for men and women. It closed in the 1980s.

• Register of Admissions, Discharges etc. 1941 to 1956 [CH709 /13]

Te Oranga Reformatory was opened in 1900 for girls after the Burnham Industrial School became exclusively a boys’ school. In 1928 it was renamed the Girls’ Home Burwood. In 1945 it became known as the Girls’ Training Centre, Burwood. It functioned both as a reformatory and as a support centre for those whose parents or relatives were unable to care for them. In 1965, it was renamed Kingslea, and offered support to troubled t girls, from 13 to 18 years of age. Generally, girls were taken in for 18 months to 2 years, and were offered educational, vocational, and social training. Kingslea School, which remains open to this day, was also founded in order to cater for these girls. From 1988 onwards, Kingslea Home and Kingslea School have catered for both boys and girls.

• Te Oranga Home Roll/Kingslea Admission Registers 1900 to 1987 (many years missing) CH504 (7 items)

• Kingslea/Burwood Girls’ Home, Press Clippings, Memoranda and Memorabilia Relating to Girls’ Home 1908 to 1942 [CH867 /2i]

• Miscellaneous Photographs and Slides from the Kingslea Girls’ Home c.1930 to 1987 [Series 3427] (56 items)

• Kingslea Girls’ Home Files, Diaries and Dutybooks 1931 to 1987 CH378 (hundreds of items)

Our Wellington archive holds further items relating to this institution, some of which are restricted. See Collections search for details.

Housed in the former immigration barracks, the Timaru Old Men’s Home was established in about 1895 (prior to this, charitable cases were housed in wards of the Timaru Hospital). By the early 20th Century the institution, administered by the South Canterbury Hospital and Charitable Aid Board had accommodation for about forty men and women, and was known as the Benevolent Home.

• Registers 1884 to 1932 [CH886 /169c*, 169d, 169e]

Established in the former Ashburton Immigration Barracks in Short Street, Ashburton, this was a home for elderly men, which also had an infirmary ward.

Initially the home was administered by a special committee, appointed by the Christchurch Hospital Board, though it was passed into the hands of the newly formed North Canterbury and Ashburton Charitable Aid Board in 1885.

A new, purpose-built facility was opened in August 1902, adjacent to the showgrounds. The Māori name, Tūārangi (‘Old’) was adopted at this time.

• Ashburton Home Returns of Patients 1899 to 1903 [CH527 308/244*]

• Tuarangi Home Admissions & Discharges 1900 to 1939 [CH384 9/3, 8; 9/3, 9]

• Tuarangi Home Returns of Patients [also includes several press cuttings] 1903 to 1908 [CH527/236*]

• Tuarangi Home – Particulars of Inmates 1935 to 1969 [Series 26032] (10 items)

• Tuarangi Home – Inmates 1938 to 1958 [CH7015/26]

• Tuarangi Home Patients’ Index [admission register] 1939 to 1962 [CH527/237]

• Tuarangi Home Register of Inmates 1955 to 1981 [CH108 2/3a]

• Tuarangi Home – Inmates 1959 to 1968 [CH701 5/26]

This institution, opened in 1905 by the North Canterbury Hospital Board, in what had been a private residence, replaced the Canterbury Orphanage (Lyttelton). It accepted male and female children who had been orphaned or abandoned, or whose parents, through illness or misfortune, were simply unable to care for them.

In 1957, it became the Teresa Green Home for the elderly. Children who would formerly have received care from this institution were sent to the Huntsbury Home instead.

• Orphanage Admissions & Discharges 1905 to 1939 (many gaps) [CH384 9/3, 8; 9/3, 9]

• Waltham Home – Register of Admissions [children] 1947 to 1957 [CH552 /23]

Child welfare

We hold the region’s Social Welfare case files, created by the Department of Social Welfare (now known as the Ministry of Social Development), related and predecessor agencies in the course of their work with children in need.

For many years (from the 1880s onwards) the oversight of child welfare was undertaken by the Education Department – a role formalised under the Child Welfare Act of 1925, which created a special Child Welfare Division within the Education Department to make better provision for the maintenance, care and control of children under state protection (the Division also administered New Zealand’s Special Schools). A separate Department of Social Welfare was created in 1972, and took over most of the Division’s welfare functions, though control of the special residential schools remained with the Education Department.

Files include the personal, family, academic and institutional details of individuals who received state oversight and care, and sometimes include information about foster parents and adoptions. Some files include many family members, while others focus on one child. Files may have been created for any of the following reasons:

• a needy family

• parental inadequacy

• supervision

• maintenance

• housing

• neglect

• ill-treatment of children.

These files are permanently restricted, and access to them can only be obtained via application to Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children. If you believe there may be a file of interest to you or your family:

• email: Oranga Tamariki

• Phone: 0508 326 459 (ask for Customer Information Requests).

Adult welfare

Private charitable aid was the mainstay in supporting destitute adults in the second half of the 19th Century. But (as can be seen in the institutional histories above) Charitable Aid Boards, under the administration of the country’s Hospital Boards, did oversee a number of homes for the elderly (and other charitable aid cases). They also provided funding for needy individuals admitted to hospital wards during this period.

It wasn’t until the turn of the 19th Century that the first governmental measures were taken in adult welfare – most notably with the introduction of the Old Age Pension in 1898. We hold very few records of pensions and benefits. In Christchurch we hold miscellaneous pension records from:

• Waimate and Timaru (1899 to 1916) CH24

• Department of Social Welfare War Pensions Registers (1946 to 1988) CH485

• Unemployment Benefit (and Sickness) Registers (1939 to 1985) CH454.

Current adoptions

If you are adopted, or believe that you may have been adopted, and you are at least 20 years of age:

• write to Births, Deaths and Marriages requesting a copy of your original birth certificate — this will provide the names of your birth parents, unless they have placed a block on the information (for adoptions after 1 March 1986, there is no provision for birth parents to place a block on this information)

• request any information that Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children may hold about your adoption in their records.

If you are a birth parent of a child who was adopted, and that child is at least 20 years of age:

you may apply to Adoption Services at Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children to find out about the adopted child – please note that the child may have placed a block on their information

For more information contact Adoption Services at Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children

Historical adoptions

Apply to Births, Deaths and Marriages, via the contact details above, for a copy of the adoptee’s original birth certificate. Please note that you are likely to be asked to provide proof both of your direct descent from the adoptee, and also of the fact that the adoptee’s parents are now deceased.

Information about Māori adoptions registered via the Māori Land Court from 1901 to 1955 was published in the ‘New Zealand Gazette’, some volumes of which are available for viewing in the reading room by placing an order on Collections search [CH1116].

You can also contact Adoption Services at Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children for further guidance and assistance.

While we do hold some court registers and files relating to adoptions, these are totally restricted under the current provisions of the Adoption Act 1955 and the Adult Adoption Act 1985, in the interests of protecting personal privacy. Please ask an archivist for more information.

Further sources here may be of interest and assistance if you’re researching aid and welfare in Canterbury and Westland. Especially complementary to the records discussed above are many of our holdings from these regions’ courts, particularly those regarding maintenance orders and adoptions, though these are subject to access restrictions. Ask an archivist for further details and see our Christchurch Justice Records guide.

Also relevant are the health and education records that we hold here. For more information about these see Health Records - Christchurch, and our Christchurch Education Records guide.

Our Wellington archive has further sources that may be of interest to those researching welfare. Most notable as far as our region is concerned, are the Industrial School Nominal Rolls, Welfare Case Files and Registers of Foster Parents. See the national Child Welfare and Adult Welfare research guides for further details.