Friends at Court in 1904

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32430, 17 October 1970, Page 7

Friends at Court in 1904

(By

N. A. PARSLOE)

The recent formation of the organisation known as Friends at Court has a historical link with the voluntarysocial work of a remarkable Christchurch woman at the beginning of this century, Mrs Eveline Willett Cunnington. At the morning session of the Magistrate’s Court on February 25, 1904. An unusual public acknowledgement to a lay person, was made from the Bench. The “Lyttelton Times” reports the occasion as follows: . . Mr W. H. Hargreaves, J.P., who presided, paid a warm tribute to Mrs E. W. Cunnington . . . for the good work she has done in assisting the outcasts of society . Sub-Inspector Dwyer on behalf of the police said . -. . not only had she taken charge of helpless waifs left on their hands and provided them with clothes and homes, but . . . during Carnival Week and other occasions. set apart rooms in her house, to be used by the police for housing those who were found wandering about the streets ...” The justification for this formal acknowledgement can be found by referring to an editorial in the "Lyttelton Times” on February 19. 1904, and appropriately headed “The City’s Gratitude”: “It is at the gaol gates, so to speak, that she (Mrs Cunnington) has chiefly laboured, taking in hand the helpless women and girls who are constantly appearing in the Police Courts, cheering timid witnesses, protecting frightened children and finding homes for neglected girls . . . She has mothered so many unfortunate children and has found homes for so many wanderers that people have come to regard her as a State official but of course she has held a purely unofficial position. . .”

: In the same issue, an ; anonymous correspondent . (“Grateful Body”) suggested . some public recognition of , Mrs Cunnington’s social • work as “Mrs E. W. Cun- ■ nington will be leaving ; Christchurch on an extended ■ visit to the Old Country.” I In a letter to the editor dated February 20, 1904, : Mrs Cunnington, though appreciative of the spirit ; prompting the proposal, declined any form of tangible recognition: “Emphatically ,:then, please, no presentation” and observed: “I have: done no more social work: than many other women in this city.” Eventually the brief ceremony at the Magistrate’s; Court was the only public: ! recognition Mrs Cunnington | allowed and. in all probablity. she was not in a posi-i tion either to refuse or pre-' vent it. The Friends at Court will follow a path pioneered by a woman who never expected public recognition • for her social work. To how :imany others in our social • history anonymous men I and women are we simii larly indebted? Social Work Mrs Cunnington remained overseas about two years [■and returned to Christchurch where she resided ; until her death on July 30, : 11916. In the last decade of p her life, she continued and . developed her work for the rehabilitation of prisoners, Hand was also active in pro- . I moting legislative measures for improving prison conditions and custodial treat- - ment of prisoners.

She topped the poll for the new Hospital and Charitable Aid Board (April, 1910), i founded a girls’ social science club movement, and finally influenced men within the industrial labour movement (Messrs E. J. Howard and Hiram Hunter, trade i union secretaries), university ■leaders (Dr Chilton and Dr [J. Hight) and Archdeacon L. G. Whitehead to consider the steps necessary for the establishment in Christ- , church of a workers’ educational movement. Eveline Willett Cunnington is, in fact, entitled to be acknowledged as a founder, and it should be emphasised with other co-founders. of ! the Canterbury Workers’ j Educational Association. “These are but some of the movements, the activities, that filled a richly rounded life, whose influence will go on widening in successive ripples of understanding and achievement,” wrote Jessie Mackay as an in memoriam notice printed 'in the “Lyttelton Times” on August 1, 1916. The opinion is indeed prophetic. ! It is a fitting practical ; recognition that in Christchurch recently one ripple 'should be expressed in the i founding by a group of women of a voluntary association of Friends at Court.

’ Mr Parsloe, who wrote this article, has recently completed a monograph ’ entitled “Eveline Willett ' Cunnington and the Ori--1 gins of the Canterbury ' W.E.A.” for the National ■ Council of Adult Education. He is at present trying to trace Mrs Cunnington’s descendants.