Gender and age: male
State licencing and/or monitoring, faith-based
Operational period: 1909-1954/55. Not in 1962 registry
From Te Ara page: "This was the first Salvation Army home for orphaned or needy boys. It closed in 1954 and the building burned down in 1971."
The first Salvation Army home for girls opened in Newtown, Wellington, in 1903. The first boys’ home opened in Eltham, Taranaki, in 1909. Several more children’s homes followed. Most residents were orphans, although some had lost one parent, or their parents could not look after them.
"Living conditions were harsh, and misbehaviour meant no dinner that night. ‘I hated every year I was there,’ said one former Eltham resident. ‘I used to look at the pillow shams [pillowslips] embossed with the words “God is Love” and think, “If you love us, why don’t you help us?”"
Book: Alison Robinson, The Salvation Army in Stratford & Eltham, 1893–1993: including the Mercy Boys’ Home & the Mercy Jenkins Eventide Home. Stratford: Salvation Army, Stratford/Eltham Corps, 1993.
18 September 2020 Witness Statement of Murray Houston on behalf of The Salvation Army
31 September 2020 Affidavit of Anita Ngaire Easton for Oranga Tamariki - Ministry for Children to the Abuse in Care Inquiry
Te Ara page on Eltham Boys' Home: https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/29352/eltham-boys-home
Information provided by The Salvation Army to the Crown Response Unit on 1 July 2024
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