1939: The First State Babies
May 8, 2023
By AHNZ
New Zealand’s Labour 1.0 Government is infamous for setting out to take over the lives of citizens “from the cradle to the grave.” As of the stroke of midnight on 16 May, 1939, the ‘cradle’ part of this controlling calculation was in force. Just 7 minutes later Mrs Elsie Sharp of Matakana gave birth to the first of her two twin children Owen and then his sister Joy. As the newspapers, and history, recorded these were the first “state” babies.
Mrs Sharp and her children happened to be highly photogenic so that worked out as helpful publicity for Prime Minister Michael J. Savage and his Minister of Health Peter Fraser. By some luck a photographer happened to be at the Warkworth Cottage Hospital to report the propaganda news. The luck of Savage and Fraser, keen to put the seal of vindication in their policy, lasted even longer. The photo was developed and made it to the newspapers. The New Zealand Herald published the picture (image, left) on the very same day- 16 May. Ref. NZ Herald, Papers Past
If you run Occam’s Razor along this story it sounds too good (for the Government) to be true. Warkworth didn’t even have a train so did someone zip in the pre-dawn night from hospital to coastal-trader ship with the picture all the way to Wilson & Horton’s publishing offices in time to make printers for that day’s copy of the New Zealand Herald? State History expects you to believe this and apparently the public did. Anarchist History draws attention to the far more likely being that these are not the Sharp twins at all but a staged photo created by some of Labour’s propagandists.
At any rate the “Sharp” family were the first of many that would have no bill to settle with a number of maternity hospitals including Warkworth Cottage Hospital. As part of the new maternity provisions of the Social Security Act the hospital could claim the fee. Labour was offering “free” money starting with the “cradle.” In doing so The State was pushing out New Zealand’s long standing institution of freelance Midwifery as well as undermining generations of Friendly Society arrangements and charities. Ref. 1842: Manchester Unity, AHNZ
Why pay for your own maternity care now that the Government would do it? You’d be paying twice since it has already come out of your taxes. The Government had created the incentive for families to turn away from their own personal responsibility and toward The State. We were being trained to expect to be kept and paid for by Big Brother and this was just the start. The Social Security Act of 1939 had a suite of such new rules which were branded as “social security” and “social justice.” It was Socialism, pure and simple. The medical profession hated it and tried to fight the take-over but what could they do? The leaders of the profession had been sent away to fight in a foreign war, conscripted by their Government. It created an open opportunity for Savage and Fraser to force their revolution. Ref. 1938: The Social Security Act, AHNZ
“SHARP.—On May : -15th, at the Warkworth Cottage Hospital, to Mr and Mrs B. G. Sharp, Matakana, twins — a son and daughter. All well, thanks to Dr. R. V.. Shaw, matron and staff.” – Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, Papers Past
“Twins horn to Mr. and Mrs. B. G. Sharp at Warkworth Cottage Hospital shortly after midnight this morning are believed to he the first to come under the maternity provisions of the Social Security Act which started at midnight.” – First “State Babies,” Pahiatua Herald, Papers Past
“The claims of the Auckland Hospital Board on the Social Security Fund for the treatment of hospital and maternity patients…Hospital benefits were claimed as follows…Warkworth Cottage Hospital, £21..” – New Zealand Herald, Papers Past
“Christchurch’s St George’s Hospital maternity unit is closing in June, at the end of its contract with Te Whatu Ora…it had not been able to agree to a contract extension with the health agency.” – Christchurch’s St George’s Hospital maternity unit to close after contract talks fall through, RNZ (April 2023)
“There are fears for the safety of Dunedin mothers and their newborns following the temporary closure of part of Queen Mary Maternity Hospital at the weekend. Critically low staffing caused the closure on Friday ” – Part of Dunedin’s Queen Mary Maternity Hospital closed due to staff shortage, NZ Herald (2022)
First-time mother asked to leave hospital three hours after giving birth, Stuff (2022)
All of this happened so long ago now that we forget it could be any other way. New Zealanders think it’s their “right” to have “free” maternity care. But Labour 1.0 were ‘solving’ a problem we never had. Why suppose that a free market for health was not and would not look after mothers and babies just as well if not better than The State does? How do we know that The State is being billed a realistic fee for maternity care when there is no competition to find the price? Since hospitals didn’t face a bill-paying customer how do they know what to set their rates at? Or, who decides what services are needs or just wants? Maternity has been stripped of its feed-back mechanism. How’s it working out?
With Supply and Demand being replaced by Government edict it’s up to government bureaucrats in Wellington to decide how resources should be distributed. New headlines show that they’re doing an appalling job. Services are cut, women in labour are being shut out and kicked out of hospitals. There is chronic understaffing and entire hospitals are being closed down. In a free market it would be possible for supply and demand sides to solve the problem but Government wont let this happen. When the Ministry shuts down the likes of Christchurch’s St George’s maternity ward because of the economic mess Socialism has created what can people do?
Rather than put their energy into solving the problem and getting the mothers of tomorrow’s Kiwis the service they need that practical and civic energy is diverted into begging and protesting. When the Government is in charge the prescribed way to affect change is not to do but to winge and petition the ‘boss’ to “do something” and fix the problems for us somehow. The protesting midwives, for example, think they can influence the mathematics of socialist economics by collecting 31,000 signatures as if opinions can make impossible hospitals possible!
The ‘cradle’ part of Labour 1.0’s scheme is very much in crisis. So too, by the way, is the ‘to the grave’ part as the 2020s sees old folks homes closing up around New Zealand. They can’t afford staff either. The Socialist experiment is failing. The freedom system it replaced has been forgotten and redacted from State history.
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Image ref. Mrs Sharp, Warkworth Museum, AHNZ Archive (2022)
Image ref. Rata Midwives, Facebook (April, 2022)
Note: When the new Club House was opened in 1973…The Ladies President was Elise Sharp, whose husband Browning is mentioned in other parts of this book. Elsie was Intermediate Champion in 1967. Ladies Club Captain in 1969-70 and President in 1972-3. Elsie is now a resident at Amberlea Rest Home in Algies Bay and on January 8th celebrated her 93rd birthday.” – Warkworth Golf Club History (2008,) A Slice of Golf (2012)
Note: “Yes Brownie married Elsie, they had the Bee hives at Matakana, he was the first to cream honey and export Queen bees” – Sharp Family Matakana/Warkworth to AHNZ, Facebook (2023)
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